It has been five years since the streets of Lagos echoed with chants that felt like thunder. Five years since we raised flags, sang the national anthem through tears and believed, truly believed that we could change something. #EndSARS was not just a protest, it was a moment when young Nigerians found their voice. We were not fighting only police brutality. We were fighting exhaustion. The kind that comes from being young in a country that keeps demanding survival instead of offering hope.

I still remember how unity felt that week, how strangers protected each other, shared food and raised money for people they had never met. We became the country we wished we lived in. For a moment, Nigeria felt possible. But the night of October 20th came and everything shifted. The sound of gunshots at Lekki Toll Gate still lingers like a scar that refuses to fade. Some of us left the streets that night but the fight never really ended. It just changed shape, into conversations, documentaries, art, songs, policies and quiet defiance.

Five years later, we still talk about reform, still debate justice, still scroll past reminders that ache. Yet, something remains unbroken. The spirit that said ENOUGH. The courage that trended globally without a central leader. The belief that this country belongs to us too. #EndSARS was not just a protest. It was a mirror, showing us what we are capable of when we stand together and what happens when power fears that unity we came together to form. 

Five years later, we are still here. Still demanding better. Still believing, even when it hurts. Because hope, no matter how bruised, is the one thing they could not kill at the toll gate!