THE LORD'S PRAYER: A NIGERIAN VERSION

Our Father, who art in Abuja,
Praise be thy Name for thy struggles
To bring Peace to Nigeria!
May the Niara come to us, the non rulers,
As it has come to them, the rulers!
Thy will be done in the rural areas,
As it is being done in the urban centres!
Give our villages pipe borne water,
Medical facilities, tarred roads and electricity.
That the village youth may not to the townships drift,
And suffocate for the sake of national development.
Give us the education that is functional,
That creates the climate for home thinkers,
That ambushes the culture of non productivity,
That arrests the shortages in the midst of plenty,
That liberates us from poverty and the experts borrowing,
And rescue us from living big in borrowed naira,
We ask these for the sake of national security!
Forgive us our creeping mutual mistrust,
As we forgive those who daily hijack prices,
Lead us not into epidermic Udojititis (Udoji awards),
That causes darkness at noon in cities,
And deliver us from the mysterious fuel shortages,
And the increasing anxiety of no garri, no soup days!
We ask theses for the sake of national survival,
For yours is the power to make all the difference:
To move away from garri-less and soupless days,
To three square meals a day,
To that state of an average Nigerian!
That we may truly in brotherhood stand,
We ask these things in thy name's sake. Amen

(Source: Alhaji Ali Munguno: Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, Official Report, Vol, 1, 1977, p632-3)