[Lyric] When No Drums Can Be Heard (Iquo DianaAbasi)

When no drums can be heard,
but the dancer exhibits her finest
moves in the village square,
who will urge her to stop?
When dogs howl and bark
though neither children nor harm are found
on the street, who will throw stones
to caution the whelping animals?

this game is larger than the Iroko’s trunk,
let us gather as one, to dissect it from all angles...
neither machetes nor guns will suffice for this,
herders have wreaked enough havoc with those tools.
We need no bombs to amplify our cries,
no more trucks laden with innocent pupils,

Dapchi, Chibok, Baga, Buni Yadi mourn still…
For the dozens of children
we forgot to name still.
If we have won the war,
Why then do our tears persist?
Why then no technicality in the
fearful palpitation of our hearts?
The Emperor’s new clothes
glitter like diamonds, but only
to his eyes. Who will risk life
and speak this abominable truth?
Adam fit into Eden in his birthday suit,
but the year was not 2023

What do we do with youth
whose only currency is eagerness,
and their likely recompense, hunger?
What do we do to a hunger that bites not according to
mother tongue, tribal marks or religion.

Will we cling to broken promises,
ride on the memory of forsaken dreams,
oiled by years of accepting pittance,
though we are surrounded by plenty?

The greedy return with tales of their foes’ plots
But behind, friend and foe blend as one,
greed, their unified language,
ethnic division, their strongest arsenal.
Another four years, the beats may vary
the dancers unchanged, clothed in new attire,
But we are not fooled.
This resistance is not unpatriotic,
it is our hearts refusing to bleed,
this resistance is our lips refusing to sing
while they dance on our tombs,
and sip champagne from the skulls
of our disenchanted youth.

When no drums can be heard,
but the dancer exhibits her finest
moves in the village square,
who will diagnose this condition?

Will you also dance, though no
music assails your eardrums?
Or will you take a stand,
armed with your voices & PVCs
demanding better service, so tomorrow we can claim,
Our country lives!