I don't like putting personal details of myself on Twitter but I'll make an exception today.

I lived in Kaduna with my family till the year 2000 when the riots started. I remember being in school with my siblings. When it all started I could tell the teachers were really scared.

They took all the school children and put them in one place. I was a young boy but I was scared. We were kept upstairs and I could see the school gate. My dad burst into the school compound like a Knight. You can't imagine how happy I was.

He whisked us away and took us home.

We didn't go to school for months. People were killed on the streets. I remember my uncle asking us if we knew Al-Fatiha. We hadn't started our Quranic and Arabic lessons then so I didn't know the chapter.

He told us people were asked to recite it and if they didn't know it they

were killed. We packed all our belongings and left Kaduna for Lagos soon after.

I really liked Kaduna because we had a big compound which also had a farm. I liked our neighbours. Some of whom I never saw again. How many of my friends died? I don't know. How many of my neighbours?