By Chinedu Agu
1914:
Like a plaything
In the hands of two obsessed Lovers
Lugard and Shaw’s
Sizzling romance
On the chilly shores of Niger
Culminates in the birth of a girl child.
“I shall christen her Nigeria,
For in this Niger area
Was she conceived and birthed.
She shall for me remain
An evergreen remembrancer of our love on the sea-shore”
Shaw whispers to Luggard,
As in sweet-nothings.
From the far-flung
Southern and Nothern Protectorates,
Two families of diverse Roots were forced into
A dicy matrimony.
1914 – 1959:
On Shaw’s back
Is she constantly strapped.
At her breasts does she constantly suckle,
Ever dependent on cereals and dairies,
She has refused to be weaned,
Even when Ghana her neighbourhood playmate
has long weaned herself.
1960 – 2019:
With cane was she, in 1960, weaned.
But at Shaw’s breasts
She still cries and points.
While her neighbours run
She crawls on her aged knees.
Crying and pointing at Shaw’s breasts.
I know this aged infant.
Only her tummy she still bathes
Mouths her toys.
Babbles in the midst of speeches.
Drools at the mouth
And licks the phlegm
From her leaking nose.
When shall you grow,
Oh infant!
Happy dependence, Nigeria.
