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CHANGE OR CHAINS? by Okeme Jerome Akpevwe

Read Time:1 Minute, 24 Second

What did you hear
When they mounted the stage of yesterday
To declare their promises on air?
Was it change or chains?

Maybe the lies of yesteryears
Have deposited wax into our ears
and hindered our hearing
that we couldn’t differentiate change from chains.

Please let this accent be understood.
Did we hear “we are working”
or “we are walking”?
Are we dear to your heart
Or shares in your hat?

When we laid bare our complaints
Did you say you have heard
Or you have herd?
Did you recover the loots or the lutes?
Will you give us our rights or rice?
Can you see our tears or tiers?
Did we hear ” we’ll make corruption bitter ”
Or “we’ll make corruption beat her” ?
Did you promise to make lives better
Or bind many with fetters?

Maybe the tongue twisted the truth
Only time can get us to the root.
These guys!
Can we call this “Change in Disguise”?
Is this what you call change?
Herdsmen slaughtering souls rather than cows
Only for us to hear whispers of ” Silent is Golden”.
Is that a meaningful silent?

When will change come?
When the price of fuel is more than one can bear
as it equates a bottle of beer?
Or as our Naira watch the Dollars
mount upon the wings of our very own Eagle
to soar high be called change or chains?

You feel not our pains
Yet we see your gains.
We heard of the fame
That you made with our very own name.

Is this the promise of Change
Or promise in Chains?

CHANGE OR CHAINS? by Okeme Jerome Akpevwe
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