CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Jos, Nigeria used to be known for its relative peace, of course the capital city of a state that has its slogan as 'Home of Peace and Tourism’. So many people would come to Jos for its serenity, chilly weather and the tourist sites_ Shere Hills, Riyom waterfalls, Naraguta leather works and many other places like that. Then you had the fruits, vegetables and oh, wait, Irish potatoes. 

However, of late Jos has had it’s share of violence. Within the first ten years of this century, the Jos main market had been a victim of bomb blast, the religious crisis of Sept 2001, just a few days after the 9/11 in America, another religious crisis in Dawaki, post local government election crisis in 2008 and others afterwards. 

However, the resilience of Jos is too impressive, it does not fall and sit on the ground, it falls, dusts itself and rises up stronger. If Jos would be judged by the crisis it has faced, perhaps it would just be a shadow of itself but Jos refuses to give up, the Jos spirit refuses to die, Jos will not die, people in Jos know this better, than whatever is thrown at Jos, Jos will always survive, it has been a survivor.

 Davou was born in this Jos, the Jos that refuses to die, the Jos that rises up whenever it falls. Davou’s father had married Abigail, a Ghanaian and an English teacher. He was born in Jos and had gone to Fiodams Intl Nursery and primary school. From there he went to College of Mary Immaculate and was now a student of Plateau polytechnic popularly known as 'Pla poly'. 

At the age of 26 he had never gone out of Jos, he is what Hausa people refer to as 'kifin rijiya', a fish that resides in a well. Fish that is reared in a well doesn’t know how other waters are and Davou was contented being a ' kifin rijiya'. He had never had any reason to leave Jos, should he kill himself because he had not traveled out of Jos before? Will he just wake up one day and begin to travel out of Jos without a reason? No need to worry about it, whenever the time comes he will travel out of Jos. 

    Davou is a good man, no doubt about it but……..  English language teaches you whenever the word 'but' comes after a sentence, then there is a problem, something lurks around. 

Davou’s problem was his love for alcohol_ beer, and palm wine', What he felt was true love for alcohol and no girl had been able to fully snatch him from this love of his and the girls he had dated knew if they were to be placed side by side with alcohol, Davou would choose alcohol. His friends called him fish, fish wouldn’t survive without water, they didn’t think Davou would too. Of late they had modified his name to 'Markfish' and it soon became his moniker. Some thought it was after the former South African football player. 

    After alcohol, what came next for Davou was football. A die-hard Arsenal fan, he became an Arsenal fan while Kanu Nwankwo was still an Arsenal player, he had remained Arsenal’s fan ever since. In spite if Arsenal’s decline, Davou still supported Arsenal, he had yet to see any reason that would take him away, he had boasted that ' should Arsenal be relegated, he would still be it’s fan'. He and many Arsenal fans like him have come to be known ' Patience,'  a name they have rightly earned, the last time they had won any trophy was in 2004. They had gone unbeaten that season and Kanu Nwankwo was a part of that team, since then what have they won? 

 It was around 2 in the afternoon and Davou who was having his lunch heard people shouting ' an fara, an fara,’ meaning "it has began" a popular cliché reserved and brought out for use whenever there was crisis. Davou left the porridge he was eating and ran outside as soon as he heard ' an fara', meaning, "it has begun." 

The smoke he saw from afar convinced him, people running to their homes, mothers shouting their children’s name, traders closing their shops, it was indeed true. Death and destruction had decided to visit Jos again and whenever these two visit Jos, they always left horror behind. Davou rushed inside, got his phone and began calling family members and friends but none of the calls got through. ‘What is wrong with these network people?' Davou thought, whenever there was crisis, calls hardly got through. 

Thank God though, this particular crisis didn’t last for more than a day, the army and mobile police were brought in immediately and it was contained, peace partially restored. 

The government imposed dusk to dawn curfew and as days passed by it was relapsed and made from 10 pm to 6 am. Jos was getting back on it’s feet and normalcy gradually creeping in. Davou wished it would come back to life sooner rather than later. He had missed a lot of things, he knew he would get them back soon, those things he had missed would soon come. But really, what were those things he had missed? He didn’t have a girlfriend at the moment. She had broken up with him about a month ago, or better put, he had broken up with her, what does it matter anyway? 

They were not together, he had pushed her away and what was her crime? That she always catches him right in the act of ' committing a crime,’ he goes out trying to woo another girl and she comes out of no where and spoils everything, he gets a girl, takes her home and as something is about to happen, she comes visiting. 

This had happened a couple of times and it wasn’t planned, it just happened, she walked in and found him with the girls. That was his crime, always catching him right in the act. 

Anyway what does it matter? He had no girlfriend to miss at the moment, course mates? Not really. Playing football? Well, they couldn’t go to the field but they still played football not far from the house, they put stones as goal posts and called it monkey post, it was better than nothing. 

   So what did he really miss? ' Flexing', drinking beer, enjoying life. He was so happy when his friend called him to tell him beer parlours were beginning to open in his area. He was so excited and shouted about the good news 

Two days later, ' Jos had come back to life, Jos does not deserve to die, Jos needs to keep on living, the ' Jostified' know Jos needs to live.

 It was Wednesday afternoon and Davou had left home for his friend’s place. They walked to the beer parlour and he was surprised it was actually open. ' Were these people really in Jos?’ he thought.