Nigeria 🇳🇬

A lot has happened to you since 62
You're a year older, and still most of your kin hates you
They forget how they may not exist without you
Yes! You are on the brink of hell,
To say your name has been marred with gutter
An act from most of your children

You have suffered the injustices of men
We hear cries of your children in the North
Thousands of hooligans in the South-West
There is so much bad blood in the East
The Middle Belt doesn't know her role or who to follow

Your name has been berated all over the world
Your currency, at the brink of death with the stock market
Stolen funds for those who can grasp it
Banditry for the suffering Masses
Illegal mining, yet no one is talking about it

You have suffered bickerings from people who want to Japa
A fluctuating forex makes it no easier
They blame you for their atrocious behaviour
They sometimes forget how fertile you are.

Nigeria!
From East-West and North-South, you have suffered injustices
For decades, you have been subject to malicious governance
Battling all levels of inflation, subjecting your people to abject poverty
Yet the rich get richer, and the poor? More Jejune if you ask.

At 63, I want to fight. For your children and kinship
Fight for your soil and regain your strength
Battle with these injustices and insecurity
Bring down inflation and take back your crown
Debunk all forms of evil committed with your name
And fight for a better 64.

Nigeria is great, Nigeria will be great
Nigeria is our father's land.
Happy Independence Day, Nigeria 🇳🇬

Bellah.

I held tight my belongings
afraid of everything and everyone
I had this sense of not knowing
where I'm from and where I should go

everything passed by so quickly
people running and screaming
I just sat quietly staring
at the tiffany blue coloured floor

I smelled the pollution
my nose hurting while breathing
this must be what they mean when they say
"it's hard living in the big city”

People need people.
Animals need animals.
But sometimes, we need each other.
And that's Okay.
Because no matter how independent you are,
Someday, we're all going to need
somebody to lean on.

Just a young sapling
With an unhindered view,
It chose its position
And then grew where it grew.

Just a singular tree,
Not in a forest, copse or wood,
Preferring its own company,
It stood where it stood.

A tree in its infancy
Coping with life’s highs and lows,
It takes on all challenges
And it grows where it grows.

Standing resolutely alone,
An independent tree,
This somehow reminds,
Reminds me of me.

If I were the principle of my school
I would bring some changes to the rules
A school where every child can dare
To think freely and be their true selves

I would give the a problem to solve
By themselves.A chance to evolve
To grow., with all the senses involved

I don't want parrots belching memorized words
Students aren't sheep, teachers aren't shepherds
I would want them to live in an open world
Where they can question everything under the Sun

Bookish knowledge is not all
There's more to life than Newton's laws
We are artists, us human not robots
Scientist, philosophers, why should we be restricted to some selected thoughts

I would want basic life skills
To be taught to every pupil
So that when they leave these gates
They aren't left confused and dazed

We must teach them empathy
Theory gives way to practicality
So that when they got no help
They can think for themselves

Don't sacrifice the individual
At the altar of peer-pressure
These would be my principles
If I were my school's principal.