The SCREAMS we now HEAR

Their voices echos in our minds and their thoughts live in our heads

The band-aid of off sight we put on her wounds no longer holds anymore, she bleeds so much it rips it out and now blood flows from every part of her. We can't look away anymore as her screams echo every day, each day we hear bad news, she bleeds more, and each day we do nothing, she screams the loudest.

She is Nigeria

Nigeria is us

she is us!

My POV

Waking up on Wednesday morning to the cries of mercy by pastor Jerry Eze in the usual NSPPD my mum attends daily. I wondered what made him cry so much that even as I woke up, I felt sober and began to ask God for mercy too as my heart began to feel heavy. After some time, I took my phone and saw the news of the school girls’ abduction and the video of the church attack in kwara. I remembered how I saw the news of the execution of a military man and.... Suddenly every other news I had heard came to mind and I saw how it followed consecutively like a train without brakes. I felt a pit in my stomach.

I wanted to ask, how did we get here? What's actually going on? My country Nigeria!

Words left me that morning as I pondered through the day in thoughtless thoughts, in silent screams, in imaginations of what the victims and their families would be going through.

Oh the pain and the anguish, I couldn't pretend to understand because, if I felt this way, I wouldn't even imagine how they would have felt.

Growing up

Now I think of the news I've heard all through growing up in kaduna. The days there were curfew because of insecurity, the days where we heard of unknown persons dropping black suspicious bags in front of our school or a near by fuel station. How the frequent market runs were reduced because of riots. The days we heard gun shots at night and slept through it praying to God for safety. The times where people who heard you stayed in kaduna asked how you coped with it all. The endless stories and lives lost in our dear country.

A country where people have lost hope and fled the country, where people dissociate themselves from the country while living in it. The apathy formed because of neglect by its own leaders. The times where I didn't take praying for Nigeria seriously because I just wanted to prosper on my own and live happily.

Now, her cry affects us all as we can't sleep

Like a child crying and the mother cannot ignore. She is crying with deep wounds

As I write, I think to my self what solution can I bring, what can I do to make my country better, liveable, peaceful and joyful. I have nothing but to write to you dear reader, that as you read, you'd feel passion once more to your country, you'd fight for hope that we would rise and stand proud once more. That healing will meet us as a whole. That God will heal this land. That as you read and remember, you'd say a prayer for this country and do your own path whatever it may be in collective effort to rebuild our country.

Whenever a lion cries in pain or loss, the whole jungle feels it. When an elephant stomps it's feet on the ground, the animals feel it beneath their feet

I have great hope for Nigeria

And this is my 2 cents

Give your 2 cents too

“I pledge to Nigeria, my country,

To be faithful, loyal and honest,

To serve Nigeria with all my strength,

To defend her unity,

And uphold her honour and glory,

So help me God.”

AMEN