The Conspiracy against Our Crude oil, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

I can see crude oil cruising on our land;
Over the tributaries, streams and brooks the crude oil cruise everyday on our land.
A dry and desolate land it was yesterday, only home to ripe palm nuts.

A dry and desolate land it was yesterday, only home to palm wine tappers and lumberjacks;
A dry and desolate land it was yesterday, only home to lobster-hunters
On tired dugout canoes that bore weakly lit oil lamps, lobster-hunters canoed away, scooping live lobsters with piassava baskets.

At night water-weeds were the berthing home of lobsters
At night the lobster-hunters cast oil lamps on the fast moving waters in the river and scooped the lobsters holding unto floating water-weeds.

I can see corrosive blacks in collusion coming to control the crude oil and leave us dry and desolate like yesterday.
Like bulbuls on riparian trees, I shall let my voice loose in endless streams of wake-up songs;
Like parrots on riparian trees,I shall speak fast-paced English and awaken the snoring owners;
Like Otiti the time-teller bird in the forest, I shall tell the time devised by the colluding blacks to control the crude oil and move it beyond our reach.
I shall awaken the world to the conspiracy of the oil companies to cheat us through creative collusion, using bribable natives in the village.

I shall tell my people to rise against the looming conspiracy against the true owners of the crude oil, our gold.
The owners of the crude oil must not be deprived and left empty-handed in this my generation of eagle-eyed people.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State