The Victory of Evil?

“When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations……When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” - President John F. Kennedy on October 26, 1963 at Amherst College, Massachussets. Glancing around me Sordid is what stares at me Despondent I can’t help but be So discouraged never have I been As I peeped into the horizon So easy it is to discern Prancing around unencumbered Is the joyous Evil Triumphantly bouncing across the land. Evil is not just joyous Evil is wildly celebrating Stomping its deleterious feet cockily On the dead soldiers of good While the truth guards are comatose Inebriated in their numbing stupor Unable to resist the well armed soldiers of Evil With an air of invulnerability His environment, Evil arrogantly surveys Astonished at the feat accomplished Amazed at the ingrained beautiful carnage. Delirious in their triumph, enamoured by their leader The soldiers of Evil began a sudden rendition: “All hail the Godfather!” “All hail the Godfather!!” “All hail the Godfather!!!” Evil has vanquished the Good Foot mat of Evil, Good has become Right cowers at the sight of might At the sniff of ineptitude, rectitude dithers Honesty recoils at being honed To great odium, hard work was put As shrapnel of poseurs permeate the polity. On the throne, Evil sits In its splendor and majesty On its right and left, its chieftains flanked Ensconced in glowing regalia of guilefulness Corruption, fraud, theft, laziness, greed, deceit Lies, shamelessness, kleptomania, impunity All flouting their new found power While in their own indulgence, they revel. The dregs are now the new pegs Signposts to the new mess Gonging for the inglorious goons The advent of a new moral order Heralding the victory of Evil The triumph of falsehood Indicating the harrowing defeat of Good The odious crippling of rectitude Open torment of integrity; and Agonizing conspicuous disgrace of dignity The Evil’s moral order is simple Vice it brings as Virtue Forgery camouflaged as forthright Dictatorship it deodorizes as Democracy Mercantilism as Progressivism Scallywags as Saviours Scoundrels as Saints Scamps as Stars. Evil’s formidable forces Well oiled, marshaled and organized New moral order, determined are they to enforce The clime they infest with crime Evil’s cretins fermenting as vermin Looting unencumbered in peace time Maiming the morals of the critical mass Dispossessing the people with strokes of pen To the power of Evil, big thanks Out of our clime, it has caused Integrity to take flight For cover, dignity has dived So deep, sincerity has sunk Chastity is thoroughly chastised Honour, hounded to hiatus To tatters, etiquette is thoroughly torn. In this Yoruba Nation of ours In this our land of Oodua On these hallowed grounds of ours Conscripted in a contraption called Nigeria How did it come to pass? Where did we go wrong? How did we miss the signs? How did this happen? This Victory of Evil? How is it possible On this hallowed grounds Where Moremi once sacrificed for the Nation Where Sodeke once strived for independence Where Basorun Ogunmola once demonstrated valiance Where Ogedengbe Agbogungboro once defended his people Where Ishola Fabunmi Oke-Mesi once insisted on self-determination Where Kunrunmi and Latoosa were once Field marshals Where Seriki Ogunsigun of Ijebu-Igbo once spilled his blood In defence of Ile-Ife, the Source of Yoruba virility. How did this happen? This Victory of Evil On this hallowed grounds Of great Kings, Nobles, Chiefs and Warriors Where once marched the Great Obafemi Awolowo With his all conquering visionary army Of patriots and seminal administrators To restore the pride and glory of our people And reinstate the dignity, honour and hope of our people How did we get to this point? Where unabatedly across Yoruba land Evil and its foot soldiers are celebrated How did we come to accept Lies, lies and lies Falsehood, fraud and effrontery Mediocrity, mendacity and hocus-pocus As moral parallels of dignity, integrity Honesty and sincerity of purpose. In the days of yore The leaders who led and set the pace Men of character they were Their dignity they valiantly vaunted Their integrity they jealously guarded Their people, culture, tradition and heritage Were covetously protected While allowing the dynamics of change Take its constructive and positive toll Organized and orderly society, they still maintained. Mass media is midwifing miasma Securing sepulchral solace to the marauders The intelligentsia is in intermission Crippled and corralled into collaboration Human Rights activists are deactivated Civil Society, soiled in its marshy morass All lured into love of filthy lucre Signifying the dearth of conscience Evil is confidently strutting the land Its soldiers arrayed against the hopes of our people Secured in the efficacy of ill-gotten wealth as its weapon So sure that everyone has got a price In this period of anomie, especially and particularly Buying up everyone that is buy-able Mauling anyone that is maul-able Recalibrating the destiny of any recalcitrant Standing in its evil path. All the sages of old Through the stages of History All the philosophers of now Molding the here and now And all the seekers of nigh Paving the path to pace All the faiths of the earth Believe, agree and teach That Evil will never overcome good. But now, this is not it and now it is not so Evil seems victorious, its soldiers prowling all over Yet if they are right, and so they must be All these sages, philosophers, seekers and faiths Then this victory of Evil In this land of Oodua, nay this Nigeria Can only be akin to that of Pyrrhus’ That King of Epirus over the Romans in 280 BC No more, no less! “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.” - John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961