The Oil thieves of Thief Country
The waters laughed
The minnows were amused
The sands chuckled beneath their searching feet
They fumed and fumbled:
The Police blamed the Army
The Army cursed the Customs
The Customs nailed the Navy
The Navy neighed like a harried horse
Oh crude, crude, crude, this crude war
On our wondrous shores
A loaded tanker took to its heels
Vanishing fiam into the fish’s belly
A sticky truth, a viscous (de)vice
There is a salty ring in the voice
Of our lying chiefs.
Prince and prophet by day
A plundering pirate by night
The bunkerer has the key to the house of power
He knows the tricks of tribe and bribe:
Lift your loot and leap into wealth
The country is dumb, the Law is dead
This little ode to our faltering stride
And the vanishing magic of African Pride
- First published in 2004 under the title ‘The Amazing Story of MT African Pride, Oil Tanker’. Republished here with minor amendments in response to another incident of Nigeria’s recurring oil theft.