SERIES: FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN...

¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

² There on the poplars     we hung our harps,

³ for there our captors asked us for songs,     

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;     

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

- Psalm 137.

JOHN ODEY ADUMA in this article takes a hard and very reflective look at the nation’s odyssey thus far, especially after 105 years since the amalgamation and laments that the people of the Upper and Lower Niger are not yet able to integrate and cohere as a people of one indissoluble nation under one destiny, one philosophy, one vision and under one God, with the country having been further divided by the Arabists into SHARIADOM AND CHRISTENDOM. Of equal lament for Mr Aduma also is the fact that an army of occupation from the East through their local agents and collaborators have besieged the West African State of Nigeria, holding her in captivity and pillaging her resources and actual wealth in a manner he would like to chronicle for posterity as: The Pacification of the Christian tribes of the Lower and Upper Niger, paving the way for the introduction of total and mindless sharia in the polity.

• He further laments that Nigerians are known more for their often-ignominious rancour, political vendetta, aggrandizement, nepotism, regionalism, ethnicity, practise of hereditary privilege, socio-politico-cultural pollution, otherwise known as corruption, than being a people of one nation.

SERIES: FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN...

(Ezekiel 14:12-23).

Every nation, therefore, should create and observe a NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, REPENTANCE, DEDICATION/REDEDICATION AND THANKSGIVING. In light of this, the West African State of Nigeria may convert its national day, October 1 to a National Day of Prayer, Repentance, Dedication/Rededication and Thanksgiving, instead of continuing with the usual and pointless jamboree, wasting money for nothing, but enriching a few crooks. A word is enough, even for the wise nation.

 SERIES: GO NO GO, EBRITHING YUS 'TANDA LIKE ATANDA

ENTER THE FAILED PROPHET, TUNDE BAKARE, THE MAN WHO WANTS OLULEKE OSINBAJO’S JOB VERY BADLY, WAILING FROM THE OCHARD OF SHEIKH UTMAN DAN FODIO, INSTEAD OF FROM THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD, WHERE NATURALLY, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT MY FATHER’S BUSINESS:

The excerpts of a speech by Tuned Bakare below confirms the truism that the Nigeria Ruling House is nothing, but a House or Den of robbers, peopled with pen robbers, armed robbers, international crooks, worms, vultures, rodents, pests, cockroaches, jiggers, destiny changers, destiny destroyers/killers, international thieves, destiny cannibals, paedophiles, etc, etc. But our only worry, and perhaps, lamentation for Tunde is that he is not concentrating in His Father’s Business, by delving into politics and prophet-lying that he is the political messiah to redeem the Nigerian State from straying away from the path of godliness, decency, civility, economic progress, humaneness, peace, justice, universal altruism and egalitarianism in order to restore the Nigerian political kingdom. Hence, we say: ICHABOD! ICHABOD! ICHABOD! THE GLORY DEPARTS!

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

The whole humanity now knows

You are wiser than your rider

Who without provocation head-butted you

In the glare of the Klieg lights.

And the whole wide world -

Even the world now knows

That you are more cultivated, cultured and civilized

Than your rider who without caring a hoot

Threw civility and decorum to the winds.

Without doubt, he showed he, and not you, was

A helpless creature, a mere child

In the hands of ungovernable temper.

The world admires you for bearing

That unwarranted aggression with equanimity.

You showed strength, while your rider

Showed crass weakness;

You showed self-restraint, maturity and universal altruism.

And by that example you showed the world

That non-violence is the true path to global peace,

If all humanity and all creatures would ever live

Together in peace and harmony with one another.

Even Gandhi would have been proud of you were he alive.

Had Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas

Shown such unparalleled restraint,

The Middle East would not be

The field of blood that it is today.

Had the US and Britain not lapsed into

Conspiratorial etcetera in the resolution

Of the war between Israel and Hezbollah,

That senseless war would have ceased long ago.

Worthy ambassador of your family,

By not fighting back, you have said

To all belligerent human beings of

Every race and clime, “You fools!”

For always resorting to war instead of dialogue

And proved that silence is not just golden, but strength

And that old debate about who is higher,

Between man and other creatures such as you

Has finally been put to rest by your stoicism.

O’ wicked and intemperate rider, what wisdom is there to attack

A creature that said nothing and did no wrong?

What could be the reason for such purposeless malignity?

What is the reason for the existence

Of violence in human community?

What, what is the reason for wars in our world?

Where is justice when an innocent creature

Like the horse is attacked with such ferociousness?

Now, let all humanity learn from the non-violence of the horse

So, there can be harmony and peace in our world;

So, we can live here in peace as one;

So, we can live on this planet earth

As one big family imbibing the spirit of universal altruism,

Differences in creeds notwithstanding.

• JOHN ODEY ADUMA

             August 4, 2006.