An honest prayer to Mr Prez! [A poem]

By Eddie Onuzuruike

I bow though not trembling
Oga Ahmed, Bro Tinubu
The only Asiwaju that we know
Please listen to my plea.
The giant of Africa is in your hands
Yet uncounted and referenced only in estimation

Give us a census
To be like other nations
As you were in Paris Mr Prez
If those nosy newsmen inquired of Nija population
It would have ended in estimates
Estimates are like borrowing and
He who goes borrowing goes sorrowing

Uncle Jagaban,
Give us this census in 2023
Just to be like other nations
In the vast lands of UK and USA
In the plains and drains of Africa and Asia
Place us on the world map of counted countries
Because we count

Both in the Northern or Southern hemisphere
Whether temperate or tropic
They may ask you about your countrymen?
The number of the teeming youths
Employed and unemployed
The widows, orphaned and crippled
The homeless and ID camps?

Oga Ahmed, Biko listen to me!
If you give us this census
You have given us a new Nation
Every thing is ready
If in doubt ask Oga Isa Kwarra
All demarcations, aerial and area captures digitized
Ad-hoc staff trained, all citizens sensitized

All is cut and dried
As the father of a new Nigeria
No area will be left untouched
Male and female
Boys and girls
Old and young
Knowledge is power said Jerry Gana!

All in the East and West
North and South
Even for the next generation and elections
All the roads, houses, huts and hovels
The nooks, crannies and corners
The brooks, backwaters and lakes

Biko uncle Bola
Ejoo baba,
Give us this census
Just to be like other nations!
And you can boast to the UN and ther Paris Club
That you know us well
Continuous estimation of the giant of Africa isn’t the best