Don’t We Have A Right To Live?
“The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it is indifference.” - Elie Wiesel.
When you don’t speak out against something that you know is wrong, that is indifference. When you don’t take action where it is required, that is indifference. When you let fear hold you back from being the change you want to see that demonstrates indifference toward that change you say you seek.
I was guilty of all these things, and I used all the standard excuses:
“I’m not a political person.”
“There is nothing I can really do.”
“Nothing is going to change, so why try?”
“Someone else, someone better qualified will do it.”
Do any of those sound familiar?
I was guilty of being silent, and today, I’ve decided that I can’t be guilty of that anymore. The situation currently brewing in my home country, Nigeria, demands that I no longer stay silent. The people who have died during the ongoing #endsars protests demand that I speak. Their immeasurable sacrifices demand that I do what I can to further the change they put their lives on the line for.
The #endsars protest has been going on for over a week all over the country in Nigeria. And what is it fighting for? An end to police brutality. Youths are stopped and harassed, extorted, beaten, raped, kidnapped, killed, and those that live through it are irreversibly scarred just for existing. Things finally reached a breaking point this October when the peaceful protests started. We are all tired of the constant suffering we have been forced to live with for so long. And to show our unrest, citizens old and young, have poured out of their homes day after day to use their voices to bring light to the situation.
But instead of listening to their people, innocent people have been killed by the police throughout the protests. This horrific behaviour culminated in a massacre at Lekki, Lagos yesterday 20th October 2020. The Nigerian government has shown that they prefer to respond with violence and murder instead of making changes to accommodate the most basic human right. The right to be alive. At the last count that I’m aware of, there were between 7–12 people left dead, with countless more injured. They took down the CCTV cameras around the area and imposed a 24-hour curfew with less than 4 hours notice to facilitate their killings. All of these actions show premeditation and a deeply alarming disregard for human lives, and more so the lives of the youths of their own country.
This behaviour is not okay, and will never be okay. The response to a protest begging to end police brutality was an escalation by our government to killing unarmed civilians. If that isn’t proof of how deeply rooted the problem is, then I’m not sure what is. So I urge anyone reading this to do anything you can to help this cause. Share articles, make videos, sign petitions, donate where you can, do anything you can.
We are being killed for fighting for our lives, and we need your help.
