20/10/20: In Remembrance

My dear dear Nigeria

Oh, how much I love you 

My heart you stole with your beautiful greenery  

My mind you captured with your limitless potentials 

Oh, how I want to stay and love you with both my words and deeds 

To help you grow as I grow 

To help you flourish as much as I can 

To reintroduce you to the world of countries as  

the greatest and most beautiful of all 

But the greed in the heart of people, 

The heart of people I trusted to deliver you safe in my hands while I mature 

 to be able to fulfil my promises and wishes for you in full capacity, holds you captive. 

They steal from you 

They cut down the endless possibilities we can achieve together with their selfish heart and lying tongues. 

They strip you of your beauty in every sense to fund their luxurious lifestyle and feed their pot bellies 

While we pay them with our hard-earned gold and diamonds just for them to sleep in the green and red chambers of assembly instead of advocating for a change. 

I weep for you my fair one, my heart screams out for you. 

 

We suffer in silence; we are tough people right we say 

We adapt while still anticipating for a new dawn for you 

Meanwhile, Our silence breeds fear, corruption, insecurity, hunger and poverty 

Soon, we start to murmur our complaints 

I can’t hear you; we can’t hear you they tell us from their high seats and gated homes 

We go to the seats within our reach, the local chairs 

Unfortunately, they are almost as powerless as we are

Their help like a drop in an endless ocean. 

 

You will think our problems end there

But you see, the people sworn to protect us

Our friends, they say, also turn against us. 

Killing countless innocent people as though every day, an Ileya celebration 

We can’t even tell if they are the product of our silence, the failed system or they are simply evil 

Or maybe they are the product of it all  

Our pain and suffering threshold exceeded 

We shout out, we march out and pray like never before 

To be heard by all means possible 

If they don’t hear us, at least God would. 

Even at the top of our voice, and worn out soles and dried out tears 

They are still deaf to our cries 

Blind to our needs 

We say no NEPA, they say take PHCN and still no light 

We say ENDSARS, they say take SWAT and still police brutality is the order of the day 

 

Like the widow who persisted in the court of the judge 

For 12 days we continued under the rain and scorching sun 

With passion for a change like never before 

We were no longer the youths behind their phones 

We were working for and walking to the change we desired 

 

Our persistence like needles, started to prick 

Then they started to shift in their overly comfortable chairs 

They started to react 

They told us they were listening, 

They have heard our cries and pleas 

But yet nothing changed! 

We fell for it for 4 years over and kept quiet 

But this time around, we were not having it 

We wanted better, because we deserved better 

They realized we knew better and talking wasn’t going to keep us silent 

And instead of starting with our 5 of 5 

They resulted to violence 

Using our very own people against us 

People who don't know better 

A product of their incompetence and our continual silence 

Plagued with ignorance and illiteracy from the failed system 

These persons they bought with a mere thousand naira 

To wreak havoc in our peaceful protest 

Shots fired, screams of anguish permeating the air

Fear, flight, disappointment, anger and pain

Lives lost, lies told, promises made

History made

Battered but not broken 

Disrupted but still united 

Surely, one day we will break through!

20-10-20

We will not forget

                                                                                                                    Ifedolapo