A Father’s Legacy
A few days ago it dawned on me that the legacy I would hand over to my children would include not only my good name and earthly possessions but the legacy of a nation that would be unto them a blessing or otherwise. These thoughts led me to pen a few lines in reflection of the season and times. I hope you find them of reasonable worth and good food for your thought.
A Father’s Legacy
Think of the legacy you will leave behind
To your offspring do be merciful and kind
For the country that you see today
Seems to have wandered, gone far astray
Out of the paths that lead to where
Its people can live free of bondage and fear
Where though they bear a different name
They will be looked on as one and the same
Out of the paths where ethnic divide
Is not used in vain as a mask to hide
The greed in the hearts of those who say
Look to me I am your salvation, the way
Think of the legacy you will leave behind
Let it be at the fore top of your mind
For the nation you call your home and your land
Seems like a house built upon the wind and the sand
A nation whose leaders have eyes but are blind
In which true leaders are rare yea difficult to find
In which men lead without honor or shame
With no regard to legacy or a good name
A nation where the value of life is so cheap
That our leaders do not even bother to weep
At the evils that occur each and every day
Till evil visits them someday in a personal way
Think of the legacy you will leave behind
When you cease from all your labour and grind
Would your children receive only your wealth
Or a nation weak as a man sick unto death
In which money will not secure the breath of those
That lie in hospitals that are sick comatose
In which each journey they make on the highway
Is a journey that brings them more into harms way
In which they will not be able to walk freely on the street
Lest they fall prey to those long trampled under the feet
Of a nation that their fathers did not do enough to save
Before they passed on quietly to the land beyond the grave
May the legacy that you leave behind
Include a nation rare one of a kind
From which your children will not need to flee
To seek new pastures in lands beyond the sea
Opeyemi Iyekolo
