MY FATHER’S LAND: A LAND OF RELIGIOUS CRISIS, INJUSTICE AND CORRUPTION

JUNE 16, 2016 
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Barren men walk on fertile lands
There’s oil in the country but we spend hours at the stations
It is a land flowing with milk and honey but never enough for the son of the lands.
Yesterday a man who stole so much was asked to pay a fine
He joyously paid the fine and danced to Igbalode songs in church.
The effect of his massive plunder is a retired civil servant that can’t afford a bottle of wine
The civil servant who served with merit now feeds on crumbs and donations from the church.
Youths clamoring for jobs that are no where to be found
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Education is the key, but the system can’t provide a job that can go round.
Thinking of a way out they make do with weed, women and wine
Provides succor and makes them forget their worries thus no reason to whine.
The news just reported another bombblasttttt in the North as  Gboa Gboa resonates in the air
A suicide bomber just left in its wake, wanton destruction of lives and properties.
He called it a moral victory for his god and shouts Allah Akbar to our ears
The victims leaves the planet with only one unanswered question? What did we do this wrong to Nigeria!
Man must chop, every man to his own pot of Yams.
Each fashioning an escape route out of poverty
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Uncle Jude made use of his grandfather’s land and appeased the gods, if you accept I will offer Ezeudu my best Yam
Little did he know, Fulani herdsmen are no benevolent gods as they reign with terror and by dagger he was led to his untimely grave
Oyel is our own, na we get Nigeria
Niger delta avengers clamours,  reminding me of what Samuel wrote about trageria
The president wears his armour of war, have you not any honor for an Ex-general.
NDA goes ahead and calls the bluffs of the General…. Kaboom kaboom is the new anthem in the arena.
Billions budgeted to the statehouse medical facilities
But the president had to fly to the United Kingdom to treat an ear infection
Leaves me to wonder? Why budget billions when you know you won’t make use of the facilities
Worry not though! We must tackle corruption
I heard a man lost his wife to economic recession.
She didn’t die, but became a mistress to an Alhaji whose wealth defiled depression
Don’t blame me she explained to friends and family, hunger is not good for the body.
The poor man who was highly respected is now synonymous with words like useless and lazy body.
Ours is a nation where life serves you raw materials,
Not because you don’t deserve processed and manufactured goods
But the system cares more about who your father is? What tribe are your from? A muslim or christian?
So you watch with agony a man mess up a job you could have done without much ado
Things fall apart
And the center cannot hold
There indeed was a great nation
but only flourished under the watchful eyes of the colonial masters
That will be a story for another day
Till then let me drown my thoughts in this glass of Hollandia yoghurt.
Written by Kosoko Oyeyemi, Graduate of Pol Sciences, Unilag.