Goodbye, Murderland!
Preamble:
Two days ago, I posted here a link to a YouTube video. It was a spoken word performance I did in fulfilling my responsibilities in the second round to a writing contest. Unfortunately, YouTube prevented it from reaching the light of your retinas by declaring it unavailable. I uploaded using a second account — the same thing. All I had was a 60-second-long extract on Instagram. And so, I have decided to bypass YouTube’s gatekeeping and upload directly on Facebook. I really do hope you enjoy watching, while learning a lesson or two. Please, share with friends.
Transcript:
Father came from this land, and so did mom
They say it is my fatherland…
Yet! I want to be taken farther from this land
Where children are rendered fatherless,
And the tree of fatherhood is rendered barren
Like an Oaktree at autumn
Please take me further from this motherland
Where mothers are murdered and slaughtered for their daughters to watch
And, day by day, neighbours labour to bore holes for burial
Today,
Borno burns as a raging inferno
Jos is jostling her way through the crowd of brutality
Ikorodu crawls on a meadow under the shadows of badoo
And the Niger Delta saboteurs of peace are being dealt with by a Delta Force
Today,
Ministers of Attack have outnumbered those in the Ministry of Defence
And the beasts of Sambisa after being technically defeated over and over, are still technically killing our citizens
Why?
We claim to have the Prince of Peace and the religion of peace, yet we have no peace
We claim to have the Good Book and the Holy Book, yet there is no goodness in our holiness
Yes, we love our neighbours as ourselves – but only if they share the same names as ourselves
We care about one another only to the point where our tribal marks agree
…
But you see, only if there is security can we finally see the cure to our many adversities
Only if there is harmony can our businessmen be calm enough to earn money
And only if we stick together can we not be stuck separately
So let us learn – from the miseries that have gone, and the miseries that still have us by the gun
Learn we must from Burma, learn we must from Somalia,
And if we learn from nowhere else, let us learn from Rwanda
Where two decades ago, a million died in an unfortunate genocide
Let us with our 180 million voices
Court the concordant chords of accord
Let us sing a sonorous serenade of serenity
And beat the drums of peace; not of war
For in war, never is it about who is right
But who is left…
And no matter how many tribes we have in this compound called Nigeria
200? 300? Please add another hundred … there will always be room for peace
I crave the day everybody will truly belong to everybody
I crave the day Emeka will be a maker of food for Gambo
And Aremu will gladly remunerate Ifeanyi for personal favours
The day Garuba will proudly wear the same garb as Gabari
When Danladi, Amadi and Ajadi will walk
Hand-in-hand down the boulevard of goodwill
…
Countrymen, let that day be today
Because yesterday was already too late
It is either we say goodbye to this murderland
Or our motherland says goodbye to us
#CYPANEssay #Round2 #IStandForPeace #ForTheLoveOfCountry
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