The Trails of 20–10–2020
‘’Goodbye Nigeria, the evil you have done is enough”.
In a stable country when such statements as above are celebrated, you’d be certain there’s a misadventure waiting to happen. However, my country isn’t and frankly it’s far from it.
This statement is not born out of hatred from the country or being unpatriotic, but something more. How stifling the country has been, how hard it has been on youths on how we keep going in ruins daily and our leaders have no care in the world.
Oct-20–2020 was a day all hell broke loose, the day the pain was seared in our hearts and there to stay forever, it was the day that statement started making a momentum and being cheered on.
20–10–2020 a day that premeditated murder was carried out on the youths at Lekki Toll Gate all because we were asking for the bare minimum. The summons were to stop killing us, stop extorting us, stop the brutality on the youths. We are not the enemy, all we demanded was for the leaders to #EndSars and #EndPoliceBrutality in Nigeria. Those hashtags trended for weeks as the Peaceful Protests proceeded online and on the street.
The Peaceful Protest emerged almost 2 weeks earlier in different states in Nigeria gaining major momentum in Lagos State. The protest was to enable the Nigerian government meet specific and simple demands which they woefully failed to do, all they did was reinforce their prejudice. The strength of the Protest was massive, the federal government never imagined such an occurrence, the strength of the youth to demand for good governance.
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No demands were met, but lives were taken. The noon of 20–10–2020, the Lagos state government announced a curfew, had the CCTV cameras turned off, had mobile network jumbled up making sure the protesters encountered difficulties using the internet or making phone calls. Despite this some peaceful protesters were still able to go live on their Instagram accounts which made the world see what went on at Lekki Toll Gate.
Numerous people were killed on that day, most with their bodies never to be recovered by their families and loved ones, there have been numerous spin off around the #LekkiMasaccre, the events wanting to be buried, different lies being told about a night we all saw happen.
How is it expected that all these memories be forgotten? The sound of the numerous gunshots in my head as I revisit the videos all in my mind?
The Lekki Massacre marks a year today and the pain is still fresh in my mind and in that of most of the youths I know, and I really want to utter/type out/scream out that statement out loud also, it hurts to see that no justice has been served for our fallen heroes and injustice is still rooted deep in the system.
Hopefully one day it will, justice will be served. Our answers will be gotten as to know who ordered the killings? Why is the Nigeria Government scared of a working state? Will this pain i feel ever leave? But until then, the opening statement remains a cause to celebrated.
