My involvement in a demonstration that didn't turn out well for me.

It is often very rare to see a demonstration that doesn’t turn bloody along the way, probably in our more civilized country. Protest and strike actions are often accompanied by unplanned negative occurrences, sometimes completely changing the purpose of the protest. When we come out to demonstrate peace, you can never be sure of the bad eggs around who might be willing to take advantage of the situation for their own gain; hence, a peaceful protest to fight for our human rights can become violent in a split second and even lead to the loss of lives.

Some of the strike and protest can shut down a state or country. Both #economic and #financial activities can be put to a halt. Thieves and looters make use of these opportunities to steal and break into people's shops, hence a perfectly plant protest can turn into what we never can imagine.

I can remember involving myself in a protest that happened in my community in the year 2020. It was my first experience with public demonstrations. The challenge then was that we were often treated poorly by the police officers, whom we believed were meant to protect us. I was living in a student area then, and very typical of a student location, there were cultists living among us.

While the police duty was to fish out those bad ones for sanctioning, they took advantage of that and began harassing almost everyone on campus and in the student area. They could raid hostels at will, picking up students just to implicate them and have them pay bribes to secure their release, turning this into an avenue to make money for themselves.

We all came out to protest against them when they came to raid that morning. Students chased after that, making them retaliate back with a gunshot. No sooner than 10 minutes, we had two people gunned down. It was as if I was watching magic. The few policemen who came in their van escaped as protesters were ready to burn them alive in their van. Of course, this was already planned out by the cultists living in the area since no sane human will want to burn a policeman alive regardless of what they have done.

Most people often prefer the jungle justice action for force offenders here because when cases like this get to the government or the court, justice is never served. Hence, when a drunken police officer kills a man or probably something happens that takes people lives, villagers prefer to handle the case and kill whosoever was involved in the crime.

We all know that in the Nigerian force system, there are very unqualified, inhumane officers working to extract money from people, abandoning the main purpose behind their jobs. We can never say what people can do to others unless they are armed with the power of those guns. No mental or psychological test has been conducted on their training ground or at service. Hence, not everyone is qualified to be an officer, as any mad officer can pull the trigger at any time.

By midday of that same day, we were all out on the street protesting against the forced people. My house is located just a stone's throw from the main road in that setting, and even if I were in the house, the noise and everything going on out there were hitting the roof of our house. Also, we lived close to a mobile police barracks and a bridge.
Soon as the government heard of what was going on, he sent some army personnel to the scene. They mounted a roadblock exactly on the bridge to disallow the students from passing through the town. They had the intention of carrying the protest to the government house in town.

The army officers were a bit more considerate and began to tell the students to go back, especially the people at the forefront of the demonstration. After about two hours of no progress, they started throwing tear gas at us. I ran in with my siblings and bolted the door, but that didn't stop the smoke from penetrating our rooms.

At this moment, all the cultist guys with guns started shooting, and that was how it turned out to be an uproar. I was scared to the bone. We had a diesel ⛽ station at the front of the house that could go aflame with the slightest gunshot. Our house wasn't safe, and neither were our lives.

I was highly affected that day and the extreme fear and shock led to sudden crisis. Coming down with acute pain that became an emergency. It was already 7pm in the evening with no shop open. My two siblings managed to sneak out of the house to a nurse who lives besides us. I needed a pentazocine injections immediately but upon reaching her house there was two gun shot directed in their position. My siblings ran into the woman's house and passed the night there behind closed door, they couldn't come back with the injection i needed. I had spent that very long night in pains. My other sis did her best to calm me down as any sudden shots reverberates in my bones causing more pain. This was my worst experience of a demonstration and ever since then I desist from engaging in protest as I often cannot stand the physical and emotional crisis that can arise.

I have watched other protest on TV( Especially the recent Kenya protest in African) and social media and still have some videos from the #ENDSARS protest on my device, they are grievous to watch and I can relate with how such peaceful protest can turn bloody, I really do feel emotional right now recounting the happenings of that day. More deadly demonstration can lead to close of schools hospitals and our working places and most likely a curfew to get the situation in control.

Images are Canva designed.

This is my DIY experience and submission for the daily #julyinleo prompt. I'm equally using this to invite all my friends to share with us their experiences link

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