AFRICA! OH AFRICA! WAKE UP

129 died in the Paris attack, a very sad thing indeed, the world is mourning, over 4 million people took to the streets of Paris in a solidarity march, world leaders were calling in and flying in to express their distaste and displeasure towards such a barbaric act, and the aftermath of this event continues to dominate international headlines.

Nigeria was not left out in the solidarity march, a good example is the case of a lot of people changing their profile picture to French flag hue stripes backdrop profile pictures.

But thousands of miles away, another crisis went largely ignored. Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria committed a massacre of unbelievable proportions in Borno State. Over the period of a few days, the terrorist group killed more than 2,000 people in the town of Baga, as well as 16 neighboring towns and villages, burning entire communities to the ground. Amnesty International described it as the terror group's "deadliest massacre" to date, and the Guardian reports that local defense groups said they gave up counting the bodies left lying on the streets.

The saddest part of this all is, i don't see Nigerians changing their profile picture to Nigerian flag hue stripe background profile pictures. I don't see any protest on the street in solidarity to our death brothers. i don't see any presidents or world leader calling in or talking about it, not to talk of flying in. 

A very interesting interview on CNN that i just watched, a certain General, James Spider Marks said the most unbelievable thing, "What is happening in Nigeria is not a priority. BLACK WEST AFRICA IS NOT A PRIORITY". How long will Nigerians and indeed Africans continue to slumber? For how long do we continue to embody such graceful bodies and yet have the mind of a slave, like a world second class citizen? It is sad enough that the world doesn't care, but the disease to belong and identify ourselves with events that are in the words of Gen. James, "regionally not our concern", to the point that we carry other people's crosses and forget to carry ours. Don't get me wrong, my heart is sad for the beautiful people of France, why would I not be? But my heart bleeds for a people that have forgotten who they are.

Shame on the world, but more shame on us Nigeria. Weep not for others, but for yourselves and your Children.