Dogs Poem by Joseph Oladehinde Ibikunle

Not for your sake the party bickerings
Nor the tussles of who gets what.
Not for you the earnest promises.
Fie! What would the godfathers have?
But for you are the fake promises
Although you wag your tails in jubilation.
.
Not for your sake the all-night meetings
Where democracy got heavily drunk
In the liquor of power and affluence.
But yours are the midnight battles
With indefatigable mosquitoes.
For you are dogs, do you deserve anything better?
.
Not for your sake the jetlagging journeys
Sometimes, avenues for exclusive meetings
Far away from the reach of our nosy journalists
Sometimes, recreational or medical tourisms.
Let them claim it is for your sake, then add it up
To the numerous lies they had told before.
.
Not for you these guarded paradisal mansions
That stand like proud and fearless fortresses
But for you are the smelling slums
That ooze sweet odours of putrid poverty.
Dogs deserve not better abode than kernels.
.
Not for you the exotic vehicles
Or lofty and speedy powerbikes
Yusuf¹ could disport himself and drag-race,
But puppies do not ride in bullet-proof SUVs,
You can always cover miles with your legs.
That is what dogs do.
.
Not for you the elephantic wages
Which the bearers of hoes weed to themselves
Neither for you is the all-expense-paid livelihood.
But for you are the exorbitant fuel price,
Skyrocketed house rent and inflated economy
And, of course, meagre and delayed salaries.
For you deserve the bones and not the meat.
.
You are dogs - vanquished dogs
Recolonised and utterly depleted.
Your dividends are but the rotten leftovers.
Cover your impoverished heads with the brooms²
And sweep your kernels with the umbrellas³,
There is really no difference between the two.
You may bark at yourselves in arguments
And shake your tails at rallies
These will not change your status.

Footnotes:
1. Yusuf: the son of a former Nigerian president who had a fatal accident while drag-racing but survived it.
2. Brooms and 3. Umbrellas: the symbols of the two major plotical parties in Nigeria at the time the poem was written