Oh Nigeria

Oh Nigeria, my country of origin
Your story I tell with a sip of Orijin

Giant of Africa, mangrove evergreen
In your good and ugly, I’d always ever grin

Once wallowed in slavery, freedom thou sought
Then rose your heroes, and manfully they fought

Resilient they were, dogged in the struggle
Victorious they emerged, beating every hurdle

Once upon a time, you could clearly spell sovereign
And your rights, no longer subject to bargain

Ager cultura was bloom, your soil, richly arable
Your aged cultural heritage, I now sing in parables

Oil yield was good and economy was boom
Till the cankerworm came and ate it to doom

As smouldering embers, it burnt yet slowly
And the greed in us fuelled it to glory

But who’d bail the cat?
The cankerworm aim at?

Without fear or anguish
Gun the monster to vanquish

The wealthy unperturbed
The government, unresolved

The poor all drained of hope
All praying for grace to cope

And so I saw in a vision
While on a fictional mission

The cankerworm, a moving train it was
Trampling on your riches, and silently you watched

So I thought to myself, who can stand in its way?
To hinder the monster from making headway?

Then I saw also, your leaders on the train
Or maybe I couldn’t see well because of the rain

Again, I thought of standing on its rail
But then I realized ‘twas nothing but grail

I might get crushed, yet the train won’t stop
But only derail and smash the next shop

I raised my eyes, perhaps I could see the future
But all I could sight was a nation in suture

So I buried them back, looking at my feet
Closed my eyes and prayed for its defeat.

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