Adebowale Debo Adedayo, who many people know as Mr. Macaroni, is a Nigerian content creator and activist. He says he stopped being afraid after something big happened to him in 2021.
Let me tell you a story. In Nigeria, there was a sad day on October 20, 2020. It’s called the Lekki Tollgate event. Many young people were not happy about what happened and didn’t want the tollgate to open again. But the government wanted to open it.
In February 2021, Mr. Macaroni joined a protest to say, “No, don’t open the tollgate.” But the police didn’t like that, and they arrested him. The government didn’t want anyone to protest.
Mr. Macaroni talked about this in a chat with someone named Chude Jideonwo. He said being in jail changed him. He wasn’t scared anymore and wanted to help people who didn’t have anyone to help them.
While he was in jail, bad things happened to him. Police officers made him take off his clothes and treated him very badly. They even laughed about it and called him names.
He thought, “I have a big voice. I need to speak for people who can’t speak for themselves. How can I ask others to be brave if I am not brave?”
He said, “The fear in me is gone now. Everything changed after the officers hurt me and when I saw how much they didn’t like me. They were so angry.”
Mr. Macaroni made a video skit about this but said it didn’t show how bad it really was. He did it so people could see a little bit of what happened. He said, “They took all my clothes off. They hurt me and were happy about it. They said I was annoying some people.”