For Love & For Life: The Cost Of What We Fight For

They say peace is often underrated. The tranquility is all but appreciated; not until you get the whiff of true chaos. You don't know what you have until you lose it. Some wanted us to suffer in silence. Our parents would have us endure like they had.

"Don't sow seeds of war," they said. "It will only end badly," they droned on.

It's been over a year since we stood for what we believed in.

Nigeria 🇳🇬, the pride of Africa or at least it used to be has never remained the same.

History was really a set of agreed upon lies. It was hard to know what was true as the victors would write the story how they saw it fit.

Truth is none of us wanted to die. I mean, hardly does anyone ever right? None of us could live knowing that we could die at any point in time and no one would blink. There's a power to that you see; there's a power to that fear. It turns a harmless cat into a death machine when cornered, slashing anything in its path to be free.

We had been cornered and we refused to take it sitting down. We became the cat and we said no with a resounding voice.

The streets were filled with voices to speak against the tyranny we were under. It was awe inspiring, the way our voices came together.

"NO TO BAD GOVERNANCE." were our placards. "END BRUTALITY." 

We deserved to live free of the fear they put us under. We didn't ask for much. It was bad enough that they were as useless as they come, but keeping us subdued mentally was what we couldn't just have. 

For weeks, we made them pay attention to us. They started to give in to some of our demands. They addressed some of the grievances we had. We refused to back down. In just a matter of days, we funded our cause, we fed and renewed our strength, gave aid to the needed. Cases of aCCIdenTAl diSChaRGe of police weapons popped all over protest venues. Some died, some were wounded, a lot of us would be scarred for life. 

Just when we thought it had become as bad as it could get, it became even worse.

Any digital evidence of the bloodbath they were about to sanction was eliminated beforehand. Signals were disrupted, cell towers were powered down & the lights were turned off. It was all planned you see; a well orchestrated dance of death. 

They came in the cover of the dark. It didn't matter that we were armed with nothing but cardboard paper. The dark was their master, the moon seemed to be in coalition with them. It was like fireworks with the color of red. The screams rent the air as they opened fire on unarmed civilians who wanted nothing more than to live. They responded to our protest to end brutality with more brutality. 

The air smelled of blood and despair, mothers would never know that their childrens' lives had been snuffed out. They took us apart methodologically and stacked the bodies in their vans. Actually, there was no sophistication to it; Just point your guns at the human beings and open fire was the order. 

The snakes denied any responsibility for ending the lives of countless young adults. They later admitted that one person died in the unfortunate shooting.

Chaos quickly took suit and ran amok. It didn't matter that we had just been chipped at so violently, nothing could hurt our resolve. 

They had tried to use hoodlums to scatter us. They soon found out that it was a foolish thing to do so they had them join us. They joined us under the guise of protesters and created chaos from our midst. That was the opening they needed to act. We were labeled hoodlums, enemies of the state and they treated us accordingly. 

It didn't matter that we didn't know each other's names; I could feel every one of their pain. That night, a huge part of all of us was taken away by force. 

We fell back and we fell back hard. The resolve never changed and we refused to forget. People died for us and we were not going to take that for granted. We refused to believe that we could be shot and nothing would happen. 

In time we settled down with a plan. Not a coup, but a brilliant overthrow. The greedy bastards and bloodthirsty tyrants would never leave of their own volition. We settled to play their game.. and beat them.

They would not have it. They refused to believe that we had come from nowhere to upset the pEAce & pROsPeRIty the nation had been enjoying. Their words were riveting. It took all that we had not to resort to jungle justice. We strove to be better than the animals we had badly hoped to depose. 

In time, we forged a future that was bright. We would only feel it a little, but we set the groundwork for what would be greater than we ever imagined.

Wistful thinking as I look into the future. The cries that we are better than the inhumanity shown thus far still echoes into the night.

I wonder if @FarmGirl has ever experienced anything like this or where @Princessbusayo was when this happened.

What about you @Kristofferquincy

I wish I could see the world the way @Olasquare sees it. With room for hope and love. Always with an optimistic view.

The world we fight for and hope to grow up in is not where we are but we stay hopeful.

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE LEKKI MASSACRE.  YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.