Giving voice to my visions and views
On the 15th of May 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a State of Emergency in 3 states in the northern region of Nigeria. Apart from the debate on the propriety or otherwise of the declaration (or “proclamation” as the constitution calls it), a lot of debate has also been had on whether or not a state of emergency can be declared with the Governors of the affected states remaining in office.
By Nwachukwu Egbunike
About 10,000 souls have been grinded in Boko haram (BH) blender since 2001. These innocents did not stand in the way of the vampires who have declared a hate war on the Nigerian state. They had each woken that morning with the ambitions filled with hope, to strive to lay food on the table, to seek for a better future but sometime during the day, they had been sent on – with a first class ticket – an early encounter in the void unknown.
By Nwachukwu Egbunike
In Nigeria, you must capture the essence of your being by the number of titles you been able to acquire over the years. “Former special assistant, formerly choir master, etc” expresses the clout of the bearer. And such is the current ruforufo fight between two former public servants of the Federal Republic. To think that they are throwing arrows at each other just because of an ordinary book, haba!
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is a saint. El-Rufai’s intellectual and managerial wisdom is unmatched by any living thing that has ever been in power in Nigeria. Those are the things we discover in his memoir, The Accidental Public Servant. TAPS is not only a celebration of an individual’s narcissism but a revelation of the destructive elitism on whose back this polarised nation suffers.
By Noel A. Ihebuzor
(A response to this poem which pains and troubles me)
I veil my face
I fake, I affect a pace
I strike a pose to please
I part unveil my ware
to attract, to beckon, to appeal,
all to strike a better bargain
draining nights
on these dark streets,
mean, dim
where for a fare fair
I fair sell my flesh and frame,
me tame, soul lame, filled with shame
before rates of exchange
driven hard, harsh, heartless
unequal, the weak cannot bargain
I empty my soul,
as he emptyng inside me, also empties me
so much pain,
for so paltry a gain
all so that you, my child
will not be empty
when you rise
In the mornings, when you rise
clad in your innocence,
as you eat and fill up, I sing for you
but also to forget, my smiles fake, as guilt
and self-pity gnaw at my insides
And I sink, I sink and sing to forget.
By Noel A. Ihebuzor
Remember,
When we signed and swore
to soar,
for better, for worse,
the moons have now since faded, dimmed
stars twinkle less bright,
on a sky blanketed by our mutual misery
our nights now filled by this burgeoning void
that is us
the flames died slowly,
smoke filled our empty eyes, red blank
our tongues broken, wooden
our ears drowned by the din of our inner voices
And us two in tow,
now sour and bitter
bride and groom no more
rather through your assured lenses -
pride and groom,
through my lenses, clean and clear -
bride and gloom
We now dance to blame songs
two souls in discord
dancing to drumbeats of doom, singing
“your fault not mine, my love, your lust;
My trust, your rust; my care, your tear”
we sing so well, nourished
by a slow low constant flame of pain
our emotions lame and crippled,
bitterness slowly freezing
frying our insides, as enlarging cold rage
fractures our world and hardens
borders and boundaries
We match and trade barbs of mutual hurt
And we march forward backwards,
bent and bitten,
weary and wary
on a broken road,
saddled, burdened
with loads and worries
not love, on our broken battered shoulders
and souls
Look at them leaving in droves, the children of the land, just look at them leaving in droves. Those with nothing are crossing borders. Those with strength are crossing borders. Those with ambitions are crossing borders. Those with hopes are crossing borders. Those in pain are crossing borders. Moving, running, emigrating, going, deserting, walking, quitting, flying, fleeing – to all over, to countries near and far, to countries unheard of, to countries whose names they cannot pronounce.
