"Tell the government" by Awoniyi Rasheed

I

Tonight, our children will not dance beneath the moon,

Nor will our women fall for the tales of our lustful men

Tonight, like the second coming of our Messiah,

We all gather for the repeated sermon of hunger.

II

Tell the government, Aisha is still missing

Tell them of our lands, now engulfed

With the bodies of our kinsmen and

Our refineries now turned brothels by

Greedy westerners,

Of how insecurity has become a tyrant

Claiming our peace.

III

Do you not prepare your manifestoes

In our Favour?

Have you not sworn to abide by the rules

Of fairness?

Yet in your holy attires, you loot our income,

While with propagandas, you appraise your white

elephant projects.

IV

Gallantly, you proclaim to be the giant of Africa

But within our territory, soar religious and ethnic wars

And our economy, a beggar who with shame, feeds

from the pit of foreign aids.

V

Tell the government we have risen from

Our slumbers,

Not to be the leaders of our tomorrow but of today.

For only a fool sees the fury of a masquerade, yet

jumps at him to

Dance the footings of Bata...

Awoniyi Rasheed is a 400-level student of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He is a lover of all genres of literature, especially poetry. He hails from Isara Remo Local Government in Ogun state, Nigeria.