I won’t say…

By Mike Ekunno

VISA officer, ma,
I swear by my ancestors
I shall not remember
If you stamp this passport
And I japa
I swear, I won’t talk like Kemi.

I won’t remember this land was bad
Bad like the hunchback
Worse than the leper
Like milk spilled.
I won’t say the Police stole from me
Or that I awaited my turn
With the robbers at the neighbour’s flat.
I won’t say Nepa swindled me
With estimated billings
While not supplying a metre
I was ready to pay for.
I won’t say getting a voter’s card
Was warfare
As was the National ID card.
I won’t say I came tops
But lost the admission, job
Because I didn’t belong.
I won’t say I had twenty-five stops
On my homeward Christmas trip.
I won’t say how oxygen was lacking
In the ICU
Nor did Fire Service have water
When I dialled 199.
I won’t say how my diabetic friend
Died from taking fake insulin.
How a vehicle can go the opposite direction
On your lane
And go your direction
On the opposite lane.
I won’t say that manufacturers
Fake their own products
Watering down quality
But jerking up prices.
I won’t say that pensions
Don’t come after retirement
But officials have it to embezzle.
That in the last 30 years
A jerrican and a funnel
Have been tenants in my car booths
Whether it be the 504 Peugeot or the Toyota SUV.

I’d rather say
Ours was the paradise nation
Where the national grid never blinked
The president never sought overseas treatment
And bank customers withdrew their monies on request
National anthem didn’t do the see-saw of old and new
The same as the national currency
I’d rather say my nation was not a joke
LOL!