Tribute To My Grandmother

Tribute to Grandmother

I remember then
When at Ibadan you prayed for me
The joy you bring to us all
I remember how you really cared
For each and every one of us.

For me, there will not be
Another grandmother like you.
Every man or woman by nature is endowed
With two grand parents,
and happy me
Both of you lived long enough
To see us happy and bound for heaven.

AS you finish your life's journey
We will not forget
the path of virtue and truth
You asked us to thread.
We will not abandon
The cause of justice you taught to fight for
Nor the love for our humanity and for one another.
WE will not break
the bond of brotherhood you so much cherished.

Nigeria has many heroes
And you are one of them.
Industry, character, visionary
You are all these.

On those with foresight such as you
Nigeria was born and stand strong
When the distance between the WEst and East
And between this tribe and that tribe
FRom which my father and mother belonged
Was like that between earth and heaven
your vision make it look not yonder
But so near.

We bear the mark of that heritage
All of us your children and grand children
We are the symbol of the true Nigeria
And we will not forgot the price you paid
To make us one as a nation and as a people.
history has been made.

My mother miss you grandmother
All of us do. I miss you too. Adieu Granny.

Deele Ikeorha
Grandson
June 17, 2013

Nigeria: Our Parody

Ba pursued us
Than came jealousy's nonsense
With his crocodile walking stick.
Victoria our own and their Elizabeth, smiled at us all
But he came and yakubu'd him
As they dragged him on the streets of Ibadan
With Fajuyi.
I saw Tala
He sent Gow on
While he was pontificating in Kampala
At the palace of African Kings
While our calabash was licking water;
But they shot 'I saw tala', and Akin from the back;
The ugly king came to the throne
and left us to sha (drink) garri
Because our oil had wasted!
We saw abuse,
he jailed them for life
But with big house they removed him
And dribbled all of us and himself.
Mr. 'Show the only one' lasted but some days
Before the butcher came
But he also died
And not long, the man born in wealth.
And left us in the hand of salam,
Who ripped our pots open
but left us in freedom.
He came again, the ugly king
And treated us to comedy;
In his time, Comedy became a profession
And hunger, an occupation, but he tried;
He left us in Prayer
Who suddenly died
Now we have Goodluck and Patience. Praise the Lord!

October 1, 2012
Abuja Nigeria.

The Sun Will Still Rise

No matter how dark the night may be be
Somewhere beneath the clouds or on our skies
Stars blinker, twinkle, sparkle, ripple in gracious glee
Their rays piercing the pupils of our eyes.
We celebrate their lights upon our skies

And the sun, no matter how long
Will soon rise, maybe from the West, East, South or North
But she will rise
For even in the land of the Midnight Sun
The Sun Still rises and still will one day
Upon Nigeria.!

Tribute to Chima Ubani - Even In The Deep Deep Darkness

Even in deep deep darkness
In the very heart of the black hole
Those who share the sweet stories
Mingle with others with lesser role
And others, the pure purple pain
Are sometimes oblivious of the gain

Chima Ubani, like all greats
You trode the path conscious of the thorns
Focused on the flower and the bloom
Found in every rose.
The tenacity, commitment and courage
Marks the northern star, the cause
Martin Luther King Jr spoke of you
Of men and women like you for whom
The world lies less sublime to tyrants

Something to live for is something to die for
You have done your bit well
Whether the nation glues together, or
breaks apart, or embrace social hell
You have done your bit well
The rest is upto us now.

How we die is just a punctuation
In a very long novel story called Life
What we live and die for, is not just diction
It's what counts, when glory is rife.
The many greats standing on the mountains of history
Very few had the fortune of dying in their beds
From Socrates to Jesus Christ to Ceaser and Alexander

Our legacies what will they be?
Yours is now curved in ivory, diamond and
In every precious stone and history worth reading.
When our deeds are sieved like wheat
What would be left behind?
When our deeds endure the refining fire
Will they shine as gold or burn untold?

Your story now is known, rest my friend
When we saw last at Kaduna during the retreat
When Aso Rock met the people's rock
To fashion a platform for Government-civil society partnership
You spoke with the tongue of Mark Anthony and
The heart of Ghandi
That was September 15.
Who could have known but God alone
That in ten days, your earthly sourjourn would be complete.

You have paid the ultimate price
in your struggle against tyranny
You lived and died well
And still tolls the bell
In our hearts and in our nation's history
You Live Still, Unforgotten.

The tyrants are silent
that is their epitaph
And You
Your sunshine still shines.

Add to, Fill these pages
O Ye who read these lines
With tributes, stories, memories
Pictures, poems, articles, lines
That would remain posted
In the heart of the net and of all
Who value the struggle of freedom.

Dele-Israel Ikeorha
Executive Director, Development International
http://developmentclinic.tripod.com
Mobile: +234 (0)8035999921

Tribute to Chima Ubani - Remembered

Sonnet of the Morning Light
(a Tribute to Chima Ubani)

Every glorious turn of history is made
By wheels of sacrifice,hearts of greatness
The tears we shed, the joys we share express
Our being shining before the morning light.

The marks we make on sands of time resound
Our names as fragrance rise above the stress
And what deeds are remembered are no less
Virtues on which nations entrust thier sight.

The flowers fly amidst the sunny sky
And sway above the mortal winds display
The answer to hope is just another why
The world's new light enfolds with love today.

Peoples advance on a culture of change
Men, by living beyond the common range.

Dele-Israel Ikeorha
Kaduna October 19, 2005

SYNOPSIS

RED FACE surveys the themes of authority, corruption and devevelopment in post-independent NIgeria. The characters of the Play, especially Ihuaku, battles the challenges of living in Nigeria and the complexity of identity that faces the Nigerian.

Ihuaku, a civil servant, is forced to resign from service because of conflict between her faith and official corruption. In the private sector, determined to make it in business, she is faced with the same force. Redface is a chronicle of her struggles to maintain integrity.

REDFACE

PROLOGUE
(dressed like a local hunter, with a mask on his face, he enters with dance, to the rhythm of ibo beats, the gong, the flute and the xylophone playing the Nigerian national anthem).

The antelope we caught, we canot eat;
The cricket we caught, we cannot eat;
The tiger we rode, we cannot eat.
The cow we bought, we cannot eat.
The chickens we bred, we cannot eat.
Our hearts have been painted
with the colour of grace and the shade of disgrace
And we are left with a red face.

My feet, my walk is crampled with sluggish mud
I have cried and I have laughed
But there is something I am yet to do.
Silence, nothing, these are not for me;
for If I but keep silence, who shall speak for me?
If I do nothing, what shall become of me?

The burden I bear these fifty years
Weigh heavily on my tired soul.
Stories have been toled and many have listened
Histories have been written and many have read them
What is left? Tell me what is left?

We are sorrounded by civilisation and barbarism
by mysticism and mystique
We are encircled by opportunities and the chaos of it
But why do we always turn these into an earthquake?

I left Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna,Enugu and Makurdi
I will go there. I will not go there!
What am I saying? What are you hearing?
The burden of these fifty years
Wigh ehavily on my happy heart.

Cheerful me, I am poisoned with a red face
Things have fallen apart, falling is now an art.
And me, who will give me a heart transplant?

I welcome you to this world of mine;
One I came to know since I was nine;
If you can make it better, if you can make it happier;
I want a change to my red face.