#EndSARS: Five Years After 20-10-20, Orok Duke Pens Elegy For Fallen Heroes

By Missang AKPET

As Nigeria Marked another anniversary of the #EndSARS protest of October 20, 2020, tributes have continued to pour in for Nigerian youths, especially Generation Z, who raised their voices against police brutality and demanded a better country.

In a tribute poem titled _"#EndSARS: 20-10-20 (for #GenerationZ)"Rt. Hon. Orok Otu Duke, reflected on the pains, losses and lessons of the historic protest that shook the nation.

Duke noted that while the protest was born out of genuine dissent, it came with heavy costs. According to him, many families were thrown into pain as means of livelihood went up in flames, travellers were stranded on blocked roads, and criminal elements hijacked the genuine struggle.

Duke, however, said the youth have now earned a pedestal and a microphone to be heard across the country, urging them to move from the streets to places of leadership and institutional engagement.

Hecalled on them not to remain trapped in the memory of that moment forever, but to allow healing and focus on nation building.

THE POEM

#EndSARS: 20-10-20 (for #GenerationZ)

Many families are in pains today because their 

Means ofivelihood are in flames.

Many travellers have strayed and been stranded on the roads,

Because we blocked and inhabited the roads.

Many have been killed by vagrant

And migrant

Deviants:

Thus distorting,

Dislocating,

Dissing

And disparaging

Genuine dissention,

With infernal intentions

You now have the microphone,

Be our megaphone,

Melt the quagmire,

Acquire 

The pedestal,

In places of your natal.

You need to be heard,

Go on and beard

The lion in his den.

Then,

Perspire

And expire,

For your respite

And moment have come.

When a mighty animal falls,

Different sizes and types of knives 

Are bound to come to town,

To join the feast -

Different beasts abound

And the beat goes on.

When once you give up the boundary,

It will never hold the same again.

You cannot stay trapped

In one moment forever;

Let memory loosen its grip.

He who must control the choir,

Must focus

On the choristers

And blend his magnum opus,

But,with his back,

Always turned to the audience.

Orok Otu Duke

Abuja