“HOW DO WE GET TO THIS POINT”

We are one nation
endowed with the best
of human capacity in
all endeavors of life

Dotted over the globe
in every nation and
every sphere of life
there’s one of us excelling

We made marks in sporting meet
In technology and in literature thoroughfare;
a colossus galaxy breaking through a thick cloud
we have bulldozed and broken through
barriers to every top meet

It is a pride to see
the Green and White
fluttering in major international
meet; a sign of once proud nation

It beats one to imagine then
how we got ourselves goaded
into a retrogressive garbage lane
sliding into jagged abyss

Where are the professors in our ivory towers?
Where are the learned friends of the bar?
Where are the moguls and the clergies?
in their flamboyant arrays
now that we need a lubricating
breath of freshness

How did we get to this point?
when we lay in bed sleeplessly
at night staring at the starry sky
Not knowing when a jackboot would
come bursting into your abode

Our cries are muted within our heart
heaving in grief; too fearful to express
else you will be mistaken for treasonable felon
How did we get to this point in Nigeria