This event was around 2018 when a whole class of UNILAG law students were to be barred from sitting exams which will automatically mean an extra year for them, yet instead of addressing the matter, they resorted to offering prayers to God at the popular lagoon front. It was Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki who reached out to me with a video of these supposed future lawyers praying to miraculously change the minds of the school authorities. I took the video, posted it and started engaging the authorities at the Faculty of Law despite being under unjust suspension and victimization as an activist.
The video went viral and the authorities started threatening them that they would have considered “pardoning” them if only they didn’t go public with the issue (referring to my personal intervention). I started receiving calls from strange numbers. The students started calling me to pull down the video and not intervene again; that I want to ruin their lives like mine. Some even threatened to beat me up if they ever come across me.
I didn’t bulge at all. I continued. I can recall that I chatted with their Faculty Dean till 2am in the midnight, arguing why they must be allowed to sit exams and graduate. Mind you, I was under suspension myself. Eventually, she agreed with me and they sat the exams and graduated.
Why am I telling this story?
I can see Nigerians and particularly, some of my Comrades attacking a certain JusticeCrack for reposting a mockery tweet against our leader, Omoyele Sowore, calling Justice all sort of names. This is in response to how Sowore fought tooth and nail to secure his release from the Tinubu regime that violated his rights, brutally at that.
We must understand that activism is a thankless job. When you rise against oppression, it is not because the oppressed actually has sense. It’s because OPPRESSION AND OPPRESSORS MUST BE FOUGHT.
And because it’s a thankless job and you are human, when emotion or fatigue sets in, you can rest and pick up again. Nothing says you must be on the streets 24/7. Even messiahs take out time for retreats. It’s better to reinvigorate yourself when you are weak than to start appearing or sounding like someone who has lost touch with reality, contradicting your ideas/ideals or to degenerate, at worst.
Let’s stay guided.
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