What if Nigeria was meant to be great

What a year it has been, what a month it has been, what a week it has been, personally what a couple of days it has been for me emotionally, 2020 has given us a lot to think about, and I must tell you, it has been a hell of a ride. The saga was initiated by the pandemic that hit the world, followed closely by a rather eventful and controversial show, “Big Brother Naija (BBN)”, drifting into the historic, once in a blue moon, nationwide protest.

Interesting thing about these events is the ripple effect they had on one another. The pandemic, as with most countries, forced the Nigerian government to impose a lockdown on its citizenry, with no economic activities going on, Nigerians were stuck with the internet and media, bearing to the end of the lock down, the BBN show started, schools were not in session, most organizations and workers now loved working from home, so they did. The youths had time to watch BBN lock down, and with their lockdown companion -social media, the show had a well populated audience to serve, and oh it did serve us, BBN lockdown spurred more connection among the Nigeria youths with different fanbases formed for various housemates, the show exposed the innate ability of Nigerian youths to commit to a cause they believe in, all hail ICONS.

Still basking in the aftermath of the show, these more connected persistent cause-chasing Nigerian youths had another cause to chase, a cause that almost sent the just concluded show and its participants into a rather unfortunate oblivion, the cause was at first geared towards ending a police unit known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery, and the brutality of the police force, this cause in time evolved and got bigger than just one of the results of a mismanaged police unit, but one that wants accountability and better governance from the government. Afterall, the tip of the iceberg has a responsibility to the rest of the iceberg.

Covid-19 as negative as it is, and/or was, has led to this historic moment, we’ll prolly not be here without it. Got me wondering, what if Nigeria was meant to be great.

#ENDSARS was birthed, and frankly, prior to its evolution, I wasn’t fussed about it. I felt as always, we were just running in a circle because ending SARS doesn’t end police brutality, it just means SARS will be no more, it was as simple as that and you don’t kill hydra by cutting one of its heads. The #ENDSARS protest growing into a metaphoric symbol demanding for a better government, piqued my interest, and it took no hesitations to board its proverbial wagon.

The “phone pressing generation” used their phones as their weapon to “soro-soke”. We were no longer satisfied with just speaking online alone, so it became a national movement with peaceful protests being staged across the nation in unison, and it was beautiful. Then came 20-10-2020 -a day so despicable that I don’t fancy going into details, shame on our government for what betid us, shame. A weapon is only useful when you know you have it, what this movement has done is wake us up and serve us a cup of coffee to smell, it gave us a consciousness and awareness that we youths can actually take Nigeria from the oppressors, make it contemporary and better for prosperity, now we know we have a weapon. Got me wondering, what if Nigeria was meant to be great.

A weapon is deadly not only when you have it but when you know how to use it, we know we have a voice, a weapon and it’s useful but can we use it, is it deadly? The aftermath of the “Lekki massacre” as it is tagged, led to a temporary lawlessness pervading the country as the angry youths retaliates to the Lekki incident by demolishing governmental property, and sadly private owned businesses, a rather “shooting yourself in the foot” strategy to me, except the palliative bugling though, how paradoxical that an act can be a crime still be so justifiable, but let no one seek redemption as we search for justice, more so it is hard to tell an angry mob a thing is right or wrong you will become the enemy real quick especially with the latter and it is very hard to discern between the angry youths and the "hired thugs" who are there to dilute the purpose of the movement.. Where do we then go from here? We might have slain our demons today, bound to face the devil tomorrow, even as we dance on the grave of the devil, you can’t but wonder, "was the devil alone?"

Vengeful destruction will not give us what will want, rather pull us farther away from victory. The next step should be towards the embodying of our voice into an entity as a proverbial weapon that can be used to get what we desire, by using it to take the country from our oppressors; we will be on the right path if the trending Youths Democratic Party (YDP) could actually become a thing with the 2023 elections in focus, this might be hard though since even with the solidarity and acceptance among the youths we are still disadvantaged, here is why, but it is still a good direction nonetheless. And it has to be now, bearing in mind that the clock is always ticking forward, which means tomorrow is already here. We need to understand that the #ENDSARS movement will not bring about a better Nigeria, only the awakening awareness that we can, and we need to bring about a better Nigeria. Got me wondering, what if Nigeria was meant to be great.