Northern Heroes

Ezra Bature

Ezra Bature's Profile

Ezra Bature

Wednesday 17 December 2025

Northern Heroes

From Sahel winds to savannah wide,

Where dust remembers every stride,
The North stands old, with stories deep,
Of crowns and caliphates, awake from sleep.

Ahmadu Bello dreamed of light,
A Northern star, a guiding sight;
With Tafawa Balewa, calm and wise,
They spoke of unity beneath one sky.

But history cracked with thunder’s sound,
Coups like storms on shaken ground.
Ironsi fell, and chaos grew,
Till Gowon swore to hold things through.

The land then bled, yet still stood tall,
Through civil war’s consuming call.
Then Murtala rose, fierce and brief,
A flash of hope, a soldier’s belief.

Years rolled on with mixed decree,
Babangida’s smile, uncertainty;
Abacha’s rule, a clenched tight fist,
Where fear and silence coexist.

The North grew heavy with silent cries
Of almajiri dreams, of mothers’ eyes,
Of fields that dried, of schools undone,
Of youths with futures on the run.

Yar’Adua came with a softer tone,
Ailing body, earnest bone;
He spoke of peace, of rule and law,
But time withdrew what hope once saw.

Then Buhari, forged in discipline’s fire,
Promised order, promised higher
Yet still the villages asked for bread,
And graves kept growing for the dead.

Insurgents tore through faith and farm,
Turning prayer to fear, and night to harm.
And politics played its endless game,
While hunger wore the people’s name.

O Northern land of scholars and sand,
Of Qur’an, cattle, and calloused hands,
Your plight is not from lack of worth,
But broken trust since nation’s birth.

May future names not wound but heal,
May power learn what hunger feels.
For history is watching still
And justice waits the leader’s will.