Disaster is on the way flapping its wings
As death hurries down from the pit of hell
To wreak havoc of unprecedented proportions on earth.
Yea; the whole mankind is on the threshold of disaster!
The Greenland ice cap is melting at a speed
Much, much faster than all predictions
Causing intractable sea-rise
With the ice sheet draining the Greenland ice
And losing a great mass of ice very rapidly.
Flood! Flood everywhere, and no Ark
To save humanity, flora and fauna from extinction.
Since 1827 when Flourier* first alerted the world
To the effects of atmospheric gases on climate
Till the very present,
Politicians have continued to pay lip service
To climate change even as carbon released into
The atmosphere from cars and industrial emissions
Continue to destroy the ozone layer and heat up the earth.
Wake up, leaders of the world!
Wake up to the Kyoto call,
Because Armageddon’s clock is ticking fast;
And you cannot sit on the fence in the face of
This burning heat and the imminent Great Floods;
For our planet sits on a hydrological edge.
Listen, peoples of the world, to do nothing is conspiracy,
And failure to do anything is an open invitation
To devastating catastrophe worse than the Permian period
And the waters in fury will flush many countries into the sea
And submerge many islands and coastal areas
And great hurricanes, worse and fiercer in speed
And in destruction than Larry, Tsunami, Katrina and Ivan
Will roam the world freely and wash all creatures,
Communities and islands into the ocean.
From the POETRY OF JOHN ODEY ADUMA, August 1, 2006
*A French mathematician, Joseph Fourier first identified the effects of atmospheric gases on climate in 1827.
ABOUT THE POET
John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; Core Committee, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF)/Ford Foundation, Kano Eastern Bypass Roadside Tree Planting Exercise, 1997; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.
He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.
General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.
That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.
In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.
Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).
He is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level in the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Strand.
