If you studied literature in a Nigerian secondary school, then you might be familiar with this poem. Ambassadors of Poverty was one of the poems I studied during my WAEC examinations in 2013. Being a teenager back then with little knowledge of the realities of my country, I did not fully grasp the aptness of the poem, but now I dare say that this poem is still very precise. It’s not a short poem but it’s worth reading and I respect the author for it. It’s also very self explanatory, so I am not writing to give you a summary, I just feel that it’s a poem that everyone should read, especially my fellow Nigerians. By the way, my country turned 59 a week ago, 1st of October, in the spirit of independence; I bring to you, Ambassadors of Poverty!
AMBASSADORS OF POVERTY- A POEM BY P.O.C UMEH
Ambassadors of poverty are
The corrupt masters of the economy
With their head abroad
And anus at home
Patriots in reverse order
Determined merchants of loot
Who boost the economy of their colonial order
To impoverish brothers and sisters at home
Ambassadors of poverty are
The saviors of the people
Office loafers in the guise of workers
Barons of incompetence
With kleptomaniac fingers
And suckling filaments
Position occupants and enemies of service
Locked in the corrosive war of corruption
With their people’s treasury
And killing their future
Ambassadors of poverty are
The dubious sit tight patriots
Frustrating the corporate will of their followers
The beleaguered, hungry and famished owners of the land
People priced out of their conscience and power
Incapacitated by destitution
Unable to withstand the temptation
Of crispy mints and food aroma
Ambassadors of poverty are
The political elites
In air conditioned chambers
And exotic cars
With tearful stories of rip offs
Tucked away from
Their impoverish constituencies
Lying prostrate
With death traps for roads
Mud for water
Candle for light
Underneath trees as schools
Rat for protein
Fasting as food
And alibi as governance
Ambassadors of poverty are
The rancorous elites
In battle of supremacy
For the control of power
And their people’s wealth
Mowing down their own
With white man’s machine
Oiled by the prosperity of black patronage
Counterpoised by deprivations
As the corpses of their able-bodied men
Women and children lie unmourned
In shallow graves
In their fallow farmlands
Long abandoned
Ambassadors of poverty are
The round trippers
The elusive importers
Of unseen goods and services
Sand inclusive
Who trip the economy down
By tricking form M
For harvest of dollars as import
When their people see neither money nor food
Ambassadors of poverty are
The able-bodied men on the street
Without motives, without vision, without mission
Men fit for the farms
But glued to the city
Hungry and desperate
Constituting willing tools in the hands
Of political overlords
For mission of vendetta
Against political foes
In their fight for power
Ambassadors of poverty are
Those whose actions and inaction
Reduce their people’s expectation to nothingness
Those whose antecedents
Have lost the spark to inspire
While their people lie in surrender
Having been defeated by poverty
Ambassadors of poverty are
All of us whose inaction
Steal our collective joy
Because of what we should do
Which we never do
As we bargain away
Our conscience in the market place
Under the weight of poverty
To assuage our hunger
And our master’s will.
I particularly love the poet’s choice of words, I’m thinking about sharing more poems subsequently; do enjoy the rest of your day.
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I remember reading this poem in secondary school. It was my next best after Sola Owonibi’s Homeless not Hopeless and Oswald Mtshali’s Boy on a Swing…
These poems are sad, soul searching and so beautiful. I remember reading Ambassadors of Poverty back then and saying to myself ‘I will not be one of them’. I don’t know what secondary school children read these days but I hope it’s half as good as this classic
Great job!
Thank you 😊. I hope so too.