The Men With Marks Poem by Tony Adah

A huddled mass of citizens
Sat in a chamber of yore
In it the cacophony of voices abated
After the red, green and pink coloured notes
Of currencies adorn the pouches.

In nineteen ninety nine
They called it the ground norm
Of the federal republic
In it federal character sat on a shiny
Hue of tribes and religion.

Today a bill is billowing in a hallowed chambers
Of NASS
They've read it twice
Facilitated.
It is about tribal marks
A culture to be banished
And the origin of people buried in that cave,
The men and proponents of this bill
Are wearing marks:
Yorubans, Hausas, Fulanis, Kauris, Igbiras
Ibos and all who are glued here
By a time beaten bond.

The congress has two parties
And greed is the name.
They love frivolous change,
Inebriated by the ale of politics
They changed our old anthem at the time
No one was a worthy hero
Whose labour shall not be in vain
'Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand ' they kicked
With the iron boots;
That earthenware well pottered
Lies broken in the land
The clay old and brittle
Yearning for statesmen not heroes
Patriots not politicians
Moderates not extremists
Citizens not slaves
Merit not work given on a slate of nepotism
North, South, East or West
Tribes or tongues
Be equal here in the land
Bestow in the earth or above
Bounties that will lead our children
To their lives desired now and tomorrow.