ETP Talks: #EndSARS part 3

What a week it’s been. I haven’t experienced such a rollercoaster of emotions for my home country Nigeria like I did this week.

Tuesday 20.10.2020, we witnessed a massacre. Live on Instagram.

And the government is trying to hide it.

I am taken aback with how this week went; on Tuesday night protesters at the Lekki Toll gate (which will now be referred to as the Lekki Blood Gate) were seated with their flags raised, singing the national anthem – and they were brutally shot at by the Nigerian military, then later by the same Police that we’ve been campaigning to end police brutality.

LIVE ON INSTAGRAM.

I’m emphasizing this because I saw it with my own two eyes. Over 135,000 people saw it including CNN. Yet the military had the effrontery to say the live feed was “photoshopped” – and it took them two days to even address the topic.

On Wednesday we received radio silence from the Nigerian Government – in fact it was the president of Ghana that told us, Nigerians, that the President of Nigeria plans to talk to us. Can you just imagine the craziness?

The President’s 12 minute “live” speech did not address the massacre of protesters by his military.

Let that sink in.

He basically told the international community (many prominent people such as Bill & Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, Beyoncé etc) that spoke up on Wednesday against the act of violence – to mind their business.

To us the citizens, in a very thinly veiled threat, he basically said anything you see in Nigeria, take it.

It was almost better when he remained silent. But I guess it gave us the closure that we needed to know: that we Nigerians are truly on our own. But my generation isn’t quitting. Yes they may have put rules in place that contravene our human right to peacefully protest in gatherings, but we have taken to the grassroots.

People are getting more creative with their protests and have taken to sharing handbills, posters and the likes to get the message to those who didn’t understand and opposed out of lack of knowledge.