Poem: “The Real Subsidisers” by Níyì Ọ̀súndáre
NIGERIAN SUBSIDY AND THE REAL SUBSIDISERS
Here, in plain, unsubsidized language
Are the basic facts
About the fabled Nigerian “subsidy”
Whose endless lies have besieged our ears
We the Nigerian people subsidize
The rampant CORRUPTION of our rulers
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Their fatal incompetence and prodigal greed
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Those government budgets and their recurrent plunder
Those capital expenditures which total up
To the execution of our commonweal
We the Nigerian people subsidize
The Honorables who pad the budget
With frightening figures for constituency projects
Which never veer beyond their bank accounts
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Those countless security votes
Which have only made our lives in-secure
And the countless fortunes of Their Ex-cellencies
We the Nigerian people subsidize
That two-million-dollar bra* of our Oil Minister
That billion-naira budget for State House snacks
The mounting misery which consumes our ranks
* * *
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Our school-less children, foodless stomachs
Death-trap roads, crowded horse-spittles
Murderous bandits and their blatant terror
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Moribund refineries and their mortifying debts
Their viscous load no less crude than
The brains of those who control our fate
We the Nigerian people subsidize
The endless tales about humongous ‘landing costs’
Sponsored raids by untouchable smugglers
In this land where Thief is Chief and Law is lame
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Oil-Block magnates from the Power-Block mafia
Who tip the scales from their golden bedrooms
And swim and splurge in unearned preferment
We the Nigerian people subsidize
The crimes of rulers who think less
Care less, love less, sin more; from whose
Thunderous prayers minarets tremble and spires fall
We the Nigerian people subsidize
The rampant CORRUPTION of our rulers
We the Nigerian people subsidize
Their fatal incompetence and prodigal greed
————————–
*Reference to Nigeria’s erstwhile Petroleum Minister whose bra was allegedly priced at more than 2 million naira. And that was just one minor item among her numerous property and possessions whose value ran into billions of naira.
