Poetry

AFP photo

By

Ndifreke George

The Constituted Authority

They have rumpled our country

Like a stifled naira note stretched in bribe

In the fists of stingy mallams

Into a lousy agbada’s pocket

Steered by the east wind

Like sporadic bullets of insecticide

Fired against the Anopheles species in the Creek

They have raped this country

Of her pride and dignity

And before the entire world

Condemn her to be a whore

Yet they had sipped her nutrients

Through the dicey lumbar puncturing

Leaving it all bare bone

They have turned the nation against itself

With lopsided justice and policies

Glorying in generational ostentation

At the expense of the voiceless and choiceless majority

And without the least prick of conscience nag

Give more cajoling speeches after the revered national anthem

Clothed in shamelessness and high-class immunity

They have tuned the law to the tone of their voices

Directed the budget to solve their encumbrances

Funnel to their storehouses the nation’s resources

And spray on the masses only the carcasses

Yet they are so free and of course ever-acquitted

And boldly they could brag of who they are

The Constituted Authority!

I Cried

When Human Right called me

In sobering whispers

Begging for an advocate

To bail itself from injustice

I cried!

When justice was taken away in cuffs

Condemned by the corruptible judge

Who slammed the gavel

To the tune of banknotes

I cried!

When the budget was padded

With greed and cupidity

And the bullion vans

Sped into glittering estates

I cried!

When election was rigged

And consciences were bribed

To exchange votes for money

Risking the future unseen

I cried!

When democracy was raped

By heartless autocrats

And the massive’s voices

Sued for rebellion and violent

I cried!

Ndifreke George