(A Poem, Vol. 1)
Oh, Igala, Igala, Igala!
How many times have I called thy name?
Who has bewitched you this bad?
Beneficiaries of Inikpi life-sacrifice.
What has happened to you all?
Where are the descendants of your ancestral
brave men and women who dared powers until 1956?
Did I say 1956? Yes, 1956! A year of betrayal, and the man died!
The people had betrayed a man.
And now, a man has betrayed the people!
This betrayal has come with divisions.
Oh Betrayal, in what manner have we sinned against thee!
But who planted these seeds of many colours in your farm oh Igala nation?
Seeds of discords, harvests of defeat.
Oh, Igala nation, why art thou trembling before your subordinates?
Why have your inferiors taken over your birthright as the superior?
Oh, for how long would this be?
Why have your sons and daughters forgotten their identity so soon?
Why have they chosen money over your good name?
They now boldly bear arms against themselves, shedding the bloods of one another, even as they count fallen heads one by one in the fields of death.
And these bloods dot your land oh Igala nation!
Today, the Head is no longer connected to the Body.
The Falcon indeed, can no longer hear the Falconer.
The Chicks are now deaf to the chuckles of the Mother hen!
But they hear the whispers of the Kites and the Hawks.
A Lion has begotten a Rat, and an Eagles’ egg has produced a fowl
Hunger and hatred have kissed our land, and the anxieties of the people cannot be counted!
Oh, Igala, a tribe and a nation now torn apart, you are!
But, again, I ask, for how long would this be?
Let the gods belch now for we are tired!
– Akobe Solomon
