When Nigerian youths began staging protests nationwide early this October, many people easily dismissed the movement as one that was not going to last.
Very few people could project with any form of accuracy, the trajectory it eventually took and the measures that had to be taken to bring it to a halt in its tracks.
Two weeks later, and as we carefully sift through all the narratives of the last few days for clarity amidst conflicting accounts, one thing is certain: the EndSARS protests will change the socio-political landscape of Nigeria over the next decade, providing a new pathway to leadership aspiration by political actors that takes into account the yearnings of youths and challenges an existing power construct that is aloof to today’s realities and is propped up by systems that encourage irresponsibility..
I salute the courage that has provided this new lease of life to the Nigerian dream. The passion and might of youth, properly channeled can make any nation correct its course.
The lives lost on all sides, the destruction perpetrated by sponsored criminal elements to discredit the protests and entrench fear on the streets and the looting and arson embarked upon by opportunists will forever leave a bitter chapter in our national history. But the consciousness it has awakened in our youths has the capacity to redefine our politics and governance structures …if they are preserved from the contamination of nefarious political elements who have spotted a potent weapon to exploit.
Nigerian youths in almost every generation have catalyzed change and birthed movements that remind the powers that be of a latent force that can check their excesses.
Most times, very sadly, they pay in tears, blood and lives but it is important as always that the sacrifice becomes a seed that will give birth to a stronger resolve, encouraging a mental investment in correcting the ills plaguing the country and to this I plead with young Nigerians today: because this movement can count for something far greater, do not lose sight of the yearning that gave birth to it. It MUST count for something greater. The yearning for a better life, for dignity and respect for all, for responsibility and accountability by those elected into office or appointed by those elected, for a Nigeria that works for all Nigerians regardless of class, ethnicity or religion… Everyone must put their weight on this lever. It MUST count for something greater.
EndSARS speaks to something greater. Let those greater things begin to receive life.
