OPINION: THE ENDSARS PROTESTS: WHAT I SAW

 

THE ENDSARS PROTESTS: WHAT I SAW

Benefit of hindsight has made me to see the agitations beyond #ENDSARS.

 

ENDSARS may just have been a trigger. I saw some other things in those protesters.

I saw angry youth.

I saw youth who are tired of living a life of frustration.

I saw young men and women who don’t want to continue living life without hope and pride.

I young  people who don’t see fruition for their dreams anymore.

I saw youngsters who have no role models to shape their lives after.

I see men and women in their prime reacting to the burden of a failed system.

I saw rugged faces hardened by vicissitudes and tribulation.

 

They don’t see any promise of a better future.

 

Their young minds are daily bombarded with news of stolen billions in all popular currencies while their bellies ache with hunger.

 

Young graduates roam the streets in the sun looking for jobs that are just not there, yet listen to news of one person who could barely spell his name cart away our common patrimony with impunity.

 

Nothing is good FOR them, so everything is bad TO them.

 

Did the government handle them with tact? Threats and/or the big stick didn’t work. The protest was put down. Lives were lost. But a spirit has been created. I see that spirit as undying. It has only gone into hibernation.

 

Do I sound like a doomsday prophet? No!

Neither am I taking sides with the protesters.

Giving in to all they ask for will also be counter-productive.

 

But I ask, will the ENDSARS spirit ever be laid to rest until those things that birthed it are removed.

Will there be hope?

Will there be a future?

Will they have a role model to look up to?

Unless there’s a dream of hope and pride, the conscience will die.

A distraught mind and troubled spirit know no peace.

 

IF THINGS REMAIN THE WAY THEY ARE, I SEE REAL TROUBLE STILL COMING.