IBNET

Respectfully Sir, professor, daddy and teacher of nations. With dictionary in hand, I read and re-read your “And Now, The Ecumenical City Of Jos?” treatise as I do all your pieces, trying to digest and appreciate its total message as best I could. I cannot say I succeeded in achieving that at the end of my last read so I plead your indulgence for whatever I may have misinterpreted. English is not my first cultural language and though born and raised my formative years outside Nigeria, I never perfected my reading or writing skills, so please bear with my presentation here. I would have and wish I could have written in Yoruba, one of my mother tongues, I believe; however I did not learn that well too in my formative years, thus the family nickname, ‘Igbo.’ My introduction I hope points us to an important aspect of my concern with your stimulating pose – culture. I believe culture is magical. I consider myself a life student of religion and culture. I have read that to un

Monica Chidebelu and Nkem Chidebelu What is your name? My name is Nkem Chidebelu. I am a student of the University of Jos. My mother, Monica Chidebelu, died in the bomb blast. She was 62 years old. How did you know your mum was affected? I was at the main campus when it happened. I heard some people saying that the blasts took place near the Jos University Teaching Hospital, and that was close to where my mum sold oranges and banana. She moved to that place when they chased them away from the previous spot she occupied. When I wanted to come down to the blast scene, one of my lecturers restrained me and told me to calm down. Later my twin sister told me about the blasts. We went to several hospitals to look for her but we did not find her. There were also conflicting reports in some hospitals.When we described her, we were told some people had come to claim the body. But we later found out it wasn’t true. We prayed and hoped that she would be alive. But none of

A vehicle conveying petrol on Saturday evening crushed to death, a member of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Mr.  Muibi Abdulrasa, in Ilesha-Baruba town of  Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara. An eyewitness account revealed that the deceased and his colleague were riding on the same commercial motorcycle when the incident occurred. The tanker was said to be coming from Saki in Oyo State to dispense petrol at a filling station, while the two corps members were coming from a market in Ilesha-Baruba. The eyewitness said the commercial motorcyclist tried to overtake the vehicle, but collided with an on-coming wheel-barrow being pushed by a man by the side of the road. According to the source, the motorcyclist and the other corps member fell into a nearby gutter, while the deceased fell under the moving vehicle and died on the spot. The other two passengers suffered minor injuries. The deceased, a 2013 “Batch C’’ corps member, was said to be an indigen