Letter to the economy (To Nigerian workers) — Abba Gana Shettima

My alkalam has been tingling
to write and let you know my
thoughts
on your body which was torn
into useless shreds of bone
and became chained to forlorn hope
even as your eyes were drained
by a visual fallacy of greatness.

Your body has been diagnosed
by a herd of money physicians
from home and across the seas
whose expertise concluded your
sickness
to dehydration and dizziness
caused by a dysentery of subsidy.

By the time we finally realised
the basic cause of your sickness
and cast away the symptoms
you have lost water in oceans.
Thus neither large doses of SAP
tablets,
nor volumes of intravenous privati-
sation
could cure your ailment.

Our masons of hope have built
mountains of patience and perse-
verance
all of which have been destroyed
by the bulldozers of despair and
despondency.
As I write you this letter,
my paper was sprinkled by tears
others across the country are miffed
and one can hear them weeping.