Let’s sing a new song that is old,
to remember the old ways and old days,
when life was worth living,
when the cost of living was not costly,
and the condition of living was not tight and kwashiorkored.
Let’s sing a new song that is old,
to remember those sweet old days
when one dollar was equal to one Naira
and our young people did not rush to wash plates and corpse in America
in exchange for a few dollar crumbs.
Let us sing a new anthem
postpartum depression of the new nationhood,
birthed by an aged father and a sick mother,
both struggling to walk and survive, while the child lies
helpless in a manger of poor economic hygiene.
Let’s sing a new song that is as old as the new nation,
whose white linen is soiled by the citizens’ blood,
blood that soaks the road to Lagos and Abuja
when kidnappers and armed robbers strike in broad daylight.
Let’s sing a new song to the old rhythm,
because old hags are leaders in the new dispensation,
Eighty-year olds who walk like infants
and speak in balablus and parables.
Let’s sing a new song that’s old,
to recall those heroic days
when fuel cost less and was available
and our oil was not a curse to us.
Today we sing an old song anew,
the whim of our Leader,
who wants us to sing a new song
to help him recall his youthful days.
Let this old new song take us back to the past,
let it remind us of the great things we had done
which made us the giant of Africa,
now lying and snoring away in the desert of penury.
Nigeria we hail thee!
We will sing this song three times a day
in place of our three square meals,
when we are stuck in the horrible Lagos traffic,
when Nepa leaves us in social limbo,
when we trek for miles in search of fuel,
when we fear that our precious cooking gas
will finish in the course of
cooking beans of penury.
Nigeria we hail thee!
We will sing this song
at night when the generator noise keeps us awake
and there is no water to quench our thirst
because of the rising cost of im/pure water.
Nigeria we hail thee!
Singing an old song in a new era,
going backwards in our politics,
the anachronism of the balablus.
Nigeria we hail thee!
Singing of truth but promoting national falsehood,
tales of unity in disunity,
piping on justice but robed in the inferno of injustice
which engulfs the entire South East and South South.
Nigeria we hail thee!
We hail thee in our diverse holes scattered
around the Niger-areas – in ghettoes above water in Makoko,
the filths under the bridges in Ojuelegba, the uncompleted buildings in Surulere,
the road of plagues in Aba and in the risky waters and creeks of the Delta.
As we sing this old new song,
we cheer our leaders in affluence
and rue our places in penury.