The Inauguration Poem: “WE BELIEVE”

Author:               Mercy Olagunju

This is where it all begins

And in this beginning

Know ye one and all that the fate of a people is about to be slipped down your palms

That rigour is about to begin

And either hard or not,

Have just one option: to keep showing up

To show up for these people

See thousands of destinies are about to be attached to you like tiny stings dangling down the masquerades of the Yoruba people

But don’t you dare take them off

They are your duty

And see that barrack across the road named ‘SUB’ is a war room

Where battles are fought, won and sealed for these people

You should ask me, what do I see

’cause I do not just see a group of people sitting in blue gowns and caps

About to be sworn into leadership

I see able bodies, dressed in amour

An indication of their agility, ability to be frontliners,

Defenders of their people, about to be sworn into functionality

I see men

About to take up the wheels of no other school but OAU

See this is not just a school

Students, buildings, roads, and their lecturers

This is where big destinies are made

And we believe!

We have put our faith in this jar of your leadership

Fearless that it would break and pour our own trust in our faces

We believe

That each representation of our identity in the imprints of our ink stained thumb signatures as ‘vote’

Would stamp us in your hearts

Not just to be led but to be loved and to be fought for

See this is hope

Staring at us in the face, arms wide apart like a three year old, longing its mother

This is hope

See this radiant faces are a reflection that this is hope

This I say is hope

Like balm that soothes a sore in the skin

This is hope

And we all believe in this hope