Season Of Madness | Emmanuel Inya Otu-Nwachi

The strong man always refuted
Romancing with his enemies
To avoid being axed for anti party activities
His mouth had ran like tap
In denial of speculations he was on the move
I can't join a failed party, he said again and again
Even a few days to his D-day
Until the cat was let out of the bag;

But the strong man never wanted
To leave the house in order,
He sowed the seed of confusion
And dragged the people like an unwilling horse
To make his agenda altruistic:
I'm doing it for the east
The party has been unjust to the east
I'd stay if they zone the Presidency to the east
If not the east would leave
I'm not interested in the Presidency
I'll retire from politics come 2023
I'm not a politician
I'll be President if God says...
Bla bla bla bla bla...!
Inconsistencies, everyday
Confusion in high and low places
Deliberately created for maximum effect

The drama continues to unfold
And like a demon the strong man revels
In the furor he generated
And like demented fools we beat about
Like mad men possessed by the spirit of agwu nsi
We fall one over another in a frenzy
To overdo one another in base acts of sycophancy
No wonder it's said (by the Yoruba)
He the gods want to destroy
They first make mad!
Over here we believe
The spirit of madness is quite strong
And overbearing in the harmattan
And this is the season,
The season of madness!

Poet's note: A governor of a southeast state decamped from the PDP to the ruling APC. Though carpet crossing is a common feature in Nigerian politics, but this one is generating controversy because the man's reason isn't convincing at all. The man happens to be from my state and is really causing a lot confusion and heating up the polity because he expects people to follow his steps. But many are not interested in following him. The poem examines the inconsistencies in his utterances and action and the behaviour of his political appointees who are bending over to defend the governor's action.