Last year, I was a stubborn, fervent, young woman with a heart full of hope & ready to fight irregardless of the consequences.
I fought the battle of my life alongside millions of young Nigerians.
As we fought to #EndSARS, we also fought for the soul of the country. For once, it felt like the fault lines were shifting & our voices would be respected.
Sure, we were fueled by pain, but in the faces of thousands of young people across many rally points, hope came alive.
Nigerians became proud to be Nigerians again. We remembered what it meant to stand in solidarity.
Today, Iβm a young woman with a heart full of dying hope, beaten & battered by the state called Nigeria.
For far too long, we have allowed the Buhari administration dismiss & downplay the impact & reach of social media on our culture, governance & economy.
We let them lie blatantly about how we were simply wasting our time, called us miscreants, tried to delegitimize our collective power to advocate for ourselves on a global platform. We persevered, we mobilized, we crowdfunded, we advocated.
But once our online power began to spill offline, into the streets of Akwuzu, Ikeja, Lekki, Barnawa and Wuse, the government acknowledged us in the only way they seem to value; reactionary violence.
After going silent for a month, troll accounts dedicated to belittle my work & sowing doubt about my age & right to express myself as a citizen of Nigeria were reactivated.
They targeted me by releasing fake tweets & turn the public against me.
My stand on the reopening on the toll gate is clear; the state govt & the private organisation operating the toll have not been cleared of collusion with elements allegedly deployed by the federal govt to target citizens on home soil during a time of peace, without provocation.
Justice has not been served, and as a representative of the Nigerian citizenry, my only recourse is to stay the course of justice.
Let it be known that today, I and @TemiOanu, dissented to the reopening of the Lekki Toll Gate on the Lagos Panel.
This, as a result of LCC inability to provide access to their CCTV servers for the forensic expert employed by the panel to authenticate the footage they submitted
Also, we are of the view that the investigations into the Lekki Toll Gate incidence have barely begun, and so the Lekki Toll Gate should remain shut until full investigations are concluded by the Panel.
Also the ruling that Lekki Toll Gate should be reopened cannot hold, as a quorum wasnβt formed today with the youth representatives absent.
It is also pertinent to note that 5 of 9 canβt form a proper quorum.