Nigeria

A land so blessed
But a nation without conscience
Nation founded on fraud of amalgamation
Run sanctimoniously by patriotic zealots
With glaring criminality and make-believe
Improved sycophants and laundered looters
Who love Nigeria more than we do?
Because they control her ministry of fraud
It is a case of, “if you are caught,”
Otherwise, you are a saint and
More in the eyes of your tribe.

Nation at a cancerous standstill
Disquieted by tribal brigades
Swung around by windmill of injustice
Whittled and maimed by wave of habitual corruption
Rubbished by whims of tribal jingoism
Nation hack-sawed and in shreds
Humiliated and despoiled by ghoulish
Elements besieged by yesterday’s dreams
These are yesterday’s men and spent
Suffering from delusions of grandeur
Who put square pegs in round holes
Temporizing men bereft of ideas
But with dream of new Nigeria.

Sick nation diseased by obsequiousness,
Absurdity, abnegation and degradation
Where wealth producing areas
Display grinding, gruelling poverty
Loud speaking neglect and bleak outlook
Receding nation where majority win
But minority wail
When they shout in protest
“They” shoot them down in reaction
Like it dawned on Saro Wiwa and martyrs
Then came the militants in fiendish rage…
As Nigeria bleeds, wails, gropes
O! Forlorn cause so marred…

© 2017 By Benedict Ahanonu