Poem: Only in this land
Only in this land
Saidu Bangura,
POEM
Only in this land do we have thieves
parading as the people’s supposed chiefs
as our people honour their own looters:
plunderers metamorphose as chiefs –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we elect leaders
that end up becoming misleaders
as service provision continues unusual:
so-called leaders become misleaders –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we think we know
by shelving people who truly know
as knowers are led by non-knowers:
purported knowers proved non-knowers –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we have fakes
controlling people who are not fakes
since being fake is the order of the day:
fakes faking as possessors of knowledge –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we have electors
being tormented by those they elect
as the presumed elected become demigods:
the elected transition into beings that deprive –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we praise politicians
for doing why they are politicians
to provide services for their people:
voters become praise-singers of their servants –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we see MPs
who behave allegedly as celebrated MVPs
not defending their people’s aspirations:
parliamentarians promoting only their own needs –
only in this land.
Only in this land do we destroy the future
as we drug today’s young minds, our hope,
for what we stand to gain in our present reign
while other lands prepare tomorrow’s leaders
with “knowledge and truth” – only in this land!
Only in this land do we see women harassed
dragged and molested for defending our land,
standing “firmly united” against men’s misrule
when other lands promote equality, justice for
women and the downtrodden – only in this land!
Only in this land is the “realm of the free”
made captive by people who pledge their
“love and loyalty” to the “land that we love” –
a love and loyalty betrayed when the interest
is for the “native land” – only in this land!
Only in this land do we have a hinky sense
of people’s power – only in this land!
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