We all find love in strange places and
that seems to be the story of this
awesome couple who were united by the
terror of the rampaging Boko Haram
sect. Ibrahim Musa and Fatima Isa The power of love knows no boundaries,
whether in times of peace or conflict, as
demonstrated by couples who found their
spouses in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
camps in Nigeria, Punch correspondent writes.
The last thing 20-year-old Fatima Isa was hoping to find in an Internally Displaced
Persons camp was love. Last year, the
extremist group, Boko Haram, had launched
an attack on Isa’s village in Borno State,
forcing her and tens of other villagers to flee
into the mountains. But when Cupid’s arrow sought her at the IDP camp in Malkohi, in the
heart of Yola, Adamawa State capital, there
was no place to hide.
One Friday this year, Isa met 25-year-old
Ibrahim Musa, a volunteer security guard at
the camp, just after the customary Muslim Friday prayers. For Musa, it was love at first
sight.
He told a correspondent, “I’m a volunteer at the IDP camp here. I help the military to
open the gate and take note of people
who come in. On one of those days, I
saw Fatima for the first time and I felt
excitement because she was beautiful
to look at. So, I approached her and I told her my feelings.
“I told her I wanted to marry her. I said I
was not playing around because I had
fallen in love with her. She then asked
why I was interested in her. I said that
was how God destined it. She said since I was interested in her, I should ask my
family members within the camp to
approach her family and ask for her
hand formally.” Both Isa and Musa are from Gwoza. Gwoza is
a rocky border town in Borno which is famous,
within security circles, for hosting the elite
police academy where mobile policemen are
trained. But since the Boko Haram crises
began, it has suffered several attacks from the violent sect. Painful memories It was during one of such attacks that Isa’s
first marriage ended abruptly. During the
attack, she fled to the mountains in terror. Her
husband of two years, Adamu, was not so
lucky. He was killed by the insurgents. So for
Isa, love and marriage held painful memories. But she soon caved in under Musa’s persistent
overtures, put her past aside and decided to
love again. According to her, Musa’s concern
for her emotional welfare was crucial to her
decision to marry him.
She said, “I told him about my late husband and how he was killed by Boko
Haram. He was there to comfort me. We
both shared our stories of how we
managed to escape from Gwoza. Our
stories brought us closer.
“I was attracted to him because I saw that he can be a responsible man. I also
like his faith and he showed that he can
handle responsibility,” a smiling Isa told a correspondent one afternoon at the IDP camp.
Since their marriage two months ago, which
was conducted by an Islamic teacher at the
camp, the couple say life has taken a better
turn. “For now, he does not have the money
to rent an apartment outside the camp;
that is why we are staying here
together. But some day, I would like to
return to Gwoza. I’m looking forward to
raising a home with him outside the camp. The number of children we would
have depends on God,” she said, adding playfully that she felt a bit jealous when he
looked at other women in the camp.
Musa laughed it off, saying, “Although I had seen other women here at the IDP camp
before I took interest in her, from the
first day I saw her, I knew she was the
one I would marry. For me, she was the
most beautiful and pleasing among
them. Nothing has changed. It is God’s will. I hope we can spend more time
together in the future as husband and
wife.” Isa said she wanted to learn a vocation like
knitting, while Musa said he desired to go back
to farming after they return to their
communities.
