SNAPSONG 179

Nigeria: A Harvest of Horrors  (Part 2

Pepeye, nigba too m’owe

Ki lo be l’udo se?

Incompetence weds Corruption

     And a dark, unruly tragedy is born

As the Nation thrashes about

     Like a snake without a head

Lukurumusu wrested our Golden Crown

     And headed straight for the putrid mud

His mouth stuffed with the corpses

     Of assassinated oaths

Fierce and frequent was

     His quest for that Crown

He crawled, caviled cajoled, cried in countless bids

     Till a mongrel coalition rewarded his frenzy

Now up in the saddle

     And finding, so fast, the Crown

Too big for his middling head

     As an unraveling Nation rues its fatal choice

The Nation bleeds from all pores

     Old separatist animosities re-draw the map

As Luku retreats into a conclave of clan and cronies

     Merit and Good Judgement his prime disposable virtues

Clan over competence, tribe above truth

     Square pegs in round holes

And the Nation grabs the reverse gear

     And speeds, break-neck, into medieval darkness

———————

* Oh Duck, why your frantic craving for the river

When you knew you lacked the power to swim?

** For more on Meritocracy and Competence, see Nigeria and I: Getting Politics Right to Make Nigeria Work, by Ladipo Adamolekun

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