Nigeria, July 25 -- Without you, who will appreciate, hear

and grasp the essence of this song near

or far? What's a melody, without agility?

Idiom, dialect, language: you're all identity.

Your momentous component is the climax.

Tongue, you're the base, body, tip, or apex.

How does a famished soul function or taste diet

without taste buds, form a speech sound as a griot?

What has chopped you off the mouth or the culture?

Colonization? Where are the nerves that anchor, not fracture?

Tongue, without you, intrinsic and extrinsic tissues, texture,

root and recall are a bequest wrecked at the behest of a vulture.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from The News Chronicle....