James Ogunjimi

Don't judge us by the Smiling faces
And conclude we are happy.
Don't use as examples just a few cases
And say it's reality.
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To those who sit and dark places,
To plot the downfall of the just.
To those who gather with hidden faces,
To cause nothing to the righteous but a fall.
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Crushed by the weight of the evil ones' greed,
Nigeria shall be free!
Sinking deeper and deeper in the abyss of misdeeds,
Nigeria shall be free!
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Life is full of disappointment; life is full of pain,
Life is full of challenges that would threaten our faith,
But no matter how many times we are left in life’s cold,
If we look well, no door is ever really closed.
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Chained tongues, imprisoned minds,
People who have lived their lives their humanity trying to find,
People who would rather give up than stand up and fight,
People who have lived too long in darkness they can’t see the light.
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For the simplest of things;
A little of that and this.
For the minute ones called small,
Named so by those the world calls poor.
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As the clock strikes twelve,
Yet another completed book is added to life's shelf.
First will come the greetings and well-wishes,
And then will come thoughts of happy times and painful memories;
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To that which may never be,
To happiness we may never feel,
To an unbreakable togetherness the world may never see;
This isn't me saying goodbye;
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Weep not for me o African,
For thy tears in nought will flow.
Weep rather for the future of your children,
Whose tears may never cease to flow.
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Blood, tears, severed limbs and legs.
Murder has been done.
Not on the streets, not in the slums,
But in the place we call Sacred.
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I will consume; Oh yes, I will
I will ravage; don’t doubt me I plead
I see blood even though the world can’t see.
I see death when life is what your preachers preach.
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Dear mother,

I know you brought me up in the way of the Bible,
And yes I know you've prayed for me never to stumble.
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Lest we forget,
January 1st,2012, they removed subsidy on PMS.
They promised they were going to provide palliatives.
But our people have been lied to long enough to read the lips of a liar.
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If only the heroes of our nation dead and buried could watch,
If only they could see what their labours have been reduced to and how their people have become lost,
Then maybe our ears will be open enough to hear,
Their shrieks and endless tears.
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I want to be remembered for good. I want to be on the right side of history.

I want to be remembered as a man who never shied away from speaking the truth.
I want to be remembered as a man who never kept quiet in the face of injustice.
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I listened to the late night cry of the owl.
I waited and watched with unabated breath the face of the dog as it scowled.
I heard in the far distance the constant cooing of the fowl.
Life has been murdered, I was told.
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'The change must come,
The looting must stop.
This impunity must end,
If the nation must regain its strength.'
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What, i ask is the cost of a Nigerian life?

Give ear to my words, o rulers,
Turn not thy ears away thou that art in power.
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Conformists fall for anything,
Driven by others' opinions like a leaf in the wind,
The world is full of men who just want to blend in,
Men who would sell their voice even if the world'll come to ruin.
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If Every time our souls are barren, we pick up our pen and write,
We would give up trying to be as famous as Wilbur and Orville Wright,
For whether we turn to the left or to the right,
Whether we end up being wrong or right,
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