Sullen expressions upheld by facial muscles
Of heroes past
Zik, Awo, Tafa and their brethren under one communion
Unhappy in their colonity*
Rose with a vengeance
To agitate and initiate
A mighty movement
Reminisce then on
Broken spirits and bloodied struggles
All enacted in a bid for liberty
Obtained on 1st October 1960
An independence clothed in white and green
And devoid of the union jack
A precursor to self governance and unedited joys.
Let us ask ourselves
What we celebrate
For tribalism and its vices abound
Unhealthy conflicts in play
Agitations in foray
And I ponder why
A unity hard fought for
Is now hard looked for
And we the people
Long imbued with the spirit of endurance
Refuse to change the tenets of our situation
Ironically
Suffering and smiling
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Obafemi Awolowo
Tafawa Balewa
Turn in their graves
Their joys turned to emptiness
At a country
56 years old
And yet achieved nothing
But that does not stop me
From being extremely proud
Of the greatest black nation to exist, Nigeria.
Hence
As we celebrate today
Let us celebrate a new independence
A new beginning
And a new month
Let us swim in the sweat of our fores
And then distil it
To access fresh opportunities
That will heal our nation
And engage the land
Remember
This is October
They burn still, our glorious embers
In our resilience as a people, outside and inside chambers
And the world will be awed and stand still
At our strong and mighty will
The name is JesseAnz
And I am proud to be a citizen of Africa’s giant
