Ode to the Sahara

About this poem

The poem "Ode to the Sahara" speaks to the leaders of Northern Nigeria pointing out the root cause of the incessant rise in banditry, kidnapping, insurgency etc which has been ravaging the Northern region of Nigeria for a period now. The poet makes it clear that religious indoctrination and impoverishment of the people which the Northerners gave priority attention instead of western education in their early days is basically what has landed them in this present calamity. For had they paid serious and unbiased attention to the spread of Western Education throughout the North and encourage open minded enlightenment just as it is in the Southern part of the country, all these agitations both in the North and South would have reduced or even been nonexistent. But because you have raised your Northern Youths with a mindset that only them were "born to rule" and that Nigeria is their father's property and as such they can do anything and get away with it, no police will be able to arrest them, no court in the country can try them, no military group can withstand them etc, they had to start marginalizing others from the South whenever they have the slightest opportunity to do so and because nobody wants to be marginalized in their own country, different regions in the South had to start agitating for secession. According to the poet, many of the Northern leaders raised and indoctrinated their youths to be violent against others who were not of the same religious belief with them, teaching them that Nigeria is their father's property and as such they should be ready to shed even the last drop of their blood to reclaim the entire geographical territory called Nigeria. This is what has metamorphosed into banditry, large scale kidnapping, insurgency and so on in Nigeria, predominantly within the Northern part of Nigeria. more »