Friends, as we start the beginning of the second half of 2013, permit me to offer you other jewels of NIGERIA! Happy reading... KWARA STATE A land made for harmony exists somewhere Lying broadly and leisurely by the frontier thereof Spreading conspicuously in the divide between The waters of Great Niger and the thick jungles Spreading and sprawling in woods and grasses Well linked and jointed together a mesh you see In the arrays of those picturesque “cities” of note Dotting around those great autobahns and rails Shinning in misty fumes morning and evening Astride that holy enclave recorded ago In cultures mixed, pure and harmonious Concentrated, filled and populated unending Plentiful in men of vision, truth and boldness Giants in mores great, small and ephemeral Landing on the stage of an enigma indeed Blending into the North or South in droves In political soul and spirit Papa’s land to catch Land aplenty with grains, fish and vegetables Sprawling anvils, mills, furnaces and workshops From the ancient, modern and millennium combined Ever noted for commerce, trade and business That spreads east, west, north, south and where? In the tottering staccato of islets along the waves Towards the river and the northern expansiveness Welcoming, inviting, beautiful, graceful and wide In the assemblage repute of royalties well known Harbouring the conglomeration of loyal subjects In the quest and desire a great land to tame Within a long stretch of well protected space Contended for by brothers in search for land LAGOS STATE The land of aquatic splendour retold In the paradise of excellence indeed “Eko Akete o ni baje” we confess and pray Lying by the ocean and around the lagoons Upon the waves, winds and dancing trees along In the ambience of fresh mangrove and beaches From the white sands of Badagry stretching along Where a long expanse of whiteness unending Inviting to the eyes and calling for pleasure Like a vacation land preserved for the masters Then the white cities and rustic haven of note Sprawling, bustling, waking, singing and rising Welcoming new arrivals came daily from afar Craving your wonders to see and the milk to lick From the retold bounties, beauty and dainties Landing from the ports: air, land, sea and rail On the extravagant bonanza you must not hate Home to modernity, excellence and creativity Bordering the sprawling ocean, seas and lagoons Plenty fishes, crabs, lobsters, sea-foods and prawns Mansions, institutions, factories, mills and pleasure-lands Beckoning, inviting, luring, tempting and tantalizing But how do you overcome the overpopulation by loafers? No wonder, it’s often retold by them: “This is Lagos!” Your darling, friend, lover, bride, suitor and beauty! Where donkey’s head at a fortune supplied for you afresh And the eagles nest long destroyed by predators freely Who lived and thrived ere arrival snowman of yore retold Our peace and joy destroyed in lurch for the pole of joy Under which tired legs rested, washed, covered and treated NASARAWA STATE Within that wonderful home to solid minerals Hidden underneath those protruding rocks Begging to be exploited to avoid rotting away The bonanza seekers thereof are eager and ready To cash on the long awaited glory retold ago Inside the land located in the midst thereof The sloping bumpy land all the way you go In the land of ranges, shrubs, grasses and trees Inviting and waving you a welcome on arrival As you proceed gently there from wherefrom Come to see it standing erect stolid and strong The well known magical trees noted for healing Never been known here but with miracles’ power And around those castles and protruding villas Jutting out upon that rock of ages large and broad Covered the view and fire of the age-long enemy The company of the marauding adventurers of yore Cause we treasure freedom for aye on this land In the broad-land we inherited from progenitors Now growing seriously towards our central area Protecting the mantle of leadership we treasure From the centre of the pot, sweet, rustic and pure To the glee and jeers of friends and foes manifested Upon a mixed country, undulating, sloppy and bumpy In a land of wildflowers displaying splendour of beauty To the visitors a joy but to hosts a normal display of sort Under the tutelage of wise leaders managing the escalation Of challenges from over-grazing and over population of late As the new centre get overwhelmed with arrivals come from far The spreading dainties of the new pole captured in glee NIGER STATE There is a power fulcrum somewhere in Papa’s Land Harbouring our energy-raw and refined to abandon Commanding the western side of the central area In the land of unity we treasure indeed for aye Where tubers grow in the wild plentifully unending And antelopes, deer and wild goats milling around A great hunters’ delight came down from heaven Towards the wilderness endless we fear indeed In the place mingled and sprinkled with roses Growing wild, lush, luxuriant and inviting At the flowering time a wonderful sight Around the routes laid on iron or sand Used by snaking wagons and land boats Hooting their horns day or night disturbed Troubling the peaceful mien of our homes Inside the land of giants having big hearts! Possessing tough skins and solid miens Able anytime the screen to penetrate Of the maze deliberately placed thereof Whenever the path’s hidden and crossed In that land of plenty and joy we have Rolling and singing along leisurely To the tenor of the chants and rhymes Of the possessors of those castles you see Hidden on those giant hills well fortified Upon which our men of means rest and play With their brothers and kinds came from far Under candle light in the midnight displayed And their courtiers well cared for and rewarded In solid loyalty, obedience and service rendered OGUN STATE The gateway to Papa’s Land In the quest ECOWAS dream Spread and splashing in emeralds With hands deep in every pot Oozing out gold and honey From that forest black and virgin Came those nuts eaten up to Mecca Of their cities, towns and villages Clothed in shinning castles and villas With a people ebullient and joyous Smart, Bold, Strong, Witty and Wise In mores legal, money and commerce Well flooded and their Lagos colonised Filled with variegated dresses and apparels Always rising and building afresh again On that foundation laid by those middlemen Acting a “benevolent” bridge betwixt them ago Those faraway and coastal arrivals of yore In the age-long interaction of note Now still the uncontested go-between In the land of the Niger and beyond Aplenty with heroes living and asleep Nomenclature connoting high regard In every circle venerated and regaled Around the gently flowing River Ogun Upon the floods driven by in the lurch To dribble you in hide and seek displayed When in forlorn hope we want to dance to glee Around a meandering river of last resort we see Sending depositions and stilts along to abandon ONDO STATE Deep in the forest I know so well I found the sunshine aplenty In nature, love and peace combined From one pole to another retold In ancient trees and poles we see The connection and combination Of a people kind, loving and smart Building together in peace and unity An enclave linked by nature to minefields That oozes black gold, oil and bitumen Rich, bold, simple, strong, wise and solid In the divide east and west made popular A lovable enclave rich in games and ivory Hidden and splashing around silvery rivers Draining a land lush, fresh, fertile and black Vomiting beans of cocoa, tubers and vegetables Supplying bananas, oranges and kola nuts Having hardwoods, softwoods, fibres and poles In the land of plenty and no hunger recorded Where the undergrowths a mesh indeed to see Where Elephants, Tigers and Lions abound Prowling the jungles and hidden forests A safari of note we possess here my pal In this glorious and wonderful enclave Networked, powered, linked and connected Upon a land rested on wilder climes for you Now tamed, worked, cultivated and made fruitful Yielding fruits of various types for the belly Of men now enjoying aplenty the blessing of yore From the fruits of a land they treasure to glee OSUN STATE The land of living springs exists Around the mythical mores retold Acting like a wedge and prop for us Oduduwa’s heritage guarded and kept At the “centre of the source” for you Recreated in concrete, iron and brass The crowned heads and beaded dress Inherited a bonanza from progenitors Came down here from faraway they say But now domiciled in the land of gold Rubies, rocks, rich in precious stones Nuggets and gems hidden in the ground Fresh and sweet land, clean air and fertile soil Where large leaves broad the land covered Tall and strong trees aplenty on the ground Producing a bumper harvest of the forest Yielding a people focused and stolid In stoic principle and bold holy-spirit Leading them to the Promised Land Churning out prophesies and chants Hidden, true, obscure and forlorn But the pathway to our glorious dawn And just by the corner of the hill The future protected and preserved But the rules now lightly kept you see By a new generation lacking insight Of the coming of progenitors from far Their dreams, mores, focus and desires For the benevolence to remain permanent In an enclave charted by oracles and spirits OYO STATE The real pacesetter on Niger land Spreading wide, open and broad In mingled forest, shrubs grasses With gentle rugged outcrops astride Blazing that trail they laid ago On this glorious side of the divide In the emancipation prophesied A glorious day ahead waiting Oh! What a lovely expanse to see! Criss-crossed by strong networks Connecting East, North and South Around the city of largest concentration here Just southern part of the wilderness they are Plenteous in arts, crafts and commerce Their arable land breeding plentifully Much fruits, roots, fibre and minerals Their Riches deep in the hidden soil And water flowing on the surface In the land of perpetual royalty Now etched on modernity retold Factories, plants and conglomerates Rolling them out aplenty indeed Milk, honey, corn, wine and goods From aye till now a pacesetter this clime Never imitating anybody we know truly Times changed, new age today, new times And as globalization sweeps the world Whereby man everywhere must progress At the same pace in the race for newness Oyo’s choice of a global concept irreversible PLATEAU STATE Let’s go to the home of peace and security The paradise reborn atop the plateau Where nature whistles a lullaby unending Of the sweet call to a sweet rest or retreat Unto permanent joy and celebration galore With their music blaring with sonorous songs And the profuse sweat of the dancers on rocks Standing on that table of a land you know Environment temperate to the skin indeed But too cold for comfort unto novices just come As the severe cold gales resumes “mid-winter” Their cities scattered and powerfully knitted Atop around those ridges and rocks of ages And their giants hidden under the rocks Well shielded from the elements seen around Of nature came out in its true beautiful colour Inviting tourists and adventurers from far Through the well paved routes you tread Linking and joining the popular freeways Oh, to discover the secrets hidden thereof! Under that land ancient but modern away Of dexterous warriors and soldiers Never vanquished in history till date Now a real conglomerate of note for us Where modernity is personified indeed But the hot restiveness among them today! Brothers, kiths and kins on table of a land Now at daggers drawn and war songs arrayed Disturbing the ambience and peace we exported Inhabitants of Gog and Magog, unite and laugh! RIVER NIGER That waterway wonderfully meandering through the maze Came from Guinea and journeyed long those forlorn distances Until marrying Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea Crossed Mali and created a rich inland delta in the midst Bending south-east in the journey through the wilderness Formed a natural divide for Niger and Benin Republics along Entering NIGERIA in the violent rushing downhill with force Taking Sokoto River a tributary coming from the north east Then forming the rapids of Bussa where Mungo Park died Now a crafted point at Kainji big, mighty and very useful Turbines fixed turning the wheel of progress and light Now running leisurely through Jebba and the long stretch Before the holy marriage at Lokoja with the Benue River Forming the largest flow of water from Senegal to Calabar From where lower Niger began a slow gondola smoothly Depositing the excess baggage of sand and aquatic life This for ages lay upon each other settled and compressed Under the marsh and creeks turning our prized black gold! Now the real source of our power, glory and influence Of petrol dollars coming in from 1973 when they fought In the Middle East and OPEC raised an embargo unbending But the Niger, called different local names along its course The Djolliba of Mali, Kwara and Oya of motherland Nigeria The natural link across West Africa of cultures and people Serving cultures diverse and differently attuned to life Upon a maritime stretched long, meandering and swift Calling you to play but luring you to chaos or death Along a course filled with rapids and falls unending Where you can only use your craft with dexterity Appreciated only in climes far away from godot Thanks for reading! Hope you have enjoyed yourself. Let me have your comments if any. Thanks again!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:27:31 +0000
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