NOT mygeria, NOT ourgeria. (The wrongrights of this country)

       THE PLEDGE PLEASE

I pledge to Nigeria, my country

Hian!!! Pledge?? As in to promise???

I might as well kiss Nigeria on her cheek, because

I can’t keep to time talk more of a promise

 

 

To be faithful, loyal and honest

Faithful? I’ll give my hand as collateral

On this bet that Nigeria is going nowhere

Loyal?? I’ll be gone in the blink of an eye for just a day’s meal,

I WANT GREEN PASTURES!!!!

Honest??? The truth is far from my mouth, same way our leaders

Sing melodies of untruth, filled with lyrics and rhymes, giving us

One one second excitement

 

 

To serve Nigeria with all my strength,

Shey we’re all lazy Nigerian youths, where from shall this ‘strength’ come?

Is it from my monthly allowance, that disappears even without magic tricks?

Or the hunt for employment as a graduate, or when to Jesus be my Glory,

The job finally comes, I’m angry and starved from micro managing and the

Only enthusiasm in my life lies in the cries of this Nigeria, wey change no gree come to?

 

 

To defend her unity

Which unity?????

There’s no law that allows for normal men

Like you and I to carry guns, which means

I cannot defend myself from robbers and

Angry men who are hungry for the female anatomy

How then can I defend her unity??????

 

Uphold her honour and glory

They said uphold ohhh!!! (Laughter)

My hands are tired from carrying briefcase filled with case files

Standing on the roadside fluffing Taxis, how then can I UP-HOLD??

‘If the tin I dey hold real, no yawa nau’

But they want me to hold something that exists only in the imaginations of people.

 

 

So help me God

Help?? God???

I’m confused- the only time we go to church is Sunday

I mean, to feign happiness, with the recital ‘it is well’

As our watch word and to showcase the latest style.

The only time we’re on our knees, not in prayer but in grumbling,

Reminding him of that which he said and has not done

Forgetting the Christ like goal, letting religion become our escape-

We might as well be lazy Nigerian Christians.

 

2.   A hungry man is an angry man,

      Welcome to Nigeria where everyone is starved, placing us slightly

      No, not slightly, way above anger.

      Welcome to Nigeria where everyone lives in rage, tempers sparking like water on naked wire.

      Welcome to Nigeria where selfishness is watchword, and ‘each man for himself’ is the mantra

    And no I’m not talking about the self-love that is necessary, I’m talking about the unnecessary            placing of oneself above the other, I’m talking about how Lara wants every opportunity for herself,   telling nothing to Lola of these opportunities that would definitely be of benefit to her.

I’m talking about the so called ‘necessary’ evils that enables our conscience to live without guilt.

Welcome to Nigeria where everybody’s business is nobody’s business and your business is everybody’s business.

Welcome to Nigeria where we wear Mediocrity as a regalia, where pot holes as abnormal as they are have become the norm and where the songs against corruption are chanted for show, where there isn’t really any passion to make things right.

Welcome to Nigeria where love is lost and to steal is part of ‘the hustle’, where crimes are fired by hunger and where nothing has ever really changed.

Welcome to Nigeria where only sharp people survive, and sharpness equates your ability to dupe people.

Welcome to Nigeria where innocence is an insult as ‘eye must tear’ and one must ‘shine eye’ because this isn’t really a country it is struggle.

Welcome to Nigeria where “there are resources” as they say but we don’t see them and where our natural resources that we speak of are said to save face.

Welcome to Nigeria where half of the one percent who stay here and ‘make it’ have their hands dirty and the remaining half are actually honest people with honest work.

Where it is war; conscience against hunger, hunger against religion

Where nobody is actually a winner

And where this hustle must continue.