FEATURE ARTICLE

Augustine C. OhanweTuesday, January 20, 2015
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NIGERIA AND THE OMEN OF 2015 (POEM)

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nd now,
claims of circumstantial rumours
circulate the impending bloodbath and dissolution,
adding incendiary fuel to the political temperature
of the polity,
and evoking the Rwanda-type killing field,
a macabre oracular forecast from a cracked crystal ball
derived from a folk with demented mind.

And it comes at a time
when the lights of the nation
should brighten the coal dust- laden lane
blurring the vision
leading to the nation’s highway.

Now, the state is gripped with election fever
as the forecast offers no shades
to the heat of the day,
but leaves the electorates to mourn the barren future
of their sovereign state
as if the nation’s windstorm
with its cord of somber pitch
has interwoven with its anthem’s lyrics of hope.

Strange, to hold so dear
that election is a type of soldiering
that demands gun as an answer,
to a verdict from the poling booths
delivered by The People.
A shallow political philosophy
with no verb.

Let’s call the thought a negative syllogistic premise
upon which not to erect the hopes
aspirations of the citizens.

Have we not come of age,
divorced from the medieval mindset,
to recognize that religion and politics
are an explosive mix,
in a nation with diverse ethnic nationalities,
and turn our back to the triumph of might
over the rule of law,
and recall the glorious past that inspires the present?

And we need not scratch our heads
with stylish yawn
while the nation yearns to be appreciated,
its minerals harnessed,
its fertile soil ploughed,
and its bounty harvest
allowed to trickle down
to its groined eyed citizens.

January 20, 2015.

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