For three months, I had been creating content for other writers who wished to improve their content writing skills. The experience has been wholesome – I am not even going to lie – it meant I did not need to be comedic or playful before I could get my message across. If you judged me by the content I had been providing on this platform since July you would think I had no personality. I do not, I only did not want to mix business with personal. And for the most part, it worked…until October 2020.
On 0ctober, 2020, the nation took an alternate turn of event.
This is not my usual style of writing to you; I preferred to go the straightforward route especially since this niche required a bone-cut strategy. B2B content required me to not digress because all what my audience needed was valuable content that would yield results.
An event that made everything else seem insignificant. An event that dealt with out lives and our survival as citizens of our country. At first, it began like a whisper – a collective whisper – and it grew into something else. I cannot begin to tell you how it made it feel because for the first time in my life as a Nigerian, I watched a collective whisper grow into something bigger than myself. It almost felt like a living being existing outside of ourselves.
October 2020 is a month to always remember; a month young Nigerians decided to speak up. You might think this is something that does not require a praise oh… but it does.
You want to know why? Because for most of our lives we have been silenced. We have been told the older generation was always right and whenever they spoke, we must cower and agree. For years, we had been cowering, hanging our heads in the air and putting our energies into the things we could control. We overlooked the disrespect, we overlooked the cruelty for years until October, 2020 when our collective whisper birthed a living being of anger.
If you need a detailed report of what happened, I am sure the media will provide you with enough details. There are hundreds of videos circulating the internet of the #ENDSARS movement. This piece is not to educate you about our suffering as a nation and our collective decision to put a stop to it. For two weeks, young Nigerians across the country took to the streets to make their grievance heard to the government.
Although, it resulted in forceful responses by those who were employed to protect us. There are records of deaths, massacres and missing persons. Sadly, none of our demands have been attended to and it feels like the oppressed have failed.
However, there are somethings that I want to write for reminder.
I want to look back in years and try to remember what a collective whisper did. It brought hope, it brought order and it showed us what we could do if we stood together in unity. It showed me what a unified voice could do. The memory of these two weeks will never elude me. The gory images of people murdered for speaking up for their rights, the calming images of youths organising themselves, providing meals, bailing wrongfully convicted people out of jail, cleaning up after themselves and just being there for themselves. Check out https://twitter.com/feminist_co for more info on volunteering activities.
Everything will remain in my head because they are now part of history.
No matter how hard they try to cover this up, it will always be part of our history. And for that I am eternally proud.
Now, I do not know when things will go back to normal but in spite the crushed hope and frustration there is a need for everyone to heal and find a way to move forward. Moving forward will means different things to everyone. But for me, it means going back to create content for you, focus on completing this NYSC year, focus on finding other ways to monetize my skills.
I sent an email to my subcribers explaining my absence from the usual routine of creating content. I explained my numbness and my unwillingness to continue with life. It seems we are forced to return back to normal; disregarding everything that happened within those three weeks. This is something that gives me concerns because it is something I have no control on.
I do not think I can ever forget October 2020. I don’t think I can.
Honestly, I do not know when things will go back to normal but I do hope we never let go of that thing in us – that living being – that made us speak up for ourselves. I hope it stays alive. Hopefully, it is never silenced.
We still have a long way to go… the road to freedom is foggy, yes, but the destination is all that matters.