Welcome Back To My Space

Hello beautiful people! It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you back to my blog. I appreciate you for being here.

In this post, I will be taking you on a journey with me down memory lane, as the topic of this post has brought back a lot of memories.

Strikes And Protests

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There are times when a seemingly peaceful inhabitants of a community (school, city, state, country) begin to express dissatisfaction because of issues they feel are not fair to them or someone they are supporting.

Many people take to the streets because they want to demand justice or to make their voice heard. They therefore organise rallies or stage protests in order to pass their message.

There had been times when such protests started peacefully and ended peacefully. At other times, they started out as peaceful protests and ended in violence. Still, some others were outrightly violent from start to finish.

Strikes And Protests That Affected Me

Growing up in my beautiful country, Nigeria, I have witnessed a lot of Strikes and Protests take place. As I continue below, I will mention the ones that affected me in one way or the other.

1. The 1993 June 12 Protests: I had just gained admission to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Kaduna State in March 2023. The annulled June 12 election results provoked a loud outcry all over the country and resulted in nationwide protests that were filled with violence. This led to shutting down of schools, as students were sent home. We spent some months at home before an interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan was sworn in later in the year.

2. ASUU Strike 1994: The Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a strike to demand for salary increase and payment of some denied benefits. This lasted for several months, until the Government led by the late General Sani Abacha agreed to negotiate with them and reach a compromise.

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1. Students' Protests 1995: In September 1995, The Chief Medical Director of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital was tortured and killed by some members of The Northern Elements Coalition who were supposed to be his subordinates. This led to protests by the students, and turned into a violent riot that was only brought under control by police intervention. Incidentally all students were directed to vacate the school premises, and academic activities were put on hold indefinitely... We were called back 12 months later to continue our studies.

Of course, 12 months at home made us older and wiser, and no one wanted any strike or protest of any kind to occur again till we graduated.

Note that the first two instances I gave affected all students of all Nigerian universities at the same time. The third incident was only peculiar to ABU Zaria, an thus we fell one year behind our mates in other schools, and graduated a year later than our mates who already lost a year.

1. 2011 Post Election Riots: We had just participated in the Presidential Elections that took place on Saturday, and by Monday morning we woke up to violent protests that rocked all the Northern States in the country. I will not say much here for security reasons... but my family and I survived only by God's mercy. Our house was surrounded, our neighbourhood was on fire...but I honestly can't say more than that.

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But that riot was what led to the beginning of our relocation from the Northern part of the country to the Southern part. Though the climax came in 2012, for those that remember the height of insurgency and all the bomb blasts. Again, another miraculous escape for me, hubby and children.

I was expecting my youngest child then, and I am glad I am alive to tell the story. We had to close down our business, couldn't leave with most of our belongings.

It hasn't been easy starting all over in a new environment, yet I am grateful for life. After all, where there is life,there is hope.

There had been other strikes that didn't really have a direct impact on me. Thank for reading my post to this point. It is written as my response to #julyinleo Day 7 prompt, as you can see in Julyinleo Day 7 prompt post by @leogrowth.

The images used in this post are free-to-use images from pixabay.com.

Thank you once again.