Is Nigeria, our country on collapse brink?
Under terror and in fear we now live
Babes can no longer suck in peace
Loud lullaby mothers are afraid to sing.
Mice shudder to squeak in the field
Birds, gutless, cannot tweet in high pitch
Wouldn’t fly up high for the world to see
Fishes dread swimming in the depth of sea.
Children no longer play unbothered far afield
Youths no longer travel to seek opportunities
Adults no longer go about as they please
Elders can’t walk the country fearless and free.
Ensconced in the cities are the terrified rich
Countryside they no longer travel to see
Trapped in villages are the poor and weak
Unprotected, but nowhere for them to flee.
Government is confused as we speak
It is deaf, dumb or pretending to be
Bandits kidnap, extort, steal and kill
Enveloping our humanity in endless grief.
For years, by terrorists we have been besieged
In a war we were told would end in a jiffy
But which now would take two decades to win
As declared by our war managers and specialists.
Our forests are taken over by foreign bandits.
But local allies uphold their right to kill in our midst
Mouthing rights and using democratic sophistry
To aid a demographic restructure of the country.
Nigeria, our country totters on a collapse brink
Under terror and in fear we now live
Babes can no longer suck in cuddled peace
Loud lullaby dotting mothers dare not sing.
•Ogunye is a lawyer and public affairs analyst.