GUNS AND GRADUATIONS - by Princess Chronicles

He cocked the gun. Bullets scattered...Then the students started running.People scattered in different directions..the scream and kind of fear in their facesThere was anxiety, confusion and panic everywhere. And I remember thinking,How did we get here?How did asking to go back to school become this?How did students asking for their education to continue end up standing in front of military personnel with guns? We had been on strike for two months.Two months.And for two months, We stood at standstill.Classes and academic plans stopped. You wake up every morning and you don't know when the next thing will happen. You don't know when school will resume. You don't know when you will write your exams. You don't know when you will graduate.And if you're someone who doesn't do well with uncertainty, you know exactly how exhausting that kind of waiting can be. You start checking your phone repeatedly.Maybe there is an update. or this time, there is an answer.And there is nothing.Just another day. I know what it takes to get to the point where students decide to protest.I contested for a Students' Union executive position last year. I campaigned. I went through the whole process. I have been inside those conversations. I understand how student leadership works.I understand the meetings, the consultations, the attempts to communicate with the people involved. So I know that students don't just wake up one morning and decide,"Let's go outside and protest."There is usually a lot of waiting before the streets see you.There is a lot of talking.A lot of hoping that someone will listen.A lot of saying,"Let's give them time.""Let's wait a little longer.""Maybe something will be done."We waited.For two months. And eventually, students decided to express themselves.Peacefully.Because people's lives are not moving forward.A four-year course can become five years.Five can become six.And you are watching your mates graduate while you're still waiting for a system to decide when your own life can continue. Someone loses a scholarship.Someone misses a fellowship opportunity.Someone cannot take up a job because they haven't graduated.Someone's transcript is delayed.Someone's clearance is delayed.Someone has to postpone another plan.You keep postponing your life because the system keeps postponing you. And that is the part that breaks something inside me.As students we are already carrying enough.We're studying.We're trying to survive.We're trying to build skills.We're trying to find opportunities.We're trying to figure out what our lives will look like after university.And somehow, we also have to fight for the basic opportunity to finish the education we started. Fight.Always fighting.Fighting to be heard.Fighting for electricity.Fighting for opportunities.Fighting for jobs.Fighting for basic infrastructure.Fighting for education.Fighting for everything.It feels like you're permanently living in survival mode.Like if you relax for one second, something else will go wrong. And yesterday, I watched students run because military personnel were shooting at them during a protest.And honestly, sometimes I just tear up.The weight on my chest feels like it wants to burst open.Because in Nigeria, everything can become too much. You start thinking about the amount of time people are losing.The years, opportunities, energy, dreams.And you want to scream.Because these are people's lives.We have a future too.We have a life too.We shouldn't have to spend so much of it fighting a system that was supposed to help us.And then we wonder why young people are frustrated.Why wouldn't they be? You cannot continuously underfund education, allow institutions to remain dysfunctional, leave students stranded for months, and expect the system to magically produce the outcomes you want.You cannot underfund education and then complain that people do not value it.How?How do you expect students to keep believing in a system that keeps showing them that their time is disposable? And then seeing guns pointed at students?That part is difficult to process.Because these are students.Young people.People who came out because they wanted their education to continue.And somehow, the response was gunfire. Sometimes I sit and wonder what exactly we're supposed to do.Keep quiet?Wait?Wait for another month?Another year?Another generation?Because if you keep quiet and do nothing, it feels like nobody is coming to do anything for you either.So we keep fighting.And I'm tired of fighting.I'm tired of seeing young people constantly have to fight for things that should work.I'm tired of watching people lose pieces of their lives to systems they did not create.I'm tired of seeing Nigeria make everything unnecessarily difficult.And I don't know when Nigeria will become a better place.I don't know when our educational system will finally wake up. Some days, I look at everything happening and honestly, I don't think it is waking up anytime soon.But I still hope.Sadly, Hope is the only thing to hold on to.

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