Recently Ousted President Ali Bongo of Gabon’s Noise Orchestra

ALI BONGO’S NOISE ORCHESTRA

By Austin Isikhuemen (Guest writer)

He thought he was next to God

The young man with variegated jerry curls

The inheritor of iniquitous thiefdom

Massive head with miniscule grey matter

Sired by Oman Bongo Ondimba

Gabon’s forty-two-year potentate

Did rumour not say Ali is Nigerian?

Arrived with Biafran’s war orphans?

Saw him sing Rap songs on stage

Throw pauperized Gabonese into a frenzy

Momentarily forgetting their hunger and pain

Gyrating to the silly catcalls of their nemesis

Looking forlorn in his Residence

Built with the people’s commonwealth

Ordering us like he was wont to do

To make noise and make some noise.

That message of hopelessness

Was not meant for the Gabonese

Else it would have been in French

Inherited lingo of their exploiter-in-chief

We indeed made noise to ripe fruits

Thinking they have unlimited tenancy

In palatial residences across Africa

Kigali, Yaoundé, Lome, Malabo, Kampala

That transition bell that tolls uncontrollably

With footprints across the Sahel

Dipping a tentative foot in the Gulf of Guinea

Could eastwards move after biya-mbasogo dance

Let the new kids on the block know too

This dance is not about them, but the lifted yoke

Lest they start dreaming of endless nights

Of bliss in the people’s Residence they seized