How I died in 1968 is a narrative of General Buratai
OpenLife Nigeria reports that Lieutenant Tukur Buratai, the immediate past Chief of Nigerian Army Staff, who has been in battle with Boko Haram insurgents, is not new to battles.
Fresh narratives from the newly confirmed Ambassador Designate, indicates that the artillery officer has not only fought physical battles against insurgents and other territorial battles, but has indeed, fought demons and principalities at tender age.
Narrating a 1968 incident, when he was barley eight years old, which resulted to death and resurrection in a pond in Maiduguri, Buratai submitted that it has been God all the way. “I would have long died but for God who has always shown me mercy. In fact, I died and came back to life when I was six years old. How I died and came back to life remains a mystery till date,” he disclosed.
Buratai said:
“The first attack in my life happened when I was just eight years old in 1968 in the Lamisula Ward in Maiduguri.
There used to be a pond at Lamisula at that time and boys of my age and above usually go there to swim and do the boyish things.
My elder brother, Ibrahim, was a good swimmer and he liked to go swim every now and then.
I used to accompany him whenever he went but I never joined him to swim. Instead, I would stay aloof at the edge of the pond and watched how the other boys and my brother swarm and amused themselves.
I was suspicious of the pond at that time because of different stories of how children from the neighbourhood died in the pond.
But on this particular day in 1968, I decided to give it a try. I did not consult anybody. I just saw how the other boys were amusing themselves and I decided I must jump into the pond and amuse myself too.
So, in a twinkling of an eye, I was in the water and something strange happened that day.
Immediately I jumped into the pond, I sank into the bottom and stayed there like a stone, motionless.
My brother did not even know I had jumped into the pond. Like Prophet Jonah, I stayed there in the water but not for three days and nights.
I was motionless. I could not breadth. Pond water is always dirty. I did not know what I was doing and where I was. I died but I was having internal thoughts within me. At a point. I told myself I will make it out of this water.
I was not scared. I did not know what to do. I could not move but I was beneath the water and nobody knew what was happening to me.
I cannot really recall how long I stayed beneath the water but I know I stayed for a reasonable length of time.
Somehow, one of the boys who knew how to swim very well, for inexplicable reasons, swarm in my direction and shouted in Hausa “Kai! Akwai mutum anan fa! Meaning there is someone here. He is dead. He raised the alarm when his leg touched my body. He did not see me because pond water is opaque unlike swimming pool water that is transparent and you can see someone even if deep inside the water.
After raising the alarm, the decision was taken that since he is an expert, he should dive into the water again and bring out the ‘dead body.’
He wasted no much time before he dived into the water again, grabbed me and raised me up. He took me to the bank of the pond and put me down.
There was alarm. There was confusion everywhere. They all gathered round me. My brother, Ibrahim and others took a quick decision to press my stomach to pump out the water thinking I must have drank so much. This time, I was not breathing. I was motionless. But as the press and kept pressing my stomach, nothing came out of my mouth because I did not swallow any water despite the many minutes I spent under the water.
What happened next was a miracle. I just opened my eyes and sat upright. The whole thing turned into frenzy. It was a shock to everyone and the biggest miracle at that time. Everyone was surprised and scared.
“From that time, my father began to take special notice of me. Something must have told him that I was not an ordinary child and that the hand of God is in me.
“What he did not know, because I did not tell him, was that a fierce battle had taken place between the forces of darkness and the forces of light over my survival.
“The forces of darkness wanted to kill me but God’s angel protected and saved me.
“It was after that experience that I became conscious of what death is. It was also the experience that taught me how important it is to rescue people from danger,” Buratai said.
About Author
