By Chidi Anthony Opara

Yastaday wus mai bai day,
I wus bon meni yas bifuu.
I wus bon in Naigiria,
I becum Beafraa
An becum Naigiria agen.

Afta I wus bon
Mama not sen me go skul
Becus papa die in sivul war,
Mama don hav moni fu skul.

Naw
I get moni little,
I sen mai chudren go skul.
Naw,
Boko saa skul is fubid.

The Book; "State Of Di Nation And Other Poem Dem" Is Available Here: http://i-proclaimbookstore.com/stofdinaando.html

By  Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

The Nigerian Pidgin English term  "Amebo" can be said to subsume the meaning of this poem, in terms of its subject, theme and  choice of language, as well as suggesting a larger  body of ideas in relation to the meaning of the pidgin English term. This larger body of ideas is centred in the  Amebo Principle as a demonstration of the positive and negative potential of communication beyond its role in fulfilling the most immediate needs   as a fundamental human quality and value, the expression of this principle in the figures  of Esu and Agwu in Orisa and Odinani cosmology and  these communicative imperatives as subsumed by the  interpretive and cosmological conceptions of the discipline of esuneutics.

The poem:

"I Dey Shake Head 3" By Chidi Anthony Opara
No be only Naija security people
Dey argue well well,
People
Wey dey work with Naija Presido
Dey argue well well too.
Dem too dey argue
Sotee
Dem work too dey suffer,
I don dey shake head again.

Presido carry dem go meeting for yonder,
Minister dem go,
Adviser dem follow,
Special Adviser dem follow.
Senior Special Assistant dem too follow,
Special Assistant dem follow,
Even Personal Assistant dem follow go.
Madam sef go,
Her worker dem follow go,
Naija government come dey empty,
Work dey suffer,
I come dey shake head more more.

As dem come back,
Instead to siddon do work,
Dem dey follow amebo dem argue.
Amebo dem talk say
Presido no fit win di meeting chairmo,
Presido people reply say
Presido no contest meeting chairmo.
Amebo dem talk again say
Presido contest but im no win.
Presido people come reply again say
Presido for win if im contest,
Argument
Come dey climb up, dey climb down,
Work dey suffer,
I still dey shake head.

Amebo: Origins and Adaptation
The term "Amebo" emerges from  Nigerian entertainment history and its subsequent filtering into popular discourse. "Amebo" is derived from the name of a character in the 1970s and 80s  Nigerian Television Authority  drama series Village Headmaster. She was a great gossip who acted as a tireless conveyor of news between various parties in the village. Her name passed into the popular lexicon to represent assiduous passing on of information, particularly in a non-formal and gossipy context.

The Amebo concept has been expanded and adapted in various aspects of Nigerian life, from music to engineering,  to refer to a broad range of phenomena subsumed by the activity of passing on information, and of engaging in discourse as a fundamental human activity.

General Social Contexts
Bella Naija's post "Amebo-Yes, I'm Talking to You" examines its expanded generic meaning as it entered into Nigerian public discourse as referring to gossip, in relation to personal and public demonstrations of this phenomenon in different parts of the world.
Her illustrative picture sums up this sense of delight in sharing information in morally questionable sense :
The "Her Fiancee is Gay: Should I Do Amebo?" thread on the Nigerian social network Nairaland is a debate that highlights the social issues involved in communicating sensitive information. The question " Should I do Amebo?" in the thread title indicates a question as to whether or not to act like an "Amebo" in passing on sensitive information unknown to the affected  parties.

Music
Bayo Ade's Nigerian Pidgin English music video, Amebo Dem Go Tire ,  its refrain, "Wetin you no see you see you see am", "what you dont see, you say you saw",  characterises an  "Amebo" as more of a person who makes up questionable depictions of reality on inadequate understanding of observations than a person communicating accurate information,  depicting  the negative potential of the Amebo concept in terms of spreading of information in a destructive spirit of gossip.

Sadly, Bayo Ade was killed by kidnappers in 2011 even though they collected  ransom money from his family for his release.

State Secrets
The Amebo concept is invoked in connection with the tension between concealing and revealing state classified information to the public  by Nigerian Pidgin English news site Zazu Gist in the article " 20 Years Jail for CIA Wen Do Amebo".

Engineering
The penetration of the Amebo concept in terms of the semiotics of engineering is represented by the Amebo- 1 drone, manufactured by the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology, this craft  being an unmanned aerial vehicle that seems to be of the  kind that could be used in spying.

Communications Platforms
Amebo.com which describes itself as  "an online news and entertainment portal totally dedicated to giving you an authentic view of the Nigerian political and social situation" demonstrates the transposition of the Amebo name from its characterisation  in Village Headmaster to a generic term in informal Nigerian public discourse to its use as a means of organising and branding a formal  information disseminating organisation in cyberspace.

Amebo Mind Your Business plays on the gossip characterisation of the Amebo concept to brand the informal communications platform represented by a blog.

Social Actors and Institutions in General
Charles Dickson uses the term to represent various people and organisations in terms of their roles as agents of as well as points of convergence of discourse in  his article on the Nigerian energy crises of January  2012  "Occupy Nigeria According to 'Amebos'".

The Amebo Principle
The scope of the use of the term "Amebo", therefore, suggests that it delineates a principle of human behaviour and activity one could describe as the Amebo Principle.

The Amebo Principle involves the seeking and communication of information as a compulsive  expression of being human,  in its transmission of information across borders, between  individuals, between governments and publics, between private and public spaces, communication that needs to be interpreted at various levels of decoding.

The Amebo Principle, as a demonstration of the urge-to-discourse in humanity, demonstrates both positive and negative qualities. The positive qualities consist in the sharing of information and reflection on and application of information, qualities that define human civilisation. Its negative qualities involve shallow understanding of information, indiscreet use of information and deliberately  destructive use of information.

Esuneutics
The relationship between  information dissemination and the hermeneutic or esuneutic task of decoding and interpreting the various levels or possibilities of meaning of such information, as well as  the relationship of communication to insight as well as to deception,  is represented in classical Yoruba/Orisa and Igbo/Odinnani cosmologies by the figures of Esu and Agwu. The interpretive process of understanding  various possibilities of meaning in discourse, in relation to a cosmology related to the symbolism of physical and metaphysical  crossroads as representing the convergence and divergence of possibilities of interpretation and of the opportunities and outcomes that emerge from these interpretive choices,   is known as esuneutics, developing this idea from its use by Obododimma Oha in "The Esu Paradigm in the Semiotics of Identity and Community" , who describes himself as  getting  it from the Nigerian literary group, Krazitivity.

Chidi Anthony Opara and the Ameboization of Discourse
In Chidi's poem "I Dey Shake Head", I am shaking my head, a title implying shaking one's head in perplexity,  the term  "amebo"  refers to a group of people expressing opinions on the actions of the Nigerian government and the response of the government to these opinions from the public. One may describe the use of the term in the poem as summing up the poem's  transposition of  the term from its general meaning in Nigerian Pidgin English to refer to the swelling of discourse of various kinds, of varying degrees of analytical value, on the current crisis in the Nigerian polity, with particular reference  to a specific incident which I cant pinpoint.

The  "ameboization", of this expansion of discourse suggests that the Amebo concept   can be described in both negative and positive terms, as an expression of the need to examine public issues but also as demonstrating a compulsion in the demonstration of this human tendency that is not always exercised in a critical manner.

In fact, the entire poem can be said to turn on the "ameboization" of public discourse, radiating from government activity to the polity and back to its origin in the highly publicised activities of government and back to the public, in a continuous cycle.

All over the world, the behaviour of governments provokes responses from the public within and beyond the borders of those countries, and such responses do affect the conduct of the relevant governments in varying degrees.

Chidi's poem laments what he describes as the "ameboization" cycle in a specific incident in Nigerian public affairs, in which debate of dubious analytical value is allowed to superimpose itself upon the more valid activities of the government.

A beauty of the poem is its rhythm, centred in the parallelism of the second stanza, composed of  lines of identical or similar structure, often rhyming.

Perhaps the form of the poem, its content and its semantic thrust, its direction of meaning, could be seen as a dramatic reflection on discourse in the form of its symbolisation by the Amebo concept, in which the concept stands for communication and the various transformations it could undergo in a social context.

Esu and Agwu
In this regard, one could relate  the Amebo concept, particularly  as it is dramatised in this poem, to the trickster/communication/
cosmological figures from Yoruba and Igbo cosmology, Esu and Agwu.

Esu
In the spirit of unanticipated transformations, of upsets of expectation, at times in the context of various ways of managing or interpreting information,  that is the forte of Esu, a central interpretive medium in Yoruba/Orisa Ifa divination,  Chidi mobilises his poetry in projecting Nigerian Pidgin English from its oral roots into a written platform, while moving from its origin in the  localised orality of Southern Nigeria to a global electronic dissemination  via his commitment to widespread online communication. Chidi's poetry, therefore, is a demonstration of the transformations between oral and written traditions in African literature.

Agwu
Like Agwu,   who enables  the dibia interpret the messages  in Igbo/Odinani Afa divination, information brought by Agwu  from its travels to distant lands, the feature of human society that  could be described as  the Amebo Principle involves the character of discourse as a compulsive and mobile expression of being human,  in its transmission of information across borders, between  individuals, between governments and publics, between private and public spaces, communication that needs to be interpreted at various levels of decoding.

Agwu  is  described by Angulu Onwuejeogwu in Afa Symbolism and Phenomonology  In Nri Kingdom and Hegemony: An African Philosophy of Social Action ( a superb work, sadly not widely available, having been published in Benin by Ethiope and which forms part of a corpus of works operating from various forms and degrees of  insider and outsider perspectives on classical Igbo philosophy, spirituality and medicine including Annechukwu Umeh's After God is Dibia : Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria  and Patrick Iroegbu's essays and boook  on classical  Igbo medicine and spirituality ).

     
Agwu's Household : Ulili, the Small Forest Rodent
The  negative potential of  the Amebo Principle is  evoked by Chdi's poem in terms of the drive to communicate and discuss information as  reduced to  shallow analysis  bordering on gossip;  time for focused thought, discussion and action is dissipated in fruitless debate; the pervasive motion of Agwu, the pervasive mobility of discourse represented by ulili, the small forest rodent, Agwu's pet, movement which ulili, the rodent  combines with cautious reexamination of his motions as he stops to reexamine his trail, evoking the need for similar pausing and reflection on the past in human life, is reduced to unproductive repetitiveness in Chidi's  poetic exploration of the question of forms of action, verbal and otherwise, in the incident in  Nigerian political history that inspires his poem. 

Charles Dickson decries a related development in his article on pervasiveness of analyses on the Nigerian energy crises of January  2012 in his "Occupy Nigeria According to 'Amebos' '.

         
Agwu's Household : Ulu Mbekwu, The Tortoise
Within such a context, can ulu mbekwu, the tortoise, Agwu's other pet, not be deeply implicated ? To what degree is such debate a demonstration of the intelligence defined by human sentience, sentience that defines  what it is to be homo sapiens, the sapient being, who is aware, is aware that he is aware and is capable of critically examining his own awareness, a form of reflexivity  that may be deployed in terms of the Chinese general and  philosopher of strategy  Sun Tzu's conception in The Art of War  of the relationship between self knowledge and knowledge of others:

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

a strategy  of understanding self and others that may be related to the tortoise's embodiment of intelligence and the manifestation of this intelligence  in his constant trickery and  creative subversion of deceptive, embodying another of Agwu's  range of related values and their positive and negative possibilities, qualities of the tortoise  evident in folklore from Southern Nigeria.

Agwu's Household : Udene, The Vulture
Hovering over the entire tableau is udene, the vulture, another Agwu pet, who , flying high above the social terrain, can  "identify  [people] who through their actions are polluted by 'social dirt' '', enabling Agwu, in the form of another manifestation of the Amebo Principle in its positive aspect, the poet, Chidi Anthony Opara, who is  simultaneously Agwu, and the members of Agwu's household, the forest rodent, the vulture and  the tortoise  in his positive aspect, carrying the world on his back, as the tortoise carries his house on his back, as Ulli Beier describes this bearer of burdens in The Return of the Gods: The Sacred Art of Susan Wenger, in the spirit of Wole Soyinka's description of the artist as the voice of vision in his time, a vision that literary history shows may emerge in various forms, from the realistic to the fantastic.

Marksmen
Not messiahs
Mass,
Select sinners
Massed.
Shotguns,
Shots
Amassed.

Shotguns
On select sinners
Aim.
The season is here,
The season of shots,
Not the season of salvation.

Shots,
Screams,
Sorrows,
Silence.
Shouts of praise,
Smiles of satisfaction.

Marksmen retreat
To amass more shotguns
And more shots
For select sinners.
They retreat
To make plans
For another season of shots.

Surrogate gods
Masked.
Mmanwu,
Okara mmadu
Okara mmuo,
Mingling with spirits
And
Mingling with mankind.

Your measured movements
Mesmerize,
Your miens
Magisterial,
Magnanimous.

In your presence
We swear,
The truth
Our witness.

We prostrate,
We pronounce our names.
Our palms
We place on your feet
Professing our piety.

To the motley minions
In delirium,
Genuflecting
On crowded grounds,
Awaiting garlands
From gangsters
I ask.

What are worth
Of garlands
On necks of delinquents
Bestowed
By delinquent demagogues
Deranged?

What values
Are veneration from degenerates
Drained of dignity,
Disdained?

Our country
Na bend bend country.
Our government dem
Na bend bend government.
Na im make
Our life bend bend.

We dey do bend bend election,
We dey carry bend bend people
Put for inside office.
Di bend bend people
Dey choose bend bend people
To work with.
Everything bend bend,
Our pocket sef
Follow bend bend.

Christmas
Don bend dey come.
New year too
Don bend dey come.

Bend down market
Na im dey help us.
Bend down cloth dem,
Bend down shoe dem
Bend down everything.
Bend down market
Na im dey help us.

I searched
And searched,
I found her
Helped
By the dawn light
That sneaked in
From the smiling sky.

Our smiles met.
“Ibolachi” she greeted,
I nodded with mirth.
Her gap-toothed smile
Seduced me,
Love nudged me.
“Will you marry me?”
I asked,
“Yes” she replied.
In our embrace
Our bodies bonded,
Bathed with bliss.

In my bed chamber
After exchange of vows,
On the day birds begin mating dance,
The day they call Valentine’s day,
Her nubile bosom
Balanced between my lips
Took me back
To blissful babyhood.

I searched between her thighs,
I found paradise.
Paradise
Welcomed me with love lotion.
I drifted afterward
To dreamland smiling,
Dreaming sweet dreams
Of journey with Chinyere.

Occupy jam occupy
For inside Abuja,
Di place come hot for occupy,
Occupy come clear for occupy.

Dem dey run.
Dem dey beg,
Dem dey say
Dem no wan occupy again.

For yonder,
Occupy jam occupy,
Occupy no dey clear for occupy,
Occupy dey occupy.

But for Naija,
Occupy jam occupy,
Occupy dey clear go hide.
For di hide hide sef
Dem go dey find way
To go meet presido
So dem go tell am sorry sir,
So dem go chop with bigman,
So dem go collect transport money.

For here,
Occupy no wan skin pain.
Na im make for Abuja
Occupy jam occupy,
Occupy no fit occupy.

The stage is setting again
For jackboots to step again
On the blood soaked soil
Where fatigues
Torn,
Blood soaked
Are still seen
Strewn all over shrubs.

The stage is setting again
For mercenaries to march again
On the land where blood
Laundered dirty diamonds.

The Mansion of Monrovia,
Majestic,
Magnificent
Teased slave traders.

The Mansion
Mobbed by mobsters
Now sanctuary
To surrogates of slave traders.

Hyenas
Hankering for blood
Howl.

I have to issue a caveat at this point that this piece is not a critique in the traditional sense, of the work of the well known young Nigerian novelist. It is rather an observation of what I consider a serious faux pas in social relationships in Igboland in Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus", which should have been titled "Yellow Hibiscus".

Let me hasten to say that I have not read any of the novelist's well publicized works before now. I have however read some of the reviews, mostly by Western reviewers, on her and her works, many of which I consider very patronizing. Such reviews make me suspicious, the Adichie reviews do.

When Chinagorom, my twelve-year-old daughter who has just entered senior secondary school came back from school last week and greeted me as she is wont to whenever she has a new book with "daddy do you know this writer?" waving "Purple Hibiscus" which she said is part of her Literature in English syllabus, I saw that as an opportunity to see what the novelist has to say. I borrowed the book and settled down to read.

I must confess that that I fell in love with the writer's narrative style. The book is what Western reviewers like to label "unputdownable".

The story is set in South-Eastern Nigeria, which is the homeland of the Igbos, a majority ethnic nationality in Nigeria. The period is in the 1980s through the 1990s. Please note that I am an Igbo, born and bred in a predominately Roman Catholic part of Igboland some forty-eight years ago.

Even though I got worried early in the reading with the characterization of Igbo Roman catholic priests as spiritually and intellectually inferior to their white colleagues, I nevertheless let that be.

What got my full attention is the seriously strained relationship between the main character's father and her grandfather on ground of differences in religious belief. Kambili's(main character) father is a literate wealthy Christian with a tradition title. He is a community man. His father on the other hand is an illiterate poor pagan. He is also a community man. Kambili's father is his only son and first child.

The relationship between father and son, which placed the son in a stronger position, is not such that can be tolerated anywhere in Igboland at anytime, even in this so called modern. You cannot, for instance decree that your father should not enter your house in any Igbo village for whatever reasons. If that becomes necessary, it will be the prerogative of Umunna. If you do that, fines will be imposed and you will be ordered to rescind that decision and to apologies to your father or face ostracization, your wealth and position notwithstanding, but Kambili's father did that and got away with it, there is even an "Omere Ora"(benefactor of the community)title to the bargain. That is not Igboland.

There are many other situations in the portions I read before dropping the book like a hot iron, that portray the Igbos as either uncultured or easily influenced by wealth and position to abandon their customs and traditions.

One would not have bothered writing this piece if one had not read distinguished Professors in World class Universities proudly saying "I teach Adichie" or words to that effect, meaning that they also teach "Purple Hibiscus". Chances are that future mindsets about the Igbos will mirror these negative, albeit false impressions in the novel. I cringe whenever I remember that my young daughter is reading this book as part of her school curriculum.

If dem comot dis subsidy
Wetin remain?
Nothing to comot again.
Dem don comot many many subsidy
For Naija tee tee.

For life sef
Dem don comot subsidy far back,
Life no worth anything again.

If disease no kill,
Hunger go kill.
If hunger no kill,
Armed robber go kill.
If armed robber no kill,
Militant go kill.
If no be militant,
E go be dem thug
Wey go kill.

After dis subsidy
E go remain
Make dem comot subsidy
For inside government,
Di mother of subsidy.

Every politician for Naija
Promise to fight am,
Every Naija government
Talk say
Dem dey fight am,
Upon dat
Corruption still full ground.

Our money loss
Dem say
Na corruption thief am,
Our property loss
Dem say
Na corruption carry am,
Corruption na who sef?

So tee
Dem come get anty corruption
For inside government.
Dem get am sef
For outside government.
Small time
Dem go get uncle corruption.

Dem say
Dem dey fight corruption,
Upon dat
Corruption still full ground,
Corruption na who sef?

Dem enter
Come dey cut bush,
Dey dig hole,
Dey tear everywhere,
Destroy shrine,
Destroy river,
Farm sef
And even grave dem destroy,
Na oil dem dey find.

Dem come find oil,
Come dey put
Big big pipe inside ground.
Oil come dey flow,
Some sef dey throway,
Dey pollute river,
Dey pollute farm,
Dem no mind.
Dem dey sell di oil,
Dey chop di money alone,
Dem no give land owner dem.
Saro and im people come say no,
Dem kill saro with some of im people,
Saro people pursue dem.

To go back go take oil
Don dey hungry dem,
But saro people no gree dem.
Dem come bring wayo report
Wey say dem pollute small,
Wey say make dem pay small money,
Saro people no listen to dem.
From yonder
Saro dey laugh dem.

For Naija
We no dey occupy,
Na for yonder
Dem dey occupy.
For Naija
Occupy na grammar.

Na prayer house
We dey occupy.
Every day every day
Na pray we dey pray.
If we pray finish,
We siddon
Dey wait for miracle.

As we dey suffer,
We dey endure.
As we dey endure,
We dey pray,
We dey fast.

For Naija
Na “all correct sir!”
“All correct ma!”
Na im we dey,
Na dobale we dey.

We no dey oppose,
We dey join dem.
Na for yonder
Dem dey oppose,
Dem dey occupy.
For Naija
Occupy na grammar.

More dey here: http://naforpoems..com/2011/11/occupy-na-grammar.html

Awe arrives,
We worship,
Mouthing myths.
We mold
Mortals into immortality,

Continue reading on: http://homelandmelodies..com/2011/11/god-save-sovereigns.html

(Fela music “Argument” dey play for background)
Di money wey una dey get
Month by month
Una no dey use am well,
Una dey use small pay salary
When workers go strike,
Di rest
Una dey chop am,
Una dey broke.

Na small small money
Una dey share give us,
Di big big money
Na una dey carry.
Una no dey do any work sef,
Una just dey siddon
Dey chop money,
We no dey broke.
(Background music still dey play)

If una no dey broke
Why una dey borrow borrow?
Di borrow borrow money sef
Una dey share am chop,
Una dey broke.

What of di one
Wey una dey borrow?
Di money wey we dey borrow
We dey pay.
Di interest sef
We dey pay.
Even sef
We don dey borrow again.
If we dey broke
Why dem dey give us loan?
We no dey broke.
(Background music still dey play, come fade)

I come to you
This early dawn
Iyi oma
In quest of water
To quench the lingering thirst.
I tap with humility again
On the door of your heart
To wake you
Again from serene sleep,

Continue reading on: http://mundanemuses..com/2011/10/iyi-oma.html

Singing,
They sodomize
Their symbol of sovereignty.
The sodomized symbol
They deposit in desert dune,
The gods grieve,

Continue reading on: http://homelandmelodies..com/2011/10/gods-grieve.html

Kum kum ku ogele
Ogele ogele.
No be joke
Ogele ogele.
No be yabis
Ogele ogele.
Na true talk
Ogele ogele.
Kum kum ku ogele
Ogele ogele.

Our oil dey sweet dem
Ogele ogele.
Dem dey take am
Ogele ogele.
If we no gree dem
Ogele ogele.
Dem NATO go nak us
Ogele ogele.
Kum kum ku ogele
Ogele ogele.

NATO dey nak us
Ogele ogele.
Dem different different
NATO dey nak us
Ogele ogele.
Kum kum ku ogele
Ogele ogele.

More dey here http://www.naforpoems..com

Warehouses
Don turn to worship houses.
Companies don waka,
Churches,
Mosques
Na dem dey now,
Everybody now na prayer warrior.

You need water
You go borehole go buy.
You need security
You go police go pay.
If you need light
You buy generator.
Petrol nko?
You buy from black market.

Every day,
Every day
Dem dey yan say
2020 na di year.
Na di year
Wey light go shine well well,
Wey water go flow everywhere,
Milk and honey sef go flow.

2020 wey dey run dey come so,
Wey be like tomorrow
Na im be di year
Wey every every go boku,
Wey better life
Go yafu yafu for Naija.
So we siddon dey look,
Dey listen to this kin yan.

More Dey here: http://www.naforpoems..com

Like Johnny Walker
Dem go waka dey find vote,
Dem go waka go north,
Dem go waka go south,
Lie lie promise
Na im full dem mouth.

For election day
Dem go carry thugs,
Dem go carry dem rig di election.

As dem enter government,
Abracadabra  don start,
Talk talk
No better action don start.

Dem go carry plenty plenty people
Wey no get wetin to do,
Dem go carry dem full office.

Na so money go dey waka,
Na so money go dey vanish
Dey enter dem pockets.
Na so so travel travel,
Na so so jolly jolly,
Dem office come dey inside aeroplane.

For another election,
Other wayo politicians
Wey dem mouth sweet pass,
Wey get thugs pass,
Go rig them comot,
Dem go run go oversea.

When dem don hide
Di money wey dem thief finish,
Dem go show for Naija,
Dat time EFCC gragra go start.

Dem go arrest dem,
Dem go use yeye evidence
Carry dem go court.
Court go give dem bail,
Matter don finish.


More dey here: http://www.naforpoems..com

Boko Haram dey for North
Dey bomb,
Dey harass.
MEND dey for Niger Delta
Dey maja.
MASSOB  dey for East
Dey maintain.
OPC dey for West
Dey operate.
Militants full everywhere
Dey maintain levels.
Security dey shake shake
Dey find shelter.

Independence day waka dey come,
Abuja come get as e be.

But Presido must collect salute,
Him must deliever speech,
Long long speech,
Madam sef must wear heavy headtie.

But Presido no wan hear
Say dem shoot bird,
Di pickin fly away.

Dat day come come,
Dem comot property
For inside Presido parlour,
Dem call soldier and police,
Dem parade, Presido collect salute,
Madam headtie dey hala,
Presido deliever long long speech.

As independence day pass,
One newspaper for Lagos write something,
Security come dey show working,
Security shakara come full Lagos.

For Poems Written By Chidi Anthony Opara in Nigerian Pidgin English

Link: http://naforpoems..com/

We dey hearam for morning,
For afternoon sef we dey hearam,
We dey hearam for night.

Dem dey halaram,
We no dey rest.

Subsidy!
Subsidy!!
Subsidy!!!
Dis subsidy sef.

Dem say na awuf money
Wey we dey chop,
Dem say na government money.

Awuf money we no see,
Government we no see,
Na so so suffer we dey.

Kidnappers dey kidnap us,
Thieves dey thief our property,
Militants dey murder us,
Better things we no dey see.

Upon dat,
Dem still dey hala subsidy,
Dis subsidy sef.

Apparition appears
Adorn with hood of hate,
From eyeballs
Tears trickle,
Hell
Is not as hideous,

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