Irètí was the first child of my mother
Who had only gone to school but never returned home
Mom never believed she could have been dead
She keep on expecting and waiting
She insisted ìrètí had only lost her way back home
And soon she will find her way back home
But ìrètí never returned back home
Mom never believed she had lost ìrètí

Enitan was the second child of my mother
He only left home to look for way to survive
But was brought home with three holes in his chest and drenched in his own blood
We never knew what happened
But some witnesses told us he was shot by some government workers in black
Enitan had become a story which I now tell to my friends

I'm the last son of my mother
The one with the name Dúrósímí
I got the name from my grandmother
My birth was never a easy one
I died seven times in seven years before I stayed
My mom already lost two of her children
Would she lost me as well?
If she did, then no child shall be at her grave
If I can't live to bury my mother
Why is my name Dúrósímí?

© Ogunsola Ayobami Samuel

Hey brother! It's been a long time
I journeyed your land, what I saw?
Your roads are death traps
Your countryside so beautiful, truly majestic

Your environment so polluted
Your soil bleeding blood
Your people in rags, living off begging
And sheltered in uncompleted buildings

I heard you got independent from the British
But it seems your leaders lured
You into another slavery
The one I call slavery in New apparel
Slavery in guise of employment

I heard about the bridging in 1914
Isn't that when you got your name
But it's quite shocking
Hearing the demand for the bridge
be divided in 2021

I visited your schools
It's just another form of prison
Your classrooms in ruins
I pitied the future of your education

You remember the we are the leaders of tomorrow song?
I saw kids who Sang the song back then
Grown up living the life of a begger
Those kids never become the leader
Since the corrupt ones refused to die

This is the state of your nation brother
I pray you won't all loose your heads
From your herdsmen
Before you liberate yourself from the wrong of your leaders.

© Ogunsola Ayobami Samuel