Dying in the petrol queue, By Niyi Osundare
Dying in the petrol queue, By Niyi Osundare
Nigeria: a Giant crawling like a wingless ant
1
I spent this year’s Christmas
At a petro station
Some two miles from my NEPA-less* home
And immeasurable distance from sanity
The manger was dark
When the Wise Men arrived
Pious Joseph had no fuel
To power the idle generator
Hood-to-boot ahead of my own
Were over a hundred cars in motionless misery
Behind, in a grotesque sprawl round a bend
Was a multitude of metal I dared not count
The “Subsidy” Saga was in the air again
As it did last season and the seasons before
“Appropriate Pricing”, “Landing Costs”,
“Loading Fees”, and allied jargon
Usurped front pages of the national tabloid
Government megaphones blared
In the first two days, then went satanically silent
The people were left to argue it out
With absent Station Managers whose harvest
Increased with every hike in the hitch
Christmas came and went, but not the snaky line
Which bit every nerve of the hungry, angry folks
And the nation’s government was blissfully AWOL
2
Boxing day arrived
The line grew longer, the tempers shorter
Some boxing did occur, with broken noses
And dented hoods in the ringless arena
The Station Manager spied the fight
From behind the curtain, picked up his bulging bag
And vanished through the back door.
He would never touch the treasure in his underground tank
Until the selling price had hit the sky
Let moralists preach till they lose their lungs
“Eat or be eaten”: our nation has a noble motto;
The hottest part of Hell is the logical terminus
Of the straight and narrow way……..
Dusk darkened into night
Noon’s harmattan heat dived into dusty cold
Stubborn odor hanged heavy from unwashed bodies
Petrol lines loomed longer than the longest lanes
Bread prices soared in the marketplace
The sick screamed a desperate prayer
To the god of early grave
Blindly led, corruption-corroded,
Nigeria sits on top of a sea of oil
With hardly a drop to power its engine
A giant crawling like a wingless ant
And the nation’s government was blissfully AWOL
Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.
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