Let Nigeria Be Nigeria Again

Happy Independence Day Anniversary, Nigeria

Let Nigeria be Nigeria again

By a Noble Cause freed and enslaved

A riot of peoples swayed

By the ideals of freedom

From the rising of the sun

To the setting of the same

Let Nigeria be Nigeria again

That posterity

May never have to say,

'There was a country,'

In mockery of its unity

Harvest the bitter history

And retell it to your offspring

Till it springs a seed

Of brotherly fellowship

Leave no detail out

And make everyone count

The founding fathers had a vision

Take it and run your course,

Let Nigeria be Nigeria again

That the past be not misery's bane

And history be not relived

This is our story

We must tell it, correct it

And direct it or hubris

Will grow teeth and bite us

To heed Nigeria's call

We must define our Noble Cause,

Let Nigeria be Nigeria again

Or labors of heroes past was

Is and shall ever be in vain.

Akpan

Chrome

Oshoala,
Winner of the UEFA Women Champions
League 20/21 with Barca Femeini

Here's a list

Of things flung in the mist

Or ought to be at least.

If you got the gist,

You best pump your fist.

Somethings you can't resist

Some genes can't not persist.

Stand up to the beast

Fear not in the least

Rise, like dough on yeast,

To the occasion, make a feast

Of the IQ of a pessimist

Wear your guts on your wrist

Fight injustice like an activist

Face off all the fascist

Keep believing in the face of atheists

You need this

A non conformist

Be a transformist

Straddle the East

Like the red riding beast

Punching the sky like a fist.

Be upfront

Hypocrites pull stunts

Boost your grits

And come to grips

Cause fate does flips

Record your episodes on clips.

Time to wake up

And drink a sip of your cup.

Take a ration

Of your mission

To completion

Every 24

Roll it like a 24

Inch chrome on a Ford.

Akpan

What Yesterday May Bring

Nigeria: Another sunset or a new sunrise? 

Like when the question

Is written on the screen

But the answer is locked

Up in the ill wind

Like when you is witness

To some final burial rites

But as yet the crucial element

Has, by no means, arrived.

We beckon to the last straw

That will serve as trigger

To the imminent implosion

Yet we're in this together

Though maybe, not forever

So we need to show

A measure of mature

In the way we go

At tearing up our structure.

We are perched at a precarious angle

Fighting gravity as we dangle

Hanging to a history of conflict-spangled

Unity that's got us trapped in a tangle.

The bombs we detonated,

To guns we reiterated,

The slash of the machete,

Innards strewn like spaghetti,

Are pointers of the national eclipse

Playing like trailers for horror flicks.

How long? Not long

Before we climb the hill

To walk through the valley of

The substance of diversity.

We must break out of our shells

Step up from these ethnic cells,

Knot a cord on a 3-fold string

To stoke what yesterday may bring.

In this place where we stand,

Each one of us holds in their hand

A kindling spark.

If we all torch this fragile Union

Will it forge an eternal communion?

We must answer for the next generation.

Akpan

The Freedom We Try For

Gunmen abduct school children
in Nigeria's Niger State.
Photo Courtesy: France24.com

Freedom's chains

Guarantee some things may never change

When we ride

We ride high

Trucking together in a pile

Like cattle shipping on a one-way train.

Constant thoughts of imminent derail

Hum like a sequined refrain

Reenacting the monsters we engage.

And tho we ought to be ashamed,

We're pointing fingers

Serving the next dude the blame.

The center can't wait out the teeter,

Seems we're at the end of our tether.

With one voice

We chant, 'One nation

Bound in freedom,'

Yet the copious maelstrom

That engulfs the federation

Can't hold a candle to Herod's dungeon.

Our freedom enslaves us

Exploiting our captivity

Within our own geographical radius,

It undermines the concept of unity:

We y'all a burden one to another,

Can't get off the other's shoulder.

We're the product of a glitch

Of a rambling colonial leech.

But it's time to put the past

Where it belongs: in the past.

That we'll be able to transform

The jangling discords of our nation

Into a beautiful symphony of brotherly compassion.

And run Nigeria, our country

Into the ground,

For good.

Or negotiate one final turnaround,

For me and for you.

Akpan

Trying To Survive The Night

Courtesy: UNHCR

Don't wanna know how the sun

Travels round the moon.

And seriously speaking, I'm not

In the complicated mood

For a geography of tall stories.

I'm bringing my theory

Down to earth,

To us grounded in a hearth.

I'm all about the chemistry

Of self-annihilation

I'm up for a study in human tragedy

On which the race of man is sprung.

Bring out all the bombs

Throw some Uzi in the lineup,

It's the school of hard knocks.

Love don't live here.

This is where gore rocks,

Where pregnant women flee for fear.

Here it's ok to kidnap girls for ransome,

To hold school boys hostage

Even if it's just to prove a point.

Hope we still on the same page?

In point of fact, why not lose the book,

We all know these things get cooked?

Let's do this by word of mouth,

Why the river of humanity flows south.

We slot peace in the ballot box

And then harvest absolute bollocks.

It's trend of the time

And we blend 'n grime,

Now here's something we gatto do

This depends on me as you;

Shoot your hands in the sky

If you've seen enough people die. 

Akpan

Long Story Short

Courtesy: UNHCR

After all has been said and done

Like phantom tears from the heart of the sun,

The lust for war gives rise to refugees

Passion for bloodshed sprouts displaced persons.

After all that's said is the bomb

That empties Tigray into Sudan,

Then the slugs of a gun is enough

To send Shona scurrying to Kenya.

All that's said

And all that's done

Wakes the walking dead

And evokes a world undone;

People absolved of all feeling

Eat the heart of the living.

We bleed when they feel the need

To redeem the essence of their greed. 

Akpan

Bound In Freedom

Happy 59th Independence Anniversary to Nigeria!

Updated: October. 2. 2019

And then there was a country
A new nation conceived in liberty
Bound by a noble proposition
That all its tribes are created equal.
Three score less one year ago
A people of cultures found home
And brought forth diamonds
From a huddle of adversities.
Like sand castles daring a storm
He has found strength in diversities,
And what shall we say to these things
The Divine touched rollicking humanity
And spawned something of a union.
Give us this day
And it will be enough
And history will wear our face
Like the moon donning rainbow shawls
Give us today
And it will suffice to heal our pains.
Then all nations may receive healing
At the wellsprings of our flourish
When every tribe with one voice sings:
Rise! resurrected republic
Mount up on this majestic hymn
Flung up like the Arrow of God
Until you impact in a blaze of glory
And douse the flare of the sun
With the Eureka of your dawn.

Akpan

Weep Like A Child

I weep like a child

For a sliver of the past

For a cake of smile

That crumbles like wafer mass

I weep for frosted memory

That leaves a white moustache

When I taste its cream

And grass like dressed salad

I dream of soccer balls

Of buns that are auburn and warm

And bread on palm-oiled beans

Washed down with a tall mug of coffee

I weep for a street

Of laughter-stoned kids

And the joy like a stream

Where our childish screams

Put under the surface grim

Knowing of inevitable parting

Akpan

Standing Vertical

Die on her feet

A daunting feat

But she done did it

When she touched the forbidden

She’s ‘bout eighteen

Going on adrenaline

She had a fantasy

And when down believing

Earnestly

She kept her head up

Though they left her forgone

She couldn’t bear

And didn’t care

She’d rather dare

The devil and slay fear

Right here right now

Mister put me down

And book for the door

Cause my day will come

When men shall recall

The girl who couldn’t abide cowards.

Akpan

Let Tyrants Fall As They Fall

Let tyrants fall as they fall

bump! bump! bump! bump!

into ledges that jut

from jagged edges of rocks

and double over in tortured pain

only to bump! bump! some more

all over again

let grains of dust rise

and settle with finality

on their demise

a swastika of their hypocrisy

for ages we’ve been served

a dessert of deserts

desiccate purposes aver

we now reassert

collective sovereignty

tyranny shall not prevail

we, the people declare our liberty

human rights must avail

let tyrants fall as they fall

let Nazis fall

by their own blitzkrieg

fall shamefaced down

like the ostrich

head in the ground.

Akpan

Poet's Curse

I groan in the pain

my fingers unlocked

I shoulda stopped

at the first word

No! Rather at the first train of thought

It rocks my body electric

It knocks me into a concussive

state of mind where reality

is dragged kicking and screaming

into a cesspool of the fictive

My fingers composed my misery

because I would not turn a blind eye

to the curse in a dead man's eyes

I am god in a zone of twilights

Shall I chop off my fingers

cause it offends yours truly?

Shall I resolve to murder

And indulge self-mutiny

I will soon die

than live a lie

Yet, what I shall choose

is solace of the words which bruise

my soul and blow my fuse.

Akpan

Legacy

After memory's portraits fade

and time's due is paid

after age's tomb is laid

and death no longer raid

After pyramids decay

after worth is arcane

and tides won't rise like Cain

and moons crumbled like cake

After oblivion gains fame

and waste is name of the game

after political campaign

and blatant lies hit the train

My words will remain.

Akpan