by Odimegwu Onwumere | |
Published on: Aug 10, 2006 | |
Topic: | |
Type: Poetry | |
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=7755 | |
Weep not, Nigerian Child! The lands are arable, But people cannot plough? People have built houses Through suffering with modicum sums, Trained children through bitter-sweet And children had not tales: Than the tales of woes Weep not, Nigerian Child! Have you forgotten, or, Do you not know, that every African child has a story? Gory tales parents bequeathed..? To toil on the trail of hardship and hazard? Weep not, Nigerian Child! Children are not schooled, because Parents suffer malnutrition, (While stolen money is stashed Overseas by the Rulers), Parents had no strength to talk, While lasses and lads Took to loose-habits Weep not, Nigerian Child! A lot of things have happened, Then this childish company entered Like charade of tales On every kid’s lips: Power Humiliates the Confidence Of the Nation Weep not, Nigerian Child! They built dam to power stations Yet abodes are like the Goree Of slaves in a old West African Country Weep not, Nigerian Child! Who praised them, the same people? For few days of constant supply of power That they remembered the pedigree Of their ancestor based on cheating Weep not, Nigerian Child! This has made people apathetic chronically, Even when many citizens Have died because of heat? That they check their electronic devices, And people pay, even when the light They give is minimal? Weep not, Nigerian Child! Should the land that generates light Also generate noise From generating plants, even In a noisy nation? Weep not, Nigerian Child! There is ruse here, there is rest there! There is theft here, there is decorum there! Weep not, Nigerian Child! Now it’s the fad of the National ID card, What of the citizens' Death-row cards? (The ones who have died of hunger) What of the citizens Hospital cards? (The Destitute now christened HIV-positive) What of the citizens’ Illiterate children’s cards? Youths, all, traveling to overseas cards? There is cry here, there is laugh there! Weep not, Nigerian Child! « return. |