SERIES: THE POETRY OF JOHN ODEY ADUMA, FROM THE TREE BY THE RIVER

Flood, flood, flood everywhere,

And no route of escape

Nor a place to which we shall escape.

Therefore, we will remain here with the water,

We will remain here with this water

Unmoved, unbowed, uncowed, but stoical,

for this place – VENICE;

is our home

and our inheritance.

SERIES: THE POETRY OF JOHN ODEY ADUMA

“What did we do?”

This is our eternal question to insensate humanity

Which takes delight in abandoning us in the firing line

In their various wars of attrition

And making us always to suffer the brunt of their

Senseless rancour and vendetta resulting in wars of blame.

Today, the voices of children the world over ringing across

The vistas of time are asking, “What did we do?”

Man:

Do not weep for me,

But weep for yourself that are endangered

In this compact planet,

You have harried the forests

And frittered the rocks;

You have burrowed the mountains

And scattered the hills for treasures;

You have disturbed the tranquil of the deep sea

And polluted the atmosphere

And excavated the secret chambers of the ocean.

Prodigal child, you have plundered the flora

And prey on the fauna

But when will you be wise?

Would you rather keep faith with Kyoto

Or shed crocodile tears for me?

And do you now drag your infants to the Thames

In cold winter weeping for me?

Do you now defy the cold in hypocrisy?

Lining the walls and embarkment just to have a glimpse of me?

Would you rather save a whale

Than save the whole planet from the Armageddon?

But better that Kyoto is honoured than I’m honoured.

Ah, man!

You have so soon forgotten how many bills and policies

You have killed in parliaments and conferences

All you hypocrites, do not weep for me,

But weep for your folly.

O man, did you think I strayed?

I came to warn you and then die

My struggles in the Thames

Are your struggles on the planet

Though I was washed ashore,

You shall be washed inshore, sooner or later,

Artic will further melt and Katrina will come again

And the hurricanes will return in deadlier furies

The sun will give up its light

And the moon will fall and crash to the earth

And the stars will cease to sparkle

And it will all be darkness around you

And the waters will wash you inshore.

Where, where then are you going to run to?

Trapped, trapped are you in this enclosed space,

O man, everlasting prisoner in this hellish realm

Do you weep for me?

Don’t, but weep for yourself that are endangered

Though I struggled against the current of the Thames

You shall struggle yet more

Against many merciless tides, more severe,

Ah! Deadlier and worse than Tsunami and Katrina

Therefore, do not weep for me, but weep for your future.

• JOHN ODEY ADUMA, DECEMBER 22, 2006.

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).

Mr Aduma, currently at the SOAS’s School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Centre for Cultural, Literary and Post-Colonial Studies, University of London, is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level in the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring strand.

Silent sentinel, are you not meant

To stop war mongers and invaders

From entering the village?

Are you not meant to fight terrorism

And prevent wars in our village

And ensure peace, harmony and peaceful co-existence

And universal altruism in our world?