I am sad and angry! The last two weeks have taken a toll on my mental health. What started out as peaceful and exciting turned into a blood bath on Tuesday, the 20th of October 2020. Every Nigerian youth’s hope became shattered as we virtually witnessed the brutal murdering of our peers at the Lekki Toll Gate- the most organized and peaceful #EndSARS protest ground/headquarters in Nigeria.

As I heard the gunshots fired at the protesters from my house, a few kilometres from the protest ground, I had goose bumps all over my body. I experienced a different kind of pain I find so hard to describe. My friends and I were glued to our phones as we watched the very brave celebrity, DJ Switch, give us a first-hand experience of the Lekki massacre from her Instagram live video. We saw a man die, and I couldn’t stop the tears that flowed. All I kept thinking was how those who were still alive were going to get out of the hell they experienced.

Young Nigerians all over the world became heartbroken, and parents that lost their children either followed the same path as their dead children or were inconsolable. It was indeed a black Tuesday for us. As I thought of the right blog update to express how my week went, I became numb, and the only thing I could produce from my head was a poem that explains my current state of mind at the moment.

The poem below best describes the thoughts of every Nigerian during this period.

Nigeria.

Oh, generation of shallow-minded elders playing pretend to the scripts of life. 

Some of you walk without moving.  

See, with no vision. Because of you, I have begun to question Joel 2:28…And old men will dream dreams. It is apparent you act like decorated zombies.

Though you can hear, you are deaf to the sound of the youths’ beckoning for redemption. 

Your tongues enjoy the taste of bitterness, suffering, hunger, war, and death.

When your skins decide to feel, it makes love to hatred, envy, tyranny, and bullying. 

Oh, how the universe keeps crying for your salvation while you wallow in your destruction. 

Oh, how the blood of the innocent stand as a mediator between God and the people they left behind. 

It is funny how your amnesia will remember the footprint you have left for posterity. While we continue to use humour, the best make up brand in the world for covering our faces, scared with hurt and pain.