The Cabals

By  Kolade Ajayi.

 

The cabals are not only the Lawanis;

They are well bribed out of it.

The cabals are not only those who are entrapped,

Though they await re-instalment by instalment

The cabals are not only those who have lost

Marked Dollars or Subsidy Scam, hard as it is

To grope for the relieve that some

May not know is a fraud.

The cabals are not those led astray by press releases;

Nigeria is a cruel place, seldom a heaven,

Nowhere as corrupt as the Assembly

The cabals are among those who started

A probe and now cannot drive it through.

Millions are burning that have no taste of the Scheme.

The cabals are not only those who escaping

The shattered country become ministers in

The fortress of a failed nation.

 

The cabals are few, and a bad number well

Outside the scene of probes and indictments;

They are the embodiments of rot,

So smug in scam-hood they lurk within,

They are the wanton misrulers who, baiting on

The sentiments of human heart, gulf the masses

Along religions whose rites they do not know.

 

Their drums overwhelm the good…

 

Caught in the blasts of counter class and charges,

When not on the seat the goodluckers now have─

We die,

All casualties of their bombs,

Because we cannot let the others’ way

Because eyes have ceased to see the brother from the Veil

Because whether we admit or

Do not admit the extent of wrongs on all sides,

We were brothers not long ago

When the protests began, the occupy-the-streets unsettled

By tax-monies mishandled by the looters in office

All aware, brothers everyday, that sanity may return.

We are all cabals,

All wanting as are

The cases celebrated for their corruption,

In unfounded camps─ unfollowers of not just our lords.

 

Adapted from J.P. Clarke’s “The Casualties”. Kolade Ajayi writes from Ilorin, Nigeria.