The Dictators Are Not Only Those

The Dictators are not only those 

Who terrorized us in military clothes
Banned the ballot boxes, rolled out armored tanks
From their hallowed barracks their records stank

The dictators are not only those
Who unleashed on us bullets doses
Arrests we endured, Teargas we inhaled
Bullets we survived, in victory we exhaled

The dictators are more than men in khakis
Now they strut around with official cardkeys
They dined with the military killers
Frolicking and posing as civilian rulers

The dictators are the beneficiaries of our struggle
The throats of the people they now strangle
Feeding fat on the carcass of the masses
Belching on empty electoral promises

The dictators are the pot bellied old men
Toasting their ‘do or die’ politics with a mien
Drinking the blood of our youth
While our treasury they loot

With our blood we paved the way for elections
With our limbs new mansions are now erected
Assassins they wantonly hire to come and raid
As they willfully gun down our trusted comrades

Arise comrades, for our work is far from done
From the wrinkled, bloodstained hands of the dons
Our country we shall capture and reclaim
Our comrades’ blood shall not be in vain

The dictators are the 1 percent
We the masses are the 99 percent
With unity, might and strength
We shall sniff out their odious scent

The dictators we shall once again oust
Our flag they shall no longer hoist
They shall all be gone
Before we are done.

BY © YEMISI ILESANMI. 5 MAY , 2012

 — with Joel Akhator Odigie and 27 others.