What you have to understand about Nigerians is that we are short term thinkers & operators. (Practically anyone who has freelanced for long can tell you more about this from work experiences.) We GENUINELY believe a 10year journey can be finished in 6months. Genuinely. #EndSARS

It stems from so many cultural malfunctions that have programmed that stern belief into us. Culture of impatience, messiah and miracle culture, anti-critical culture, bombardment of mediocrity, etc, etc, etc, alongside shitty economic conditions which add fuel to all the fires.

I cannot overstress how genuine, how hardwired this belief is.

Its most devastating impacts are that it is a silent killer and a self-perpetuating monster. The damage of failing to act for the long term causes you to continue to fail to act for the long term. Lethal loop.

You spend 3yrs pursuing a 6month version of a 5yr journey. You get to the 3rd year and realize you screwed up, there is no shortcut. you should have been pursuing the 5yr path all along. Now you are behind by 8yrs—the original 5 + the wasted 3.

Rather than turn back you decide to look for the 1yr version of the 8yr journey. Again you eventually realize it doesn't exist & now you're behind by 9. But like the gambler keeps rolling the dice, you keep taking a chance on the magical shortcut you are SURE is hiding somewhere.

And so the road keeps getting longer until you have to psyche yourself into believing the original 5yr journey was never worth it in the first place. This psyching of the self is the mental trap of mediocrity we've been battling for generations. The "Is okay like that" mentality.

Part of what has happened with #EndSARS , particularly after yesterday, is a mass shocking realization of the long journey ahead. It was a reality check on a scale I'm pretty certain my generation has never experienced before. Some things simply take time.

This is a jolt of shock to a consciousness that has been nurtured on the instant gratification of short term thinking and operations. But it has been absolutely exciting to see so many people waking up to the reality of the long journey ahead!

2023 is far but if you REALLY look at the work to be done you realize 2023 is actually not enough time? And, even more importantly, 2023 is not some magical, everything-will-now-be-perfect date. The journey is long. The battle is ever day. Darkness does not rest so how can light?

Na wa for these typos, sha.