You might not think it’s time-relevant, but I will write about Nigeria. Because I live here all the time.

I will write about when they shot us down while we begged for the right to live without being persecuted for being young. While we exercised a right we thought we had in search of one we thought we should have. I will write about the green and white flags stained with red as we knelt and we begged, bellowing the national anthem like animals that ran to their mother expectant of comfort to find the colt of a dead giant. We sang and then we were equal, for the right to live in our motherland because where else could we go? We sang and then we were young, and for a moment we had cornrows in our heads and phones in our hands, and we didn’t care about crime, because a yahoo boy never killed a friend.

A scammer that stole life from accounts still wasn’t cruel enough to steal life from the lungs of the innocent.

I will write about Nigeria, because I live in Nigeria all the time. And yes you know that it’s better than it could be, and yes you know I should be grateful, and yes you know it’s not as bad as it was, and yes you know that it’s been a long time and the cause has long died.

But do you know people still cry each year? Do you know that some people never walked back from the streets where they sang? Do you know that some people have never washed the flags, do you know that I still hide my phone in my pocket and pull my earbuds out of my ear when I walk past our guardian heroes. Do you know some of us still feel unsafe when they hold their guns?

Of course it’s not like that, they aren’t ‘they’ and we aren’t ‘we’ because all conflict starts when we separate sides. Some of ‘them’ are good and pride in the uniforms, and some of ‘us’ are villains we can’t tell from sheep.

But I will write about it.

There is not ‘them’ or ‘they’ , so I’ll write about us. Because we’re the problem.

We love the place we live in? So we hiss when we see how dirty the streets are, and the we toss our own wrappers, but someone’s going to toss it aren’t they? Except there’s no someone. Only us. There is no enemy, only an enabler.

Because who can stop us? Asides from we ourselves?

So I will write about Nigeria, because I am Nigeria all the time.

#prowriterschallenge24