I Can’t Breathe: A call for Charity begins at home -By Fakinlede Pelumi

This was supposedly the only statement the world remembers of the late George Floyd and yet many blacks thinks it was only George that could not breathe. It will surprise you to know that it is every black in the world that cannot breathe. Infact breathing has been difficult for us all from time immemorial.

Like a friend said the looting and destruction that are happening now in the United States has nothing to do with Floyd, infact in the words of the POTUS, they are thugs. But I have a strong question to ask every Nigerians who are showing online solidarity for the protest is why have we left fire on our roof and we are putting off the fire on another person’s roof.

As a Nigerian, I have found it difficult to breathe from birth and I know it is so for many Nigerians. My difficulty in breathing came from the decadence in the Nigerian society and governance. Nigeria is supposedly one of the most difficult place to grow up. Yet we protest for killings in America.

During this lockdown, many Nigerians lost their lives in the hands of law enforcement agencies all in the names of following the order from the government. It is as bad as police officers shooting at Nigerians they found outside their own house to effect stay at home and you believe I will be able to breathe in such condition.

Many Nigerians lost their lives to terrorist attacks, kidnaps and rape and our government sweeps the issues under carpet because they are not affected by the plight of the masses. They live in glass houses, surrounded with thick fence, drive bullet proof cars and have money to buy their freedom while we find carcass of citizens on the street dismembered.

Many Nigerian Universities graduates with even PhD are roaming around the street to get jobs yet kids of highly politically placed and connected people slide into jobs at convenience. When it is time for election, the so called people who are complaining of ill treatment of blacks will be the one showing solidarity for these politicians.

Have you asked the Npower beneficiaries what they are going through in the hands of Madam Minister who from the inception of her office had shown that death is a woman and the devil a friend. The beneficiaries are suffering and smiling after dancing around town for next level skit yet they woke up to starvation.

As a black, I am an endangered species and as a Nigerian, I have been in the situation George Floyd found himself in lesser than an hour and he died, all my life. I am telling the world to save me, for I AM A NIGERIAN and I CAN’T BREATHE