Christmas came early,
Not with gifts that make the mouth break into a toothy grin;
It came with bloodshed and a dramatic twist of tragedy.

It came early for the bony boy in Surulere, whose feast of luxury is now a bowl of watered garri covered for some time so it can gain weight.
His blind baba voted for the mandate.
Only if he had known that his poverty was only marinating in a cool place,
Waiting to be coated with renewed shege before the chefs of mandate served it to him.

It came early for Greatness.
Death picked her up before her greatness could bloom.
She was twice made a victim of misfortune;
Stabbed and thrown from a moving car, then rejected by those sworn to protect lives.
Maybe her time wouldn’t have been cut short if she were in a sane clime.

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Christmas came too early,
Not with gifts that make the mouth break into a toothy grin;
It came with bloodshed and a dramatic twist of tragedy.

It came early for Chalya.
Her killers took her life while she went jogging.
The world threw a fit; it called for justice.
But now, the world has moved on; public outrage has dwindled.
Only her loved ones are left to tend to their grief.

It came early for the two thieves who were cooked with petrol and fire in Onitsha.
They said they deserved such a brutal death, but is jungle justice the way forward?
Oh, silly me! How can I forget that there is no justice in the zoo?
Lady Justice has removed her blindfold so she can dine with the powerful.

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Dead men don’t tell tales, neither do hungry men celebrate an empty stomach
But not so in my land of birth.
Here, dead men have tragic tales to tell,
And hungry men have mastered how to bury their empty stomachs.