Let it be known that we fight a good fight.

 The warrior generation. 

....are we fighting the right way tho?

Over the past week, we dealt with the aftereffect of the bloody end to our peaceful protests; shops and stores were looted and people's whole livelihoods were carted away.

Most affected were shopping malls, gadget and appliance stores.

Someone said libraries and bookstores were ignored... That truly says a lot about the looters.

The fashion industry was not left out.

Clothes have been taken off the racks and mannequins have been left naked and cold.

Our favorite M_C_M Yomicasual who came out for the #EndSars protest has lost more than a few of his casual wears.... 

a coincidence? A personal vendetta? We'll most likely never know. 

We can only imagine how looted business owners feel right now... But maybe there's a way to avert a reoccurrence?

With no insurance or assurance from the government, business owners are left in the cold to start all over by themselves, giving them big enough reasons to give up completely on the course for a positive change. I mean; what's the point?

Although, much as we would all condemn the looters for unraveling our hard work, we really do have our work cut out for us. 

We can't make the same mistake the preceding generations made..... Ignoring the grassroot; the common man, the lower class. Building a future for just themselves and their noble families alone and leaving the 'peasants' to the crumbs. 

Someone once said; The children of those whom you refused to train will not let your trained children have peace. 

At the time I read this, I didn't think it affected me, I felt it referred only to politicians who don't make good enough effort for the educational sector to be well run and hardly ensure affordable and  accessible education, for everyone. 

Then the looting happened. And boy, was I wrong.. We all were. 

 After weeks of peaceful protests, of caring and looking out for each other. Rejecting bribe, giving free medical care and legal services. Christians giving room for the Muslims to have their Jumat prayers, Christians having their service on Sunday and Muslims watching peacefully. No one knew who was Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa, or  Edo... We ate together and danced together. We saw the Nigeria of our dreams flash before our eyes in a few short weeks. 

We achieved all these without a formal leader; just social media tweets, retweets, posts, and shares, with a few different hashtags.

What went wrong? Who were the vandals who hijacked our protests and allowed evil to thrive? And where did they come from? Who were the hoodlums who gave our already shaky governance the loophole they were waiting for, to deal us killing blows?

Then it struck me; Education. Or lack of... Just like Yomicasual said in his post; They're the uneducated. And they didn't come from a faraway land, they've always be amongst us, but you and I are so used to ignoring them, cos they barely fit into our circle, or are mostly wary of them. They are the ones who have been most depraved in the society. No, I don't mean just the ones who can't read or write, or didn't go to school at all, but those who haven't been exposed enough to catch the vision of the well grounded Nigerian youths who initially took to social media and to the streets to get their voices heard. These category of citizens (sad but true: they are citizens too) have had their priorities misplaced for one reason or another, or were never well oriented in the first place. It was easy to corrupt or buy their allegiance.  They stole food, appliances and clothing (things they felt mattered the most to them), defamed, vandalized and financially wrecked livelihoods of diligent citizens. Heartbreaking. 

But....

As much as our anger fuels us and we wish vengeance and revenge upon these bad eggs; they need to be well included for our efforts to work.

Therefore; the wisdom of aforementioned Sage affects you and I. We have the task to educate these set of people in any and every way we can. It's time to practice all we we've ever read, heard and learned about patience, forgiveness, and love. 

It's time we look at the bigger picture and gradually let go of the hatred in our hearts, to be able to take up the education of these ones. Cos the childr- rather; persons whom you refuse to train, will not allow your childr- sorry; you and I.... Have the Nigeria of our dreams. 

This means we have to carry each and every citizen along in our plans. Hmmm... The words of the Sage keeps making more sense to me. Do you get it tho? To avoid a future loophole for sabotage, the change begins with you. We have to change the country; one person at a time. 

The past weeks have been difficult for Nigerians.... If we can step out of our hurt and anger, we will win this.

So next time you get on a bike, educate the bikeman on the essence of our fight. Next time you see your street touts, don't just give them petty cash for hailing you, inform them about the battle field we're on, and how they can join the fight. Talk to the pepper seller in your local market. Inform her daughter/son, let them know how to and how not to fight this fight. Start social media hashtags so more people can join the reeducation conversation. 

So, what we could see in the flash of a few weeks; the birth of our dream country, can completely come out of dreamland and into reality. Let's fight a good fight; together. 

Till next time;

XoXo; RHD 💜💜💜