MILITARY

My Battle With Spirits—Buratai

My battle with spirits in and off war fronts &NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//openlife&period;ng/">OpenLife Nigeria</a> reports that immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai ret’d, has fought many battles in life&period; &NewLine;As a soldier, most of the battles were physical with criminals and insurgents&period; In some other important respects, the battles were emotional, moral and spiritual&period; &NewLine;In this narrative, the Ambassador designate, advises both soldiers and civilians, at this period of insecurity, to learn how to conquer fears both in human and spiritual appearances saying &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Human spirit is originally a valiant spirit and there is no ghost or demon that can overwhelm it if it does not succumb to fear&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Therefore, soldiers should not be afraid of either paranormal experiences or entities&period; Mankind was never meant to be a coward,” he advised&period; &NewLine;Buratai’s narratives on my battles with the spirits are reproduced below&NewLine;I know of translucent entities, composed of a misty, wispy shapes, have appeared to me from the time I was a youth&period; &NewLine;At many times in Maiduguri , it was common for people to talk about an apparition known as mairam kuru {white lady} &NewLine;They were reported to appear in many rural areas and are supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma during life&period; &NewLine;When I was a student at Government College, Potiskum, we were writing our Grade 111 examinations and there were no electricity supply&period; This was in 1978&period; &NewLine;I normally liked to read outdoors with my hurricane lanterns because of the harsh weather&period; &NewLine;On this particular day, I got engrossed in my studies during prep&period; I was reading something on the Principles of Education and I understood what I was reading&period; &NewLine;When it was dark, I moved my table and chair to the open field&period; &NewLine;When I raised my head to look at the time, it was already 12 midnight&period; &NewLine;I looked around and discovered that there was nobody&period; Other students had left for the hostel&period; &NewLine;I then picked my books, walked confidently and cautiously to the hostel to sleep&period; &NewLine;I placed my lantern by the bedside locker, lay on the bed and was waiting for sleep to come&period; &NewLine;Meanwhile, when I was walking down the hostel, I did not notice the movement of anyone following me and there was no shadow&period; &NewLine;Then, as I was about to close my eyes and doze off, something very strange and very weird happened&period; It was a paranormal encounter&period; &NewLine;It started with a tap on my left shoulder because I was laying down on my right&period; It was an authoritative tap as if the entity making it was tapping an errand boy&period; &NewLine;I am the kind of person who is always alert, no matter what&period; I just sprang up and looked at the direction the tapping came from and the lantern was still shining&period; And I saw a face, a horrible face covered with aura of danger with wide eyes and hairy&period; It looked straight into my eyes&period; &NewLine;Instead of shouting and shivering for help, I looked straight into its eyes&period; I was curious but not frightened&period; I was trying to find out what this being was&period; It stared at me again, to frighten me and I stared back at it without any iota of fear&period; It blinked and stared back at me again&period; &NewLine;At this point, the horrible ghost was intent on its resolve to terrify me&period; I kept staring back at it and after the 3rd time, it realized that I wasn’t frightened&period; &NewLine;When it realized my spirit was a strong one that was not ready to tremble and bow to it, it gave up&period; &NewLine;The entity just slumped as if it had gone back into vapour form and disappeared&period; &NewLine;My bed was second from the dormitory door&period; So, it came through the bed of the first person and left through same direction&period; &NewLine;For some time, I had the impression that it was the occupant of the first bed who had appeared as a ghost because it bore semblance of his face&period; &NewLine;It seemed, likely, the ghost was trying to sow seed of discord between myself and the occupant of the first bed&period; &NewLine;Any person could have come up with the conclusion that the occupant of the first bed was a wizard or something of that nature&period; But I know the boy was innocent and clean&period; &NewLine;I was curious about the mysterious ways of spiritual beings, the lack of limitation they have when it comes to movement, the freedom they enjoy, self confidence, pride and apparent disdain for humans&period; &NewLine;I then woke up the boy and asked if he was aware of what had just happened&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What happened&quest;” The boy retorted&period; &NewLine;I thereafter, brought down my curtain and dimmed the light of the hurricane lantern, then went off to sleep&period; I slept like a baby&period; &NewLine;Among other experiences was the one I had in 2001&period; It happened near Owo&period; I was returning from Lagos to Abuja where I lived at that time&period; I left Lagos that Friday after observing my afternoon prayers&period; &NewLine;On my way, just after passing Ibadan, on the road to Ife, I had an accident&period; By the time I was able to fix the car, it was well past 9pm&period; I decided to go to Ondo to get accommodation for the night&period; &NewLine;Suddenly, I thought of a road I had followed once—Owo linking Okene&period; So, I decided to pass through it again&period; &NewLine;After about 10 minutes drive, I began to approach a hill&period; Then I saw an animal that I cannot describe&period; The head was something else&period; It was a big animal&period; That was the only time I felt truly afraid&period; I was scared and I was the only person on the road&period; &NewLine;I managed to keep alert and kept my hands on the steering&period; There was no moonlight, no stars&period; It was total darkness but as usual, God saved me&period; The vicious looking crawling ghost left me when I was about arriving Abuja at 4am &NewLine;I still do not really understand why ghosts are attracted to me especially at my formative years&period; Eventually, I got entangled with a Chinese, <a href="https&colon;//www&period;wsj&period;com/">Mr&period; Xin Hui</a> who was well versed in the subject&period; He said &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There are several reasons&period; One is mischief but some time, certain astral components can be responsible&period; &NewLine;On mischief, they will pester you in the wee hours and disturb your sleep&period; They would pop up from time to time to give you a nice scarce or to generally disturb your peace for fun and to see your reactions&period; They usually do not mean harm but they can be a pest”&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter