Let me get this straight: In Nigeria, 29 kids – literal teenagers between 14 and 17 – are looking at a potential death sentence. Their crime? Protesting. You know, like standing up and saying, “Hey, we can’t afford to eat! Maybe don’t destroy the economy?” I mean, what’s the message here? “Speak up, and we’ll make sure you can’t afford lunch or anything else for eternity?” Four of these kids collapsed from exhaustion in court before they could even enter a plea. I guess when you’re 14, jailed for three months without enough food, and facing charges usually reserved for James Bond villains, it takes a toll.
And the charges? Treason. Destruction of property. Public disturbance. And—my favorite—mutiny. Mutiny! These kids are just trying to live, not stage a remake of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” All they wanted was to protest the insane cost of living. Because here’s the thing: Nigeria’s economic policy right now is so bad that even Monopoly money has better value than their currency. This is a country that’s an oil giant. They should be rolling in wealth, right? But thanks to some good old-fashioned corruption, you have politicians pocketing cash while everyday people can barely make ends meet. We’re talking soaring inflation, food prices that make Whole Foods look like a bargain, and these officials act shocked that people are upset? Sorry, but if you want to charge teenagers with “disturbing the peace” because they’re desperate for a future where they can actually afford food, maybe consider that the real “disturbance” is a government out of touch with reality.
And don’t even get me started on the president’s wife, who enjoys taxpayer-funded luxuries for a job that technically doesn’t exist. Or the politicians, who earn the highest salaries in Africa while doctors—real, life-saving doctors—are on strike for making peanuts. Can you imagine telling a surgeon who just performed a 12-hour surgery, “Hey, thanks for saving lives, but have you thought about cutting back on groceries?” If Nigerian officials spent half as much time improving the economy as they do prosecuting teenagers, maybe their citizens could actually afford dinner. Just a thought!
Then there’s the real kicker: Bail for these kids is set at 10 million naira each—$5,900 in U.S. terms. For families already struggling to eat, that’s basically saying, “Guess you’d better start selling organs, because your kid’s going to need it if they ever want to come home.”
The response from human rights organizations has been swift, with Amnesty International calling the charges an outright misuse of the justice system. But let’s be real: If you’re sentencing teens to death for protesting, you’ve already made a grand entrance in the “Misusing Justice System” Olympics. You know things are bad when 29 kids are more scared of their own government than of the miserable conditions they’re protesting against.
So, Nigeria, here’s a thought: maybe the next time teenagers organize a protest about the cost of living, take it as a sign that you should be listening—not throwing them in jail. And maybe, just maybe, feeding them while they’re in detention. Because as much as you want to control the narrative, you can’t silence an entire generation that’s just trying to survive.
And if you wonder, the day before an election in the US, why this is so important, it’s because this is a lesson we should all bear in mind. What’s happening in Nigeria is not new to the face of the world’s democracies. In fact, it’s more common than not. This is what happens when over a long period of time, corruption is allowed to run rife and populist politics trample national ideals. This is what happens when people play games with politics and assume that it could never happen to them. Remember that as you head to the polls to go on record with your vote for the kind of country you want to live in.
