We Will NOT Bow

‘To your brutish, tyrannical enslavement of our police
To your robbing our youth of their future, and in effect yours
No matter how much propaganda you post on our media pages
With your paid keypad warriors, who in hunger, work for crumbs off your table
And make so much noise, only to be swept away like chaff, for the next hungry’

Dear People in Power,

Today, they say, is judgment day
So we hear the King and his friends have to Bollyland gone,
While rumours abound, of the Judiciary perhaps,
Not being as judicious as they ought.
Whatever the outcome today,
Know ye, purveyors and benefactors of corruption,
And worshippers of Mammon and earthly power in Nigeria,

THAT WE WILL NOT BOW

To your lies
To your thieving
To your delaying salaries
To your abandonment of our children on the streets

WE WILL NOT BOW

To your brutish, tyrannical enslavement of our police
To your robbing our youth of their future, and in effect yours
No matter how much propaganda you post on our media pages
With your paid keypad warriors, who in hunger, work for crumbs off your table
And make so much noise, only to be swept away like chaff, for the next hungry set,
When yet another naked Emperor emerges.

WE WILL NOT BOW

To your leaving thousands languishing in jail without trial
To your attempts to rob us of our dignity
With the rickety buses, you insist we ride in, crammed like sardines,
While you ride in your air-conditioned imported luxury convoys

WE WILL NOT BOW

to your attempts to label us thugs and traitors
When we call for you to do the right thing
On thugs and traitors, you might want to look in the mirror

WE WILL NOT BOW

to your absurd demands for respect
When you refuse to respect our humanity and God Himself

WE WILL NOT BOW

to your demands that we forget
The atrocities you have committed with your negligence and complicity
From Odi to Zakibiam, from Chibok to Buni Yadi,
From Agatu to Guma, from Owo to Imo

WE WILL NOT BOW

to your refusal to bring to book
The sponsors of terror who wine and dine with you so freely

WE WILL NOT BOW
For He that is in us, with us
Is greater than your father, the king of lies
Who comes only to kill, steal and destroy, even you
And in the end, YOU will bow before TRUTH
But know ye now, no matter how long or how short it takes

THAT WE WILL NOT BOW!

*Inspired by Daniel 3:18 and dedicated to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness in Nigeria, Africa, and all over the world.

*Jonathan-Ichaver is a social worker, activist and art enthusiast