DEFLOWERED DIGNITARY

Nigeria, once our eye-popping virgin
Beautiful enough to have lured the Crowns of the great West
But now, even her children call her barren
Strangers fondle recklessly her drooping breasts
And her scantiness now mocked by her younger womb-mates

Her rapists are driven by greater forces than testosterone
Armed with more than the expandable Ghana-must-gos
She’s plundered by such greed that can scorch the sun;
By beings with consciences sedated to an overdose.
Worse still, her children scream mutely, and are pacified by hopelessness

True waste is in shredding the recyclable with the disposable
It’s in discarding both the unused and misused
But why does the colorless skin seek for what we have called deplorable?
Could there be fat wealth in our disguised virtues?
Maybe our mind’s eyes are deserving of optical aids!

Strengthen your gaze on this abused of ours
She would discard her limp, if we stare in hope
What’s left might be feeble yet fertile, thin yet a tower
But wouldn’t she glitter if she’s bathed with our compassion’s soap.
Imagine her beauty then! I dare your minds, imagine!!


Who needs crutches more than the frail at feet?
Who needs oxygen far more than the unconscious?
What sane mother longs for her son’s defeat?
What’s clear is that Nigeria needs all of us,
A bit more than hell needs a pail of chilled water.