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.
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.
