Farida O. Lanre - Ipinmisho: Self Reflection




Picking one word to describe this experience has been almost as difficult as the experience itself, because the whole experience has taught and shown me things I knew and didn’t know in completely different ways, I think the perfect word for this experience is that it was an ‘Edifying’ one.
 This experience has challenged me in so many ways especially physically and emotionally, it has been extremely difficult and I will try to explain how.
Most times getting up as early as the time I usually have to, to go to court is to do something pleasurable for myself, however since the beginning of this project I have had to wake up really early and go through a lot of stressful procedures (the typical Nigerian way) that sometimes yield zero positive results. I have had to go to places I never thought of going to, speak to the most unpleasant people and still at the end of the day get nothing done because of how slow and uncooperative the Nigerian system is. This has taken a toll on me physically, but it still has not discouraged me.
Personally, I feel like even if this experience does not challenge anyone physically, it will emotionally, because of the situation the inmates are in and how the Nigerian system does not seem to care, in turn making it seem like the inmates will be in there for a long time. The stories that have gotten people in there, the lack of hope, a lot of things just challenge you emotionally and makes you ask yourself a bunch of questions without expecting any answers.
As much as I have learnt a lot of things participating in this project, I am unsatisfied and unhappy. I usually hear a lot of people lament about the Nigerian government and sometimes, I have a thing or two to chip in, but that is usually just me speaking vaguely, or speaking based on something I heard or saw off the internet, however this project has given me a firsthand experience of how much of a mess our government is and it is very pitiful.

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