When No Drums Can Be Heard

When no drums can be heard But the dancer exhibit her finest Moves in the village square Who will urge her to stop? When dogs howl and bark Though neither children nor harm are found On the street, who will throw stones To caution the whelping animals? This game is larger than the Iroko's trunk Let us gather as one to dissect it from all angles Neither machetes nor guns will suffice for this Herders have wreaked enough havoc with those tools We need no bombs to amplify our cries No more trucks laden with innocent pupils Dapchi, Chibok, Baga, Buni Yadi mourn still For the dozens of children We forgot to name still If we have won the war Why then do our tears persist? Why then no technicality in the Fearful palpitation of our hearts? The Emperor's new clothes Glitter like diamonds, but only to his eyes Who will risk life and speak this abominable truth? Adam fit into Eden in his birthday suit But the year was not 2023 What do we do with youth whose only currency is eagerness And their likely recompense, hunger? What do we do to a hunger that bites not according to Mother tongue, tribal marks or religion Will we cling to broken promises Ride on the memory of forsaken dreams Oiled by years of accepting pittance Though we are surrounded by plenty? The greedy return with tales of their foe's plots But behind, friend and foe blend as one Greed, their unified language Ethnic division, their strongest arsenal Another four years, the beats may vary The dancers unchanged, clothed in new attire But we are not fooled This resistance is not unpatriotic It is our hearts refusing to bleed This resistance is our lips refusing to sing While they dance on our tombs And sip champagne from the skulls Of our disenchanted youth When no drums can be heard But the dancer exhibits her finest Moves in the village square Who will diagnose this condition? Will you also dance, though no Music assails your eardrums? Or will you take a stand, armed with your voices And PVC's demanding better service So tomorrow we can claim our countries lives