The IMF has, again, asked the Nigerian government to remove the most notorious abiku called fuel subsidy, with the Federal Government too considering a gradual approach to it… This reminds me of ‘Correct Pricing’, a poem I composed some 23 years ago. How things remain unchanging and, indeed, unchanged here and there!
CORRECT PRICING
Akeem Lasisi
In the deep darkness of the promised light
White eagles and black falcons
Scarily dancing in our ragged sky
Preaching an inflammable hike in the people’s sights
Sirens of expedience swallow famished trumpet of cardinal truths.
Machiavellian poetics
Rhyming rithmetic of ruse
Sweet and smooth
Smooooth and sweet –
Like the sedative eloquence of a sycophant wind
They say correct pricing, correct pricing
To tackle smuggling, to tackle famine
To tackle fuel famine in the knocking morrow.
They say in London,
A litre of fuel is a million pounds
But we ask: what is London’s price of common goals?
They say in Ghana
A litre of fuel a million pounds
But what is Ghana’s price for human sweat?
Correct pricing, correct pricing
Correct pricing in the hands of the fox
This is correct pricing in the fangs of the fox.
Oh ye merchant of blood,
Remember your soul and burn your flesh.
For what manner of doctor is he
Who wants to heal the crippled by adding yaws?
Have you forgotten our eyes that share a single sky,
Have you forgotten our corpses that share a single earth?
With the white and black eagles blowing their bogus lairs across the globe
Will they not remove the subsidy on peace
Will they not un-tether the tired tendons of nature’s anger?
Correct pricing, correct pricing
Correct pricing in the hands of the fox
This is correct pricing in the fog of the night.
From market forces to evil forces,
A mudu of gaari,
Making a raucous mockery of Newton’s law,
Manufactured a mindless myth
It permanently jumped into the shivering sky.
Father shrank to the strength of wool
Mother’s breasts ran dry like a public tap!
With the white and black eagles blowing the bogus lairs across the globe
Will they not remove the subsidy on peace
Will they not un-tether the tired tendons of nature’s anger.
Correct pricing, correct pricing
Correct pricing in the fangs of the fox
This is correct pricing in the fog of the night.
