DRAMA BY DICTATORS
With guns, they gate-crash unto the stage;
Chase away actors who for long have trained.
Take over the drama that awkwardly fits:
A giant’s robe about a dwarf as Shakespeare said.
They perform for an unwilling audience;
Deny them the right to leave the theatre;
Force them to watch their acts so nauseating,
Threatening to shoot across should they fail to laugh.
With time, the people weary begin to yield:
Begin to give standing ovations and scarecrow smiles.
To clap their wrinkled hands, emaciated and ugly;
For only the dictators’ cliques feed fat.
They turn life to a mysterious nightmare.
The existing little gain to civilization they demolish;
The slavery of crude and crooked might they install.
Supreme across the giant continent mediocrity reigns.
…. Dr. Nwankwo is a Professor of Practice at MIVA Open University, and a former Director General of Nigeria’s Debt Management Office (DMO)
