It might destroy us…

I was walking back from work yesterday and on my way to take a bus, at the small roundabout under the Falomo bridge I saw posters with blank faces and the name of each girl at the bottom of the picture with #bringbackourgirls at the top of it. They were pinned all round the roundabout each poster with a different girl’s name. And I just stared at it and in that moment, I was overcome by a deep sense of compassion and anger: compassion because of what the families must be going through right now and anger at why this had to happen in the first place and how it’s taking forever to bring them back! I’ve read different reports and updates about the whole thing that sometimes I don’t even know what to believe anymore. But two things remain though, the fact that all the protests at different places in the country, our outcry on social media which has gotten the attention of people from different parts of the world, shows that, as a people, we still care about something other than ourselves and the second is the realization that our hope and faith in this country is hanging in the balance and what would determine where we go from here, for so many, is the outcome of all this. With the whole of my heart I hope this doesn’t end the way a lot of other things end in this country, where nothing substantial gets done and there’s no restitution. I fear that we would not recover from this after weeks of crying out if they don’t #Bringbackourgirls. There’s a lot riding on this and I hope there’s no doubt about that. My fears might be unfounded but I would have been able to move past it if there was something positive to hold on to and there haven’t been a lot of those lately. This terror is tearing this nation apart and the people who should be responsible for keeping us safe have folded their arms for so long and don’t seem to care. And are only now trying to act when things seem to have gotten out of hand which, quite frankly, I’m not even sure they know how; the curse of years of complacency… So pardon me if my faith is a little shaky.
After staring for what seemed like forever, I was able to tear my eyes away from the poster, and in the wake of my helplessness, I said a prayer for these girls, their families and for us as a nation because they really need to #Bringbackourgirls because I fear this might destroy us otherwise, even more than it already has.