True Giant of Africa
By Salome Malobi.
Edited by Esther Odumu.
The youth of any nation represent strength and power. As youths, we exercise this power in Nigeria by saying enough is enough to governmental oppression. Each one with their role, we began the protest.
The END SARS protest is no news to any Nigerian. Many issues and problems swept under the carpet for decades have been uncovered by the protest. It has become the voice of the voiceless and ticket of freedom to those bound by the chains of injustice, unfairness and inequality.
For decades, Nigeria has been plagued with insurgencies, kidnapping, bad health care, poverty, bad roads, unemployment etc. We are underdeveloped and impoverished. Yet we are the giant of Africa. How can a
country so blessed be so cursed? I like to think it is a curse. A curse brought by the greed of men meant to lead us, and their intoxication for power and affluence at the expense of the lives of their citizens.
Only by this protest have we seen how deep into our system, the roots of corruption have sunk. How much pain it has brought, the wounds it has inflicted on its citizens and the many dreams it has truncated. We were tired of the silence of our elders, and peacefully demanded for our constitutional rights. Hearts on our sleeves, marching long distances in unity with our hands above our heads asking, pleading even – to be allowed to live, yet our leaders said no. It’s barely a month and hundreds have died already without a single ounce of change in sight.
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This protest is our way of lending our voice to the fight against bad governance, corruption, greed and the brutality carried out by government officials sworn to protect us. We are tired of the oppression and we demand for change. This is no religious, ethnic, or cultural crisis; it is a cry for a new Nigeria, one reformed and renewed. A Nigeria that truly represents justice, peace, fairness, and equity; one that is not religious, cultural or tribalistic. A Nigeria united at heart and mind; whose ultimate goal is protecting the rights and lives of its citizens, truly standing as “the giant of Africa”.
OCMM stands with the youths on their course for a new Nigeria. We love to see that the labor of our heroes past are not in vain, that the seeds sown by this action grow, that the lives lost to Nigeria will not be wasted and everything we have suffered for the sake of true independence will count eventually. We fight today that it may be written in the sands of time that we did something to enact the change we so desire.
Our fallen soldiers will be forever remembered as heroes that fought in the way they could to restore this Giant of Africa.