It is good to see Dapo/D’Banj engage in this kind of advocacy to send a strong message to his fans and the masses that the murder of the four (4) Port Harcourt students is unacceptable in a civil society. We have a long way to go and there is a much needed reawakening that needs to happen in Nigeria. I understand the University of Port Harcourt has since been shut down and some students have and/are rioting in the village/city where the murder occurred. There is a need to restore order and peace to that community ASAP so they may begin the healing process. I hope this happens immediately.
Once upon a time, in the USA, slavery existed and lynching of black people was the order of the day. America and Americans changed their history. I believe that Nigerians have the same grit and will power to change their history. I believe change is coming and will come. . . as difficult, depressing and many times hopeless things may look about the country.
Dapo, it is truly nice to see you take a stance on this, it is a big departure from the #OccupyNigeria situation. I salute you. Folks, as I indicated before, my legal colleagues, in Nigeria, should rise and take on the responsibility of educating the poor and all Nigerians about the legal justice system, even as the Nigerian Bar Association works to restore credibility to its organization and in the legal justice system at large.
Folks, read D’Banj’s statement below.
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
D’banj
UN Youth Ambassador for Peace