Daily, we wake up to bright furnaces.
Hell has again been let loose.
The fires of discord and hate.
Of ethnicity and of nepotism.
The fires of illiteracy cum poverty!
The very fires emblazed
By leaders who turn rulers after elections!
The very men we trust with our commonwealth.
The very ones who lead us in arms way by their words and the words they say not but live!
The monopolists of Education, the tree of enlightenment and all riches.
The Capitalists,daily cashing out thanks to the poverty we are lured into.
By the humane servants during election periods reeling out achievements of their past office which we see not and making promises -unrealisable prophecies, of their achievements in their next office.
The very ones who promise us electricity and the only lights we get are gas-flares,the blazes of bomb blasts and the lights of the ammunition of the unknown gunmen and herdsmen.
The ones who promise to take us out of poverty
But reduce the jobs in circulation.
They promise to raise the value of our Naira against the dollar but for four years we experience draconian economic mis-planning.
We were promised a society with freedom of religion; instead we hear that the Presidential chapel was shut down and to do the explaining away;is none other than our Pastor-Prof.
We anticipate the Standard education you promised while our universities went on yet another strike and more is looming.
We anticipate justice while injustice was successfully plotted against the Chief Justice!
We anticipate the corruption-free country the Corruption Fighter-General spoke about, while
Whistles were blown against a Governor demanding kickbacks from contracts; and to give us an update on the issue is our commander in chief,the slayer of the unjust,the defender of the tribes and the fighter of corruption. Now we hear is that the Governor has been reelected.
We anticipate the refineries Pastor-Prof prophesied,our amens louder all the way up to the heavens like it was a divine promise.
How Long shall we continue like this?
Like the tropical Sun of Africa is not enough hurt to our black-burnt skin,Hell now has an annex in our country!
How long will I endure this heat and treat my burns only to be discharged back into the fire?
And in the midst of the ruins our “Ogas at the top” have safely kept their children in the lands of snow,grooming them to grow into their shoes.
The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,the trans-generational financial boundary.
How long shall we die in their wars?
The battle of the Umbrella and the Broom,
The battle of either against the “End of the year parties”
Our forebears mercilessly roasted for the vultures to feed on
We are on the verge of a national extinction
The race is to save the next generation
– our children and they after…
How long shall I say God bless the giant of Africa and laugh bitterly at the paucity of a prayer turned wish!
-The AdeDamola.
