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Critics’ metamorphosis, By ‘Dipo Onabanjo

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TRIBUTE: Adieu Prof Ukandi Godwin Damachi, the cheerful giver
'Dipo Onabanjo

Here they come!

With itchy pens

And tablets of trouble.

They are social critics

Human rights activists

Purveyors of the good

The bad, the tasty and the ugly.

 

We love them when they smell good

And show us mirrors of hope

Treat our leaders with courtesy

But when they court trouble

And fart on our fatty faces

Go to hell, we tell them!

Call them intrepid, shameless maggots!

Critics' metamorphosis, By 'Dipo Onabanjo

Receivers of ‘brown envelopes’

Of dollars, Euros, Yen and Pounds;

Scavengers, knaves, knotty cranks

Filthy men of the False Estate of the Realm!

 

And when they cross the carpet

To defend, in frustration, the powers-that-be

Churning out tomes of polished notes

And picking crumbs from the big men’s tables

They become official megaphones

Of falsehood, eating up their own

Like birds of carrion, filthy and bloody!

 

But their metamorphosis is soon complete

To the top of the ladder they climb

Commissioner X, Governor Y, Minister Z!

Mansions in cities fenced away

From the masses they once served.

Luxurious cars beyond counting

Artificial rewards of years of criticism;

Of long hours in detention camps.

 

Now they have arrived!

The journey from poverty to prosperity

Is at last fully accomplished with some guilt

And since the end justifies the means

We say congrats, critics of fortune!

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