OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION – CHINONSO ONYEBUCHI
“Imagination gives birth to things unknown but the writer’s pen turns them into shapes and gives to them living breaths.”
ALSO READ: BOWEN WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION WAS A HUGE SUCCESS
The 2018 OSCA WOVEN WORDS COMPETITION was organized by My Woven Words and it was only for undergraduates of tertiary institutions in Osun State as approved by the ministry of education, Osun state. There were Terms and Conditions for contestants.
OSCA Woven Words Competition remains the “first-of-its-kind” and “one-of-its-kind” in Osun state, Nigeria. To avoid Conflicts of Interest, we reached out to a number of unbiased scholars in a university outside Osun State to assess the submitted manuscripts and select the best contestants. All the contestant got a certificate of participation and some of the submitted manuscripts were selected for online publication.
TOPIC: The Tenacity of Nigerian Youths in National Development and Leadership Roles.
TAKE IT
In life, nothing goes for free,
Everything has a fee.
Unless you are ready to pay,
At that same point, you will continually stay.
We all have expectations
For our individual nations
But what are we doing to make it real?
That’s the deal.
It’s unfortunate that most of us only speak
But never utilize the beak.
We analyze the issue
But remain with our tissue.
Crying over it,
Watching as we get pounded to grit.
We say the country is bad,
And it’s something really sad
But that remains in our closet.
Hence the dreams are never met
But we continue in the same circle of quagmire
Waiting for a moment it will expire
But it will never go away.
No, it will stay
Until you & I take the initiative
And do the substantive.
Sugar coating is of no use,
So is making ruse.
You are undermined,
Seriously sidelined.
Otherwise how can you explain some senior entities
In their eighties
Being entrusted with affairs, so weighty
Despite their grip’s frailty.
Can you entrust glass into shaking hands?
Unless you want it to become like sands
You don’t make such an ommission
Or commission
But we seem to have lost that fact
Hence, we are victims of a dastardly cataract
Of things crashing & falling apart
Because we refused to play our part
In this national construction,
Thereby birthing the destruction
And downturn we see today
And complain, “it’s not okay”
Yes, you may say we’ve done our best
To take the baton which has been held to their chest
But they won’t let us have it.
“Mama & Papa know best, so sit
And let us carry the load
For long is the road”.
But if the road is long
Which is their usual song
Should someone with frail bones
Be let to drive
Such complex & heavyduty vehicle
Like this one?
Certainly not!
For he’ll probably crash the vehicle
Before arrival at destination
Most likely for the reason of poor sight
Which is the experience today
The nation is crashing
Because of the poor sight
Of the old drivers
The youth is needed for this purpose
So that the nation is given a good pose
In the group photograph of nation-states,
The kind that fascinates.
Remember a building on a weak foundation collapses
A building on an old foundation collapses as well
But a building on a strong foundation stands firm
You have that strong foundation, Mr. Youth
Put it into u
READ MORE: OSCA WRITE-UPS
Thanks a million!
