This Animal Called Man! Homo Sapiens Nigeriana

This animal called man The self-centered bi-ped

Beats his chest with two hands

Claiming he is the greatest!

He forgets too that the great apes

The ugly gorilla and orang-utang

Of the sweltering rain forests

Walk on two feet beating their chests

Tell me my brother man

Is it true, the claim that this man

Who we see, feel and experience

Is a higher being as claimed?

This claim, made by the self-same man

A self-appraisal of the most generous kind

Conveniently forgets the lunatic’s delusion

That only he is sane and the rest of us mad

Tell me when last you saw

A pack of wolves led by the weakest

Or a pride of lions with the infirm

As its territorial conquistador!

That’s abomination in the animal kingdom

Where the strongest and best lead the rest

Protecting the rest and hunting to feed them too

The Nigeria man, the reverse can be the case!

Which animal, quadrupeds, bi-peds or birds?

Even reptiles and fishes of the sea

Arranges to steal the collective meal

Beyond what it can eat at a go?

Which animal, apart from man and hyaenas

Stays idle and lie in wait and subterfuge

For others to sweat, run after and kill prey

Only to show up and reap where they never sowed

Which animal kills and eats its own kind

And take the spoils to different species

Like our folks do with our commonwealth

Taking them to Dubai and Switzerland

Tell me my friend if you know of any animal

Which digs more holes than it can inhabit

And prevents other animals from ingress

So it can be called a great one like man does!

Do you know of any animal species

That calls its most vile compatriots

Who steal their food and keep them hungry

‘Honourable’, debasing the meaning and import?

Have you seen any animal anywhere

Increasing its share of the food barn

In the scarcity of famine that hits the herd

Like Naija officials in midst of subsidy catastrophe? 

Tell me where you saw or heard or read

Of cows stopping other cows from grazing

Because one was born in Kaura Namoda

And the others in Katsina-Ala or Borgu

Have you ever seen any herd

That creates obstacles to the growth of its young

Treating them like prey to be eaten

As police does to our youth with jagged hair? 

Ever seen a pack of wolves in leadership quest

Using bands of outlaw toughie roughnecks

To keep the best from the crest

So the worst can lead the pack?

Seen a rabbit claim triumphantly

That a hole it dug halfway

Is complete as an escape route

Like they did 2rd Niger bridge?

Have you seen a pack of snakes

Select only those with bad records

To lead the charge to Eldorado

The best with potent venoms left behind?

Ever seen a butterfly call itself a bird

Or a python call itself a puff adder?

As our politicians do at election time

With bogus certificates and dates of birth?

This Naija animal called man

Spending more on consumption than education

Asking later why the monster population is increasing

Budgets more for SUVs than he does for epidemics

The man, that lowers qualification requirements

To empower the dullard and scuttle the bright

That makes Matriculation huddles

Higher than Presidency qualifying requirements

Bandit claiming more muscle than the legally armed

Asserting from the rocky holy of holies

That they we assigned protection of our lifeblood

Have been raiding the till all along!

This man, that proudly looking down

From his self-created pedestal

On animals with their multiple mates in season

Claiming monogamy and living polygamically

This homo sapiens Nigeriana

That makes previous financial malfeasance

A qualification for appointment to high office

With responsibilities co-terminus the treasury

Is he really higher, better or saner than animals?

Just because he builds a storey house 

With stolen money from the poorest folks

Then moves downstairs when arthritis calls?

Why do their heroes in an epoch

Suddenly become villains in another?

And former EFCC instigators become their inmates

Just because the tenants of Aso-Rock changed?

The claim is false, that man is a higher animal

The same man that expends more on ammunitions

Than he spends on social services for its people

He is lower than atheistic animals in practice

22nd June 2023 – Austin Isikhuemen

Download the first chapter of The Storytelling Series: Beginners’ Guide for Small Businesses & Content Creators by Obehi Ewanfoh.