Valentine An early Christian feast In honour of saint valentine Who was brutally martyred For his stand Century after century His legacy stands Like an iroko tree Upon the unmovable pebbles Of Udi hills In the heart of lovers His legacy is adored With red attires Bound by strong love chords Caressing the soul A season of love for many Except for Nigerians Which has spiced her sauce creatively With thistles and thorns Disguising as fuel and money scarcity Oh Oloibiri! How I long for 1958 When explorers played a novelty match Upon the discovery of petroleum With promises like honeycombs The stars glittered glow in hope But hope melted away Like the wax On a midnight candle I remember the good old days When our wells overflowed With pure crude When we refined at our backyard To the envy of the Western world Kit with pruning hooks To devour our wealth Warnings upon warnings On deaf ears they fell Till our refineries collapsed To pave way for our oil export Sold for peanuts And bought back with hard currency At the port Marketers hike prices In the name of subsidy Disguised to deceive The common man Its midday But fuel stations are locked Even without a whip Everyone’s coordinated As automobiles line on straight queues Without a metre rule After a series of gate banging Oga appears With an unperturbed look He whispers There’s no fuel As automobiles scramble for the next station At sun set Oga calls his black marketers For a night dispense Detrimental to the common man Across the road Lines yellow cans Laden with pms That can be accessible Only at hiked prices At the bank The ATMs are full With few dispensing And many out of network Unending queues await The daring Nigerian Charmed by his needs But resolved not to linger To access ones hard earned cash To settle lovers’ bills Money trade money Coz wicked bank managers Jeopardized the monetary policy For selfish gain Five thousand naira Echoes the POS agent To get fifty thousand naira As hunger bites Below the belt zone Drum pattern changes With dancing shoes on From aboki to meruwa Uchenna to Chikaodi And emi lokan Everyone’s dancing To this seasons beat Bankers are locked in By angry customers For kidnapping our naira Despite pleas upon plea There was no breakthrough Till security forces intervened To calm the raging storm In spite of the aura Naira and fuel Partners in crime Scarce pass argon and neon To celebrate without stress And leverage the season Maximise e-transaction Avoid unnecessary expenditures Live within your means Alternate public transport and cycling Let’s love purely Extend help graciously To ease the yoke and burden Anchored upon the biscuit scapular Of helpless Nigerians In this season