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We live in a world today where our voices are not heard or should I say a place where our opinions don't matter.
I hope we don't get to that point where we have to choose between our Right to Freedom of speech and our Right to Privacy.
During the black lives matter protest, where black people were killed for absolutely doing nothing and just living, if they didn't have the Right to freedom of speech, I believe the killings would have been worse. Though the killing and Racism haven't stopped, because of the protest our voices were heard. The truth is if you don't talk nobody would know how you feel, or what you're going through. I still believe it's better to say your truth than die in silence.
Another example was during the EndSars protest here in Nigeria, it was a time when people were tired and fed up and said enough is enough I can't take this anymore and decided to stand up for themselves.
Honestly, we don't have a right to privacy here in Nigeria, a policeman can just stop you on the road and ask you to unlock your phone, ask for your bag also, and just start embarrassing you. It's something we see almost every time.
During the EndSars protest some years ago, I can still remember that incident very clearly. I was on my way to work on that beautiful Monday morning, I entered a keke (tricycle ) and on my way to work some NDLEA Officials stopped my tricycle and asked the guy sitting close to me to get down, and started searching him for no reason at all. I was just patiently waiting so they would finish searching him and let our tricycle pass. After they finished searching him, one of the members of the NDLEA said he saw drugs in the guy's pocket.
I saw everything that happened because they were the ones who owned the drugs, not him. The first guy searched him and put drugs in his pocket saying he couldn't find anything and asked his colleague to search him. After searching him, he brought out the drugs and said the guy had some explanation to do or he could pay 200k to bail himself from going to cell, just right in front of me. The guy cried bitterly, and couldn't say a thing.
I didn't say anything because it wasn't my problem and yeah they were holding guns. After they finished searching him, they asked me to come down from the tricycle and said they wanted to search my bag and I should hand it over to them. I Said No!! I won't be giving them my bag, I told them I would bring out everything from my bag myself and they persisted and held their gun up for me. I was still on my ground and they finally said I should bring out everything myself. ( I was scared to death and I was shaking seriously. but I knew my office was like 6 blocks away and we had some Army officials working there too, so if they tried laying their hands on me it would've been something else.) I held onto my Right to be able to speak up for myself, and they heard my voice. In the end, your privacy doesn't matter, but your voice does sometimes.
Let's say I don't have an option and have no choice but to choose between both, I would rather have my Right to Freedom of speech than my Right to Privacy.
I feel if you don't have the right to freedom of speech, how can you protect your privacy? How can you say NO when someone wants to search your purse or check your phone?
We would all die in silence if we can't say what's bothering us, or can't say No to the laws we feel are unfair. Everyone deserves the right to say yes or No and also stand up for themselves.
I can't imagine not being able to express myself, I would die of depression.
Sometimes when we speak up and share our thoughts and feelings with others, it makes us feel heard, seen, understood, and loved.
We feel important when our views,opinions and voices are heard and that's what everyone wants. TO MATTER
Thanks for Reading❤
