The Nigeria I see



In a world where boys and girls are meant to live as their truest selves, is it really possible?

The roots that haven't been uprooted are still eating and destroying the flowers that are yet to sprout and bloom.

The Nigeria I see? I'm asked

And yes, I see something big and yet so small.
I see a country with great possibilities and a contrasting end.

Our children are hungry.
Their hearts are squeezed and sealed with black bile.
Their dreams are shattered like broken glass.
Even when they try to dream again, the glass cut through their hands.
Showers of blood that blinds the eyes.
They are unable to see again,
To dream and To hope.

The rivers bleed each day,
They cry for their country.

A country with less opportunities for women, A country where Men are left to suffer because a man is not supposed to show  emotions. He's meant to pay the bills, He's meant to work whilst the woman remain at home and demand of the money. "Be a man" they say and i would feel sorry yet a again for a country i call home because the sentence has so many unsaid said in it.

I look each day and i weep.
We keep quiet and tuck it in.
A woman is not supposed to raise her voice, a woman is not supposed to dream.
She's meant to be prim and proper and wait for a prince charming that'd save her.

We are stumbled upon and crushed to the ground until we're unable to move again.

'Money' They say,
Is the root of all evil
But, is it something to be shun upon?
Our leaders with myopic vision,
Lead by envy, selfishness and greed.

Their god,
Money which they praise,
Can it be seen as evil?
They drink it each day and get high on it.
They never get suffocated but yet they drown in it.
Answer me!
Do they ever see it as evil?

When they get high, swim and drown.
Do they remember the hospitals?
Schools?
Roads?
The lives and rights of the citizens?

Children die each day,
They are hungry.
They can't go to school.
They don't even think of their future.
But how would they,
They are hungry!
Their stomachs are empty!

Human rights?
But we don't get to voice our opinions.
Our lips are held tight,
By needles sharper than ten daggers.
We can't even live.
What do you call it?
A rightful death and rightless life?

But yet again,
I see a country rising above storms,
Wonderful fruits that would sprout out,
Like the cherry blossoms.
The magnitude of the early morning sun,
It still shines bright on our youths.

I would like to see what it becomes.
I don't want a myopic vision,
Where we continue to suffer.
I am farsighted.

I see a glorious nation,
One that we can rise to fame.
Where the rivers no longer bleed.
The children are no longer hungry.
Women and men become their truest selves.
Leaders no longer eat money.
A country where,
We can dream,
Have hope,
And a passion of enormous flames.

Then, we will be happy,
Call our country beautiful
And have a place we call home.

***
I thought to share this here. I wrote it in 2022 for a magazine on the Theme: The Nigeria i see. I edited it a little. Let me know, are you Nigerian, How do you see Nigeria? I don't if i should consider it a poem or an article or just an essay. I guess you can consider it to be all of those things. 






Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2024 at 3:10 PM

    Nigeria will turn out great, Amen 🙏🏾

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jane KingsleyJanuary 5, 2024 at 5:09 PM

    I am Nigerian and I strongly agree with you. Hopefully our country gets better with the aid of youths with great minds💕

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2024 at 7:15 PM

    It will not get better, stop dreaming

    ReplyDelete

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