Reading Time: 3 minutes Today makes it a week since the Lekki massacre. Never have I heard or seen peaceful protesters shot on Instagram live for taking a stand against police brutality. Now, these are the same people missing social amenities but they only pled with the government for Police reforms.

Truly, there was an announcement that the Police unit (SARS: Special Anti-Robbery Squad) in question had been disbanded a couple of days prior to the shooting. The sad thing is, it was not the first of its kind and these officers were still on the street harassing people. Unfortunately, the youths were attacked on the 20th of October while holding the Nigerian flag in Lekki Lagos. Despite being shot at, they sat while waving the Nigerian flag, singing the National Anthem repeatedly. It hurts that no one has been held accountable till now even though we all saw the shooting live.

In the past few weeks, we saw people like Pastor Sam Adeyemi, Pastor Adeboye, Pastor Oyedepo Falz, Dr Olufunmi, Aproko doctor, FK Abudu, Mr Macaroni, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy and more use their influence for this cause. We saw the ladies from the feminist coalition managing the funds received for feeding the protesters, bailing them out, even getting therapists together to help those feeling mentally exhausted. There was accountability and despite multiple threats, they all stood up and we all stood along with them. This tells me there is hope. We have it in us so let us keep our heads up. We have lost a lot of people so we cannot give up.

Prayer for Peace
I am writing to encourage you to just take some time to recover, relax, and let us pray for Nigeria together like the Bible admonishes us to in Psalm 122: 6-8. I want us to pray for peace and healing, pray for comfort for those that lost someone in the past week, and more important that God should arise for Nigeria.

Moving Forward
Let’s look up to God and pray for his help. It is a Marathon and not a sprint. We have had termites for leaders and it’s going to take lots of actions, and prayers on our part. We have to keep praying and acting till we see a change. Change starts with you, let us get to work!
Get your voter’s card, get to voting and get even more involved in community projects, and enlightenment programs. We are not victims; we are survivors, and we will make it in Jesus’ name. We have heard our parents say they tried fighting in years past, but the same thing happened to them, so I am praying that we will not experience the same in Jesus name. We are not just the sòrò sókè youths, we are the Generation of Hope.