Last week, as if on cue, verydarkman the Nigerian activist who’s been calling out injustices louder than most dropped another video, putting the spotlight on something many won’t touch. He laid it out, plain and simple: while we’re quick to rally for global causes, when it comes to the crisis in our own backyard, we’re almost silent. It’s like a national case of selective outrage, and verydarkman isn’t having it.
Imagine this: young Nigerian men, locked up by Boko Haram, facing the unthinkable for 90 days straight. Week in, week out, the story stays the same kidnapped, silenced, deprived of their rights. Yet somehow, it’s easier for people here to raise foreign flags, to go viral on global hashtags, than to stand up for our own. It’s one thing to call out for justice worldwide, but when our own brothers are trapped in terror, why aren’t we bringing that same energy?
verydarkman has a point. You’ll see Nigerians protesting with American flags, rallying for causes that they don’t fully understand or aren’t personally touched by. Why? Because it looks good on social media? He doesn’t mince words he talks about misplaced priorities, our country’s strange obsession with foreign validation, and how we're often quick to jump on global trends rather than acknowledge our own.
It’s not that standing with international causes is wrong; verydarkman himself gets it. He’s out there advocating for justice on all fronts. But it’s about balance. We have pressing issues Boko Haram, kidnappings, violence that are ripping our communities apart, and yet, those hashtags are nowhere to be found in our own feeds. The loud silence on our crises is deafening, and if we don’t wake up, we’ll only see more of our people slipping into the shadows, unheard.