Ode to the Sahara
From the dry and dusty desert
Thine father did vow to rule to the sea
And such as his greedy eyes would see
He did vow to move to the desert
When you should brighten up your land
Using the glorious sunlight of education
You rather used religious indoctrination
To build monsters to defend your land
Into daredevil Dragons thine monsters have metamorphosed
Rubbing raw pepper in your greedy eyes
Forcing their way through your women's thighs
Truly, thine calamity is self imposed.
About this poem
The poem "Ode to the Sahara" speaks to the leaders of Northern Nigeria pointing out the root cause of the incessant rise in banditry, kidnapping, insurgency etc which has been ravaging the Northern region of Nigeria for a period now. The poet makes it clear that religious indoctrination and impoverishment of the people which the Northerners gave priority attention instead of western education in their early days is basically what has landed them in this present calamity. For had they paid serious and unbiased attention to the spread of Western Education throughout the North and encourage open minded enlightenment just as it is in the Southern part of the country, all these agitations both in the North and South would have reduced or even been nonexistent. But because you have raised your Northern Youths with a mindset that only them were "born to rule" and that Nigeria is their father's property and as such they can do anything and get away with it, no police will be able to arrest them, no court in the country can try them, no military group can withstand them etc, they had to start marginalizing others from the South whenever they have the slightest opportunity to do so and because nobody wants to be marginalized in their own country, different regions in the South had to start agitating for secession. According to the poet, many of the Northern leaders raised and indoctrinated their youths to be violent against others who were not of the same religious belief with them, teaching them that Nigeria is their father's property and as such they should be ready to shed even the last drop of their blood to reclaim the entire geographical territory called Nigeria. This is what has metamorphosed into banditry, large scale kidnapping, insurgency and so on in Nigeria, predominantly within the Northern part of Nigeria. more »
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"Ode to the Sahara" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/105751/ode-to-the-sahara>.
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