by Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo

We are NOT a nation of barbarians. We CAN follow due processes and procedures. We MUST fight together as ONE NATION to ensure that Justice as a whole is served, and as a PROCESS, is duly followed – ALWAYS.

They were my brothers…and yours.

Five days ago, I woke up to yet another unspeakable tragedy.

Four young men, all undergraduates, brimming with great dreams, unfulfilled aspirations and a promising future were killed.

To express the depth of my pain and shock at their murder is impossible. And understanding how events could have degenerated to this level is truthfully beyond me.

Lloyd, Ugo, Tekana and Chidiaka

Four promising young men whose lives were interwoven in one way or the other with yours and mine.

I mourn deeply with the families of these young men because this is OUR collective loss. They were our colleagues, our classmates, our neighbors, our brothers… our friends.

We are NOT a nation of barbarians. We CAN follow due processes and procedures. We MUST fight together as ONE NATION to ensure that Justice as a whole is served, and as a PROCESS, is duly followed – ALWAYS. We can only try to make meaning of this senseless tragedy by ensuring that this WILL not happen again, by affirming that the pursuit of justice does not in any way entitle any of us to the willful elimination of other people’s lives and by ensuring that we, as youths, do not destroy the honorable mantle placed on us as the future of our nation, by eliminating our present.

Aluu 4 and Mubi 40, Rest In Perfect Peace.

God Bless Nigeria.

————————-

Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo popularly known as D’banj, is a United Nations Youth Ambassador for Peace.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.