THE GAME CHANGER
(For Otunba Mike Adenuga)
By Akeem Lasisi
Onshore or offshore
Your imprints are as real as day and night
Whether by employment or CSR,
You nurture the polity from your success pot
There are some who play games
But others are born to change the game
With your penchant for turning tides,
You have changed for life the language of the trade
Many, many seasons back,
They said telecom was not a toy for the poor
That communication was a rare jewel
The pure gold for an elite few
Later came a mobile era
When every minute cost fortunes:
You phoned you paid,
You are phoned you paid
Indeed before you stepped out
Tearing the veil from the temple of our eyes,
If carelessly I overheard a neighbour’s call
I must pay in cash or in curious kind
But at the time our spines were about to break
Entered the Bull on the Global Pitch
You stormed the scene with generous terms
You liberated the arena with per second bills!
They said no black man could run digital trade
But pride of a derided continent,
You said ours was not an inferior brain,
You changed the game for our trampled race
Pride of a pestered continent,
You made the eagle believe in its wings
You remind the horse in our Coat of Arms
That its legs were made for a distant race.
Money is a tissue paper
Until it gets to the market and touches some souls
Money is worthless than the roadside grass
Until it speaks to the hearts of the holder’s clan
I have been to Ojude Oba
Where Glo most glamorously powers the people’s heritage
I have been part of the Ofala feast
Where you brand culture with an obese cheque
When I saw the Eagles in orange glowing
I knew your brand had reached the camp
With a business like yours that takes and gives
Our League will leap like Liga,
Our chart will be back to the Glo-rious track.
