‘I will crush terrorists and criminal gangs operating across Nigeria.’

Seems like yesterday,
But it was really eight calendar years ago,
When our tired ears tingled to the chorus of change:
Sai Baba! Sai Baba!

Sai Baba vowed to squash terrorists like mashed potatoes.
Many of us were hooked,
And the dull light in our eyes brightened like a child’s happy squeal at the mention of candies.

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But in place of a breath of fresh breeze,
We got an overdose of unprecedented shege.
As Boko Haram terrorists unleashed their mayhem,
Militia herders maimed lives without pity.

Yet,
Sai Baba’s body language was glaring to the blind,
And his silence more deafening than words.

Do you know the easiest route to death’s gate,
Or where a death wish gets swiftly fulfilled in the north?
Right in your place of worship, or your own home.
Here, you have options to die from.

We were a broken people before he came
And now,
We are more broken than we were.
The highways have become homes for hoodlums.
Our beds are no longer warm ’cause they can come when sleep is at its sweetest.

Kidnappers snatched many for a hefty ransom.
And the shege makers graduated into unknown gunmen.
Many sons returned home to their mothers in caskets,
And those who were lucky escaped with trauma.

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The old soldier promised to make our land safe;
He said change would come.
Sai Baba made our tired ears tingle with hope;
We were hooked for a land where lives are not plucked before their time.

But as danger built its nest within our shanties,
Sai Baba’s body language was glaring to the blind,
And his silence more deafening than words.