We Can’t #FreeSowore From Behind of Our Screens -By Kolade Malik Ademola

As we cannot undermine the influence of social media in revolutionary process, it is then pathetic to affirm that the struggle for revolution that the youths of Nigeria make today is on Social Media; when they put it as news feed on Facebook, Instagram, thousands of tweets, and WhatsApp statuses that will disappear after twenty four hours, from the comfort of their homes. Is this to agitate for Sowore’s release and #RevolutionNow? Yes! But is it going to be effective? No, it is not, because no one gets freedom or revolution by putting pictures on social media platforms as the usual day-to-day activities of the user.

Nigerians today, Youth in particular, subjugate themselves in fear of annihilation over revolution, but ask yourself, haven’t you died a thousand times when you stomach the insecurity from the Forces meant to provide security? When you become a stranger in your father’s land, wandering the streets under the burning sun trying to make ends meet despite the horrendous state of the economy? Ask yourself, haven’t you been buried already when you allow these polithieves to stomach the dividend of our democracy in their potbellies? Ask yourself if you’re not yet a dead man walking when you fail to take actions that tackle the everyday brutality of the so called men in power.

Fear is a man-made phenomenon employed by the oppressors to regulate the sanity of the oppressed, and keep them at bay. Until, the oppressed break the chain binding them with fear, they keep laughing amid absolute poverty, insecurity, and corruption at its clime. “I may be the next person to die after writing this article and you may even be the next after reading this piece. Why? We are not certain that we won’t be kidnapped and butchered before the end of the day.” Adejumo Kabir wrote in his Omoyele Sowore: Is Revolution In Its Real Sense Criminal?

So dear youth, are you really fighting for a revolution? Ask yourself, am I not being pretentious? Can I withstand the fierce struggle for a revolution? Am I ready for a revolution? And if in the end I am being kidnapped like Omoyele Sowore during the walk for revolution, can I still raise my voice loud till my arrest changes something? Ask yourself those questions, if you are wary in answering, you have no right yet to partake in the revolution, not even by uploading it on your social media stories. It’s high time we came out of this facade of fear!

Freedom isn’t given at free will, it is either forced or hijacked by the oppressed through revolution. Dear Nigerians, we cannot from behind of our screens #FreeSowore and Nigeria from the shenanigans of bad, corrupt, and inhumane government unless we Walk-The-Talk. It is enough of the injustice we stomach everyday in the name of fear.

#FreeSoworeNow
#RevolutionNow

Kolade Malik is a Student and Campus Journalist  from The Polytechnic, Ibadan. He appears of Facebook as Maleek A. Kolade