In a gruesome incident that happened in 2015, Mustapha Bukar and his siblings were attacked by terrorists in Bama, Northeast Nigeria, which led to the loss of their parents.
Few years down the line, Mustapha Bukar found a place in his heart to forgive his parents’ murderer.
During the attack, their 18- year- old sister, Falmata, carried their baby brother, Alkali, and held his hand as they escaped the besieged town.
Falmata’ s bravery saved their lives, but they couldn’ t figure out why people were being killed without any remorse.
Boko Haram’ s campaign against any form of government work labeled Mustapha’ s father as a Kardi (disbeliever) and targeted and killed several civil servants during that September invasion.
They also killed Mustapha’ s mother because she hadn’ t supported her relatives who joined the terror group.
After the attack, men and boys who couldn’ t escape were recruited into Boko Haram, and women and girls were taken as wives by the terrorists.
Following their relocation to their uncle, Ali’ s place after their successful escape, Mustapha was presented with an opportunity to go to school, but Falmata was stuck at home.
According to a subsequent report, the United Nations Children’ s Fund (UNICEF) had reported that more than a million displaced children were out of school and their childhood cut short by the Boko Haram crisis.
Girls in Ali’ s house did not get a formal education.
During their first four years in Maiduguri, Falmata and Mustapha shed tears regularly as memories of their parents flooded their minds.
In 2018, Falmata married a relative who worked as a store attendant and moved with him to Kaduna state alongside their younger brother, Alkali.
Though Mustapha yearned to be reunited with them, he was often told it is not safe due to kidnapping incidents on the road and in the region.
According to him, an imam close to his uncle’ s house house always preached forgiveness.
The sermons were so frequent that he thought the cleric must have directed them at him.
For many years, he had rightfully resented the men who murdered his parents in cold blood, and even though they were no longer around to harm him, this bitterness continued to hurt him but subsequently, he found it easy to forgive them.
Forgiving Boko Haram is hard, but not forgiving means punishing oneself, too.
Mustapha saw an improvement in his studies and stopped crying, understanding that his tears are because he misses his parents, not because of the terrorists. CONTINUE READING