Dying in the petrol queue, By Niyi Osundare

Nigeria: A giant crawling like an ant without wings

1

I spent Christmas this year
At the petro station
Some two miles from my NEPA-less* front
And an immeasurable distance from sanity

The food is dark
When the Wise Men came
The pious Joseph had no fuel
To power the idle generator

Hood-to-boot ahead of himself
More than a hundred cars did not move affliction
In the back, the grotesque sprawl round the bend
There are so many metals I dare not count

The “Subsidy” saga is in the air again
Just like he did last season and the season before that
“Suitable Price”, “Landing Fee”,
“Loading Fees”, and allied jargon

The front pages of national tabloids were taken over
The government’s megaphone blared
In the first two days, he became a silent demon
People are left to argue

With the Station Managers who are absent from the harvest
Increase with each walk in trouble
Christmas comes and goes, but not the snaky lines
That sapped every nerve of a hungry, angry man
And the country’s government is gleefully AWOL

2

Boxing day is coming
The line is getting longer, the air is getting shorter
Some fist something happened, with a broken nose
And dented hoods in the ringless arena

The Station Manager watched the fight
From behind the curtain, take the bulging bag
And disappeared through the back door.
He will not touch the treasure in the underground tank

Until the sale price has hit the sky
Let the moralists preach until they lose their lungs
“Eat or be eaten”: our nation has a noble motto;
The hottest part of Hell is the logical terminal

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From the straight and narrow path. . . . .
The dark sun turned into night
The harmattan heat of the day plunged into the cold of the dust
A foul odor hung from his unwashed body

The gas line seems to be longer than the longest line
The price of bread increases in the market
The sick man screamed and prayed desperately
To the god of the early grave

Blindly led, corrupt-rusted,
Nigeria sits on top of a sea of ​​oil
Hardly roll to power its engine
A giant crawling like an ant without wings
And the country’s government is gleefully AWOL

* Without electricity. NEPA (National Electric Power Authority) is an old name from today power Nigerian Holding Company. And it ‘holds’ power when the country is dark..

Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.