I have always longed for the day i will drop my first post to introduce myself to the steemit community with great joy, but that joy is cut short by the inhuman and reckless slaughterings faced in Nigeria by farmers...i watched as over 73 persons were being laid to rest who were ruthlessly murdered by invaders, i could not stop the river of tears from flowing freely....i picked and sharpened my pen and wrote this dirge!!!! For graphic contents i choose not to post the pictures!!!
O our ancestral land, blessed and bequeathed and bestowed on us by our ancestors!
We once enjoyed peace and serenity of a sleeping child in its mother’s arms!
We bathed freely in the streams, fetched firewood and hunted without fear of danger,
Now, our homes are deserted, no sound of children calling each other for hide and seek! No birds is chirping all is but dead silence and we are but a shadow of walking death.
Rain of blessings and growth watered and wetted our land wand we prospered;
Today, our hearts are too filled with sorrowful pain,
On the night when we often gather at the village square to share the joyous moments we had in market places and in the farmlands,
On the night when children gather to play the moonlight games,
When women sit to gossip their husbands,
When men talk of leadership and the farming season,
When the old tell folk stories to the young,
On the night where we gather to register eulogies and drink in merriment, all these are now forgotten shadows as we sit here today with our heads buried in grief and soaked in tears and sorrow!
Our land flows with the river of the blood of our very own parents, brothers, sisters, friends and relatives instead of rain.
We grow crops in abundance, yet we starve! Because those who squatted with us, have driven us out into the cold hands of death and waiting hands of danger!
Our voices for justice, peace and protection, is hushed by indifference and silence from our leaders who dined and wined with killers, exchanging our lives for gifts!
Where have we gone wrong? Our charity and hospitality brought us death!
Rendered us homeless and hungry, children orphans, wives widows, and husbands widowers!
Our wives and daughters raped recklessly and brutally!
At their rallies, they pretend to care for our lives and properties only to turn around, unmasked their true identities and murder us!
They begged for our votes and gave us blood for drink, tears for coffee, death for bread and mass grave for our dwellings!
Oh! My heart is pierced with sorrows, at the sight of lost brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, fathers, mothers, friends, children etc.