Thread by @diaryofa9jagirl

This evening, I drove past Lekki Toll gate, I realised I had become accustomed to that place being our peaceful protest ground. So I parked my car on the right side of the Toll, alighted and stood by the car, my back rested on the driver’s door.

Compared to the air of hope, unity, excitement and determination that I was used to on that ground, I felt a deep emptiness, not the one permeated by nothing but an emptiness that felt wrong: VOID.

A tear dropped, I folded my hands and looked around,

the anger, sadness and grief that I’ve been dealing with came back in full force, and I allowed myself to feel it. Through my tears, I saw the young man who brought me the green whistle and asked me to blow it loud if anyone harassed me,

the lady who stood strong by the barrier and insisted Sanwo-Olu would only be able to protest with us without his armed security men, she didn’t want guns on the protest ground. I saw the people who cleaned up after us, those who distributed water as we screamed, #endsars,

the doctors seated in the trunk of the ambulance, swaying to Baba Fryo’s “Lead us Well…”

I couldn’t stop the tears but I could still see clearly, the way youths walked confidently into the barricade, allowing themselves to be searched,

determined to be well behaved just so we could fight peacefully for our freedom. I saw my friends Esther and Wana, we stood together, our voices raised in unison as we screamed #endsars #endsars #endsars

“Hey. Hey. Leave there, no loitering here, leave there!”

My moment of reminiscing was rudely interrupted. It was by a military man, he walked confidently towards me, his dark skin looked like he’d spent too much time in the sun, his red eyes were without expression, I saw his gun, though not aimed at me but firmly held.

My first reaction was to hurriedly jump back inside my car and drive off but I took a deep breath, wiped my tears and slowly turned around, opened my car door, took my time to put myself together then I drove off slowly.

The #endsars protest will be an event that I’ll forever remember, it will be a movement that changed my perspective of the people of the country, it will be the reason I will consciously become a better Nigerian.

I hope every action you take going forward will be motivated by that short period when we saw what type of country we could all have, when there were no tribal differences, when we protected one another as we prayed and when our hope for change was greater than our differences.

As you go into the week, I hope every opportunity you have, you stand for what is right, rather than what is convenient. Ask yourself what you need to do offline to become a better Nigerian, whatever you decide that is, go ahead and do it.

#DANG