A Call For Unions Positive Change

By: Aigbokhaleode K. Asimiafele, a retired Deputy Director of the Nigeria Council of Arts and Culture. He has authored several books, which includes a book entitled “The Nigeria Book of Names and Meanings.”

Let me begin by thanking our constantly courageous men and women of Nigeria, for their determination of living and surviving in the sun or rain over the years during tough military regimes and civilian administrations till date.

Our honest call for change should start from our trade unions because Nigeria Trade Unions and their leaders have failed workers. I love the spirit of comradeship, but not as it is currently being handled in our country. I support Leo Trasiky’s philosophy of socialism, which this article anchors on. Many Nigerian comrades never study anything but wear the garments of comrades just to bamboozle others and exploit the message of defending workers.

All Nigerian Trade Unions have failed themselves and their workers in the struggle for their rights. The principle of workers union and comradeship is brotherhood in joy and sorrows as it were and should be, but no longer exist in reality for years.  When a worker saves part of his salary, he is saving for the rainy days. In our situation, this is not the case. Why should a worker not be paid salary for three months or more, with no hope, and their unions close eyes to the pains and sorrows of their members?

A Nigerian worker who starts work and becomes a union member pays his check off dues for thirty five years. What happens to the check off dues at his exit from service? One can see the injustices the so called trade unions impose on their members. If ten thousand workers pay check off dues of one naira monthly, how many millions will it amount to? Seventy per cent of such money is supposed to be saved while about twenty per cent will be used for the running cost of the union.

This is the ideal thing to do; but in Nigeria, trade unions are the most ignorant about trade union matter as Nigerians remain the most under paid workers on earth. According to Thomas Payn, “a poorly paid job is a poorly performed job”. European nations pay living wage as opposed to what obtains in Nigeria.

Check off dues is not money that unions’ leaders should be sitting in the comfort of their offices and expend on Annual General Meetings, annual executive elections, buy cars, build big houses and keep fat banks accounts for themselves.  There is a slogan that says “change starts or begins with me,” but as a matter of fact and urgency, change should start with the executive members of trade unions in Nigeria; otherwise, they are fooling themselves.

As check off dues are savings for rainy day, it is essential to go down memory lane and audit the accounts of all trade unions from 1980 till date, and bring all the guilty executive members to book, to save our nation from such mass exploiters acting as union officials. Inspite of the International Labour Organisation act of “no work no pay,” the union still hold on to the rule of strike and come back to demand for salaries of members from employers, yet they have not been held accountable for members check off dues for decades.

Perhaps, many labour leaders have forgotten the tenet of their philosophy of comradeship that forbids a fellow comrade to be in pains, or suffer injustice or penury while you are quiet. Many labour union officials now act like many Nigerian politicians who sell their souls and minds to injustice, by compromising the interests of their members to the management of many organizations, by allow their member to be sacked or dismissed from service most times, without taking any drastic action.

A painful phenomenon now is the unpaid salaries of workers for months and years, while unions’ officials do nothing meaningful to make the employers pay. They eat, pay for medication, their children go to school, afford medication and so on and so forth.

However, check off dues enables union officials to immediately place workers on half salary to take care of their families. If it is not in the mandate of the trade union act, it is sinful to allow it to continue as it is harmful to justice and fairness.

In Britain, in the days of Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, when coal miners were on strike, their union placed them on half salary. Please, do not get me wrong, because, if Nigerian trade/labour unions leaders are not corrupt, they should have invested the billons that accrues from workers annual dues and ensure that when workers retire and exit from the union, they should be given not only a hand shake but cheque from their check off dues. This brings about some salient questions such as; who owns the check off dues? Where is the investment? Where is the profit for the owners of the check off dues? Who is fooling who?

It would be nice if all the labour unions could cross check their usefulness to Nigerian workers. They should start paying the unpaid workers for months to enable their children feed, go to school, pay children’s school fees and medical bills, etc. I think it is honourable to do this to alleviate the suffering of workers and their children. Of course, if they fail to do so henceforth, it is necessary to start auditing the various books of trade unions from 1980 till date, if we must seriously uphold the slogan, “change begins with me.” It is time for our unions to lead with good example. The Nigerian government should make an announcement by deregistering them to make all trade unions subject their books and accounts for proper auditing. If not, workers should ignore the check off dues until they are told what benefit accrues to them as part of their age long savings.

In conclusion, all Nigerian trade unions should start taking care of their members, and stop the constant calling of the common man and woman for strike, instead of playing to the gallery by marching with them on the street with stress. We must start telling ourselves the truth and do the right things to enable us to template our change positively, by living a life of good comrades.

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Fundamental Rights Enforcement: Is Balogun Business Association superior to Federal High Court order?

The conduct and operation of some markets Association officials when there is misunderstanding among their members makes one wonder whether they are above the rule of law.

No association is recognized unless it has been fully registered, clearly stating its aims and objectives for the benefit of its members and the society at large. It is therefore surprising when some executive members of a market association such as the Incorporated Trustees of Balogun Business Association took laws into their hands and locked up the shops of one of their members, Mr. Chimezie Ezere, while claiming that they obtained a court judgment that empowered them to do so.

Challenging the illegal lock up of his shops, Ezere, through Apeiye Becon’s Chambers, Notary Public of Nigeria, wrote a petition to both the Chief Judge, High Court, Ikeja, and the Deputy Sheriff, High Court, Ikeja, Lagos, against the President of Balogun Business Association, Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, Lagos.

Seeking reliefs for Ezere, the applicant’s legal adviser, Apeiye Becon’s Chambers avers that the conduct and action of the respondent, Balogun Business Association, locking up the applicant’s two shops known as Shop B 010 and B 019 Yobe Cluster situated at Balogun Market International Center for Commerce Complex, Trade Fair Complex Badagry Expressway, Ojo, Lagos since July 22, 2016, deny the applicant’s right to own and control his properties (the shops and the goods inside) amounts to a violation of the applicant’s Constitutional right granted under Section 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The chambers also demand for claim of damages by the applicant against the respondent for the unlawful lock of the aforementioned shops.

Based on the petition written by Apeiye’s Chambers, it has been discovered that, the action of the Balogun market association president is illegal because it is not based on any court order. The statement of the facts’ shows that on the 22^nd of July 2016, a kangaroo court official came to execute a purported Court Judgment in the market; and the conduct of the so called court official warranted the applicant to demand to see the Court Order ordering the market association to seize his goods, but the court official could not show any part of such order from a court.

Ezere, the applicant being a peaceful and law abiding citizen allowed the official who claimed to come from High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja, to perform his duty, but findings later reveals that the official was from Igbosere, not Ikeja.

The two numbers of the Balogun Business Association Task Force keys used to lock up the shops are B.B.A. Task Force M417 and B.B.A. Task Force L54, which the applicant snapped their photographs and attached to the petition and marked as Exhibit A and B.

It is in this vein that Apeiye Chambers placed a motion on notice at the Federal High Court in the Lagos Juidcial Division Holden in Lagos, with suit number FHC/1/15/114A/16 on the 25^th of August 2016, asking the Court to declare the action of the respondent (Balogun Business Association president) null and void as it amounts to a violation of the applicant’s constitutional right granted under Section 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The suit further seek the honourable court to mandate the respondent to pay the sum of N10 million (Ten million naira) as damages to the applicant; and also demands an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent, its privies or any of its members acting on its behalf not to further infringe in any manner whatsoever on the applicant’s constitutional right, amongst others.

It is however appalling as investigations show that contrary to the claim of the Balogun Market Association that the sealing order of the shops is from the High Court Sheriff who came for the execution, the Sheriff denies knowledge of sealing of the shops and posited further that there is no Court order to warrant such. This makes one wonder whether the president of the Balogun Business Association is superior to the Federal High Court in the Lagos judicial division that has ordered the opening of the shops, as the shops are still locked till date. Is the president of Balogun Business Association now an authority to himself and disobeys a superior court order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? What is happening?

Ishasa Residents, Ijebu-Ode, Cries Out Over Police Connivance With Criminals

An anonymous source has informed Bulkybon Periscopes about the activities of some criminals operating in Ishasa Street, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria, with the backing of one Inspector Segun of Obalende Police station, Ijebu – Ode.

The source alleged that the criminals are well known to the police officer who drinks with them at a popular house that belongs to one Showi family, where one woman simply identified as Mama Eko resides. She was also claimed as one of the backers of the criminals.

“One of the criminals nicknamed “Surprise,” owns a bakery which he uses as a cover for perpetrating his criminal activities is well known to many residents. We want the higher police authority to come and deliver us from the menace of the criminals, since the Obalende station is not giving any assistance to curb the criminals operation.

“We want the Divisional Police Officer to be changed as he usually releases the criminals after they were caught several times. We want honest police officers to be posted to Obalende station in Ijebu -  Ode, to checkmate the activities of the criminals,” the source said.

One Mr. Fatai, an indigene of Ososa, Ijebu – Ode, living in Ajetumobi’s house, Ijebu – Ode,  was also mentioned by the source as one of the dare devil underworld men terrorizing Ishasa street.  

“Ishasa street is a den of criminals operation. Please, use your good will to bring this information to the attention of superior officers of the Nigeria police to come and deliver us. Lest I forget,  a woman known as Kubura Gbadamosi, who runs a beer parlour on the street, is also one of the backers of criminals in our street,” the source added.

Niger-Delta's recurring controversies

Book: Friends and Enemies of the Niger Delta
Author: Jeremiah Egbemo Ifie
Publisher: Designers Palace and Azuka Books Incorporation, Lagos
Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

Friends and Enemies of the Niger Delta, is a compilation of all the views of Comrade Joseph Angodeme Evah, Coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group and former Publicity Secretary, Ijaw National Congress (INC). The book mirrors the Niger Delta problems, challenges and the way forward.
The book was edited by late Jeremiah Egbemo Ifie, who was a lecturer in the Department of Classics, University of Ibadan. The compilation was first published in 2005 and re-edited in 2006. All the issues raised in its content are still as fresh as ever as Joseph Evah, whose activities of quest for rights and betterment of life for the people of the oil producing region forms the musings in the book.
It contains 400 pages made up of 19 Chapters. The briefs of Evah and the editor/author are stated in the pages before the contents page. The mission of the compilation, according to Ifie is: "The total emancipation of the Niger Delta from social, economic, political and educational bondage."
Ijaw and the Niger Delta in Nigerian History, is theme of discussed in Chapter One. It is a historical analysis of who the Ijaw people are, which is an adaptation from a paper delivered as a key note address at the 'Boro Day' celebration of the Ijaw National Alliance of the Americas (INNA) at the Hilton, Woodbridge, New Jersey, on May 24, 2003.
The first publication signed by Evah on behalf of the Ijaw National Congress that led to his first detention by security agents during the Abacha regime is the concern of Chapter Two. Under the theme Ijaw Declare War on Oil Firm, Evah says: "Everything in this world comes and goes; the oil wealth cannot be an exception. When such moment comes, what do we tell our children? The future generation will never forgive us."
Ijaw Youths vow to resist River Niger Dredging is the topical issue of Chapter Three. Evah explains; "The dredging of the lower Niger Delta is a time bomb to our fragile ecosystem which we must resist with our last blood." He further discloses that, "Our youths are prepared along the water ways. We are not only going to line up along the dredging routes, but we are also going to use the oil companies workers as shield in terms of dredging ourselves." He is of the opinion that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is a smokescreen.
The exploit of Nigeria in the world beauty pageant won by Miss Agbani Darego, in 2001, which brought pride to the people of the entire black race is the meat of Chapter Four. Other issues raised in this chapter are under sub-themes such as Ijaw Seek Support For New Local Government in Warri; Ijaw Congratulates Clark, Dafinone; Ijaw Ready For Peace; Ijaw Students Should Embrace Peace; Group Applauds Ijaw Women Over Seizure of Oil Wells; Ijaw Condemns Biafra Map; Niger Delta Crisis; Ijaw Ready For Dialogue; Ijaw Mourn Brisibe; Marshal Harry: Ijaw Group Indicts Federal Government; Ijaws Console NUJ Over Drowned Journalists, and others.
In Chapter Five with the thematic headline, Niger Delta Breeds Bread and Butter Politicians, Evah lampoons some sycophantic politicians of the Niger Delta region. He further points out that without a visionary leadership both at the federal and state government levels, no appreciable progress can be made by the NNDC or any other ministry set up to look into the problems and needs of the Niger Delta people. This section tackles the issue of the newly established Niger Delta Ministry. He expresses fear that it does not go the same way like NDDC and OMPADEC.
Moreover, Evah expresses his joy over the day Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri mixed together freely to organize a boat regatta on Warri River, as a common source that binds them together. Hence, the people of the Niger Delta should cooperate to find a common ground to live and love one another as a people united by not only water, but also by blood through intermarriages over the years. He says it is symbolic for Warri, the engine room of the Niger Delta. The human rights activist is a man of peace, love and cooperation, judging from his general concern for the people of different ethnic nationalities in the oil producing region of the country. If such spirit of good neighbourliness can be inculcated and displayed by our communities, local and national leaders, discrimination about where you come from and the religion you practice will no longer act as clog in the wheel of our national harmony and development.
From Chapter Six to 15, different topical issues that are very engaging are highlighted with eloquent electricity. Such issues include, Leadership Problem of Niger Delta; On the Destruction of Odi; and Finding A Lasting Solution to Niger Delta Youths Restiveness, and so on.
Chapter 16 to 19 deals with miscellaneous issues. Social critics and environmental activists from the Niger Delta speak on topics such as Ijaw National Congress (INC); Constitutional-making and the struggle for resource control in Nigeria, amongst others. These issues are very thought provoking considering previous statements made by Evah in the past, which later turned out real.
Evah says the only solution to the Niger Delta problem is when the federal government, the oil companies and some flatterers claiming to be patriots of the Niger Delta stop telling lies, and make genuine efforts to develop the area to look like Abuja. Such call for solution reminds the reader about a novella titled The Windfall in Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga's book entitled When the King cries and other stories, where the author also raises dust about the neglect of the Niger Delta for centuries, by the powers that be at federal level, some selfish politicians within the area, and some individualistic groups in the region.
Friends and Enemies of the Niger Delta ends with a pictorial of the activist and some notable personalities from the Niger Delta and other regions of country such as, Miss Anne Kio Briggs, Director of Mobilisation of Ijaw Monitoring Group; Delta State former Governor- Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; members of the Niger Delta Blind Students; President of Arewa Youth Consultative Assembly; Lagos State Ndigbo Leader and a host of others.
For those who are not well enlightened about the problems and degradation facing the Niger Delta people from time immemorial, Friends and Enemies of the Niger Delta is a good material to read. Experts working on issues concerning the Niger Delta will also find the book resourceful for study.
However, there are some shortcomings in the book. There are some typographical errors and the non-specific identification of the Arewa President and Lagos Ndigbo leader by their proper names for better clarification in the pictorial pages are major flaws. Such errors need to be corrected during re-impression of the book. These errors notwithstanding, it is an eye-opening book which every individual who has the Niger Delta people's love at heart need to read.

Journeyman Wizard... magical tale of very real world

Book: Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery

Author: Mary Frances Zambreno

Publisher: Jane Yolen Books, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, 1994

Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

Nobody ever thought the priest of the lord, Eben Allons, was responsible for the murder of his own mother, Lady Jean Allons. But he did it to fulfill his selfish desire for fame and political power and concealed it until an apprentice journey man mystic, Jermyn Graves, unveils the 'holier than thou' clergy's hypocritical innocence.

Such are the tales of the fictional reality book, Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery, by Mary Zambreno. The author of the novel paints a vivid picture of what has been happening in some churches. She brings to the fore the underhand dealings of some priests who parade themselves as men of God though they are actually impostors in the corridors of holiness.

But though fiction, the book makes it evident that magical mayhem is the most current thing going on in the name of performing miracles to the glory of God. The hunger for fame, power and wealth leads many people astray to the point of going to any length to achieve their debased dreams under the umbrella of chastity. The irony of public posture and real life strikes as the rarely imaginable situation of a priest in the book who was projecting a seeming nonchalant attitude towards mundane acquisitions turning out later to be discovered to be so materialistic as to go to the extent of killing his mother through magical spells. He was not only out to kill his mother, he was also prepared to kill others whom he suspected could be stumbling blocks to his obsessed intention to acquire his mother's wealth.

In 263 pages Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery is divided into 14 chapters. It begins with the traveling of the engaging hero, Jermyn Graves, who had featured in Zambreno's first book titled A Plague of Sorcerers. Graves travels from the city to a distant village called Land's End, where Lady Allons lives. He went there to receive training under Lady Allons, who was a magical spell-maker. On arrival, little did he expect that he will become involved, first in local intrigue, then in magical warfare, and later accused as well as suspected as a murderer.

The novel gives some insight into magical circles. How to and how not to engage in spell-making, are clearly elucidated with simple diction.

However, when Lady Allons, a widow suddenly died during a crystal ball communication with her student Graves, in a mystical dialogue with his aunt who lives in the city, Graves was suspected of being responsible for his teacher's death. But with Delia, a squirrel which Graves keeps as a spiritual pet, and Brianne Campbell, Lady Allons's grand daughter, the innocence of Graves was proven while the identity of the murderer came to light in a superb awe-inspiring magical narrative of suspense-marked skirmishes. Any lover of dramatics suspense and mesmerising tales will appreciate the pulse of the prose.

The author comes across as someone who is very conversant with the magical sciences. Her adept ply of the tales with explicit details give this out. She captures the dynamics involved in practical and theoretical magical rudiments. These include penetrating expose of the vital bits of the arts of spell-making and healing techniques.

Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery, is an eye-opener to the inherent mystical powers in some animals like cats, dogs and squirrels, which could remind conversant readers of esoteric fictions of the clairvoyant gifts of cats as depicted in such a Lobsang Rampa title as The Saffron Robe, or the mystical capabilities of owls as portrayed in Kara Dalkey's book entitled Euryale. The aforementioned books are also very engaging and enlightening about the activities of mystical sciences such as witchcraft, spells, hexes, astral migration and the mysteries of things happening daily and nightly in both low and high places in the name of love. In a world where people struggle for power, love, fame and wealth, all form of vices and devices are employed by the desperate ones to achieve their goals; Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery also capture these.

It hints that those who keep animals as pets should better be well enlightened about the possibilities of such pets constituting spiritual danger to them, unless they are psychically interconnected or in tune with the spiritual vibrations of the pets.

Zambreno, describes Graves pet, Delia thus: "Delia was his wizard's familiar, the animal that allowed him use his own inborn abilities to pull magical power from the natural world. She was also a skunk. He loved her, but there was no denying she tended to cause problems. Most familiars are cats or birds of prey; any other animal was considered unusual. A skunk was worse than unusual- it was downright peculiar."

The book also paints a picture of how a spell maker appears. Lady Allons the spell-maker is described in the following manner: "Lady Allons was a tall woman; with silver hair curling around a stern face. Her eyes were deep blue and very bright; she wore a sapphire silk dress, and earrings that exactly match its shade. Although her feature were lined with age, her gaze was level and penetrating and her chin was very firm... she used a cane as she came down the stair, but her step was steady- measured, not slow." This description is perhaps the American author's impression of a spell-maker.

Apart from the intricacies of magical mysteries discussed in the book, a subtle romantic touch is also used to spice the story with the admiration of Miss Campbell's personality by Graves, the journeyman trainee as both of them are teenagers. The author says Graves liked the way the little tendrils of hair escaping around Miss Campbell's face caught the light. He also admires her courteous but cool smiles.

One hint in the fiction is that witches and wizards are not necessarily always poor, gaunt and wretched people who live in dirty environments. Some rich and powerful people too practice witchcraft. Maudie, a character in the story is depicted as a hedgewitch. Hedgewitches are described in the book as those who scrabble for a living in remote areas, while healers are also described as wizards too, like spell-makers, if of a different order. In the novel's views, much of magical persuasions and spell-making is an art. "The practice of this art, as of all arts, requires skill, knowledge, and understanding, as well as observation and experiment - the tool of science. These things assist the spell-maker in the practice of his or her profession as a comprehension of the laws of perspective and studies in anatomy benefit the painter...."

References were made to some magical books in the novel such as Venturi Encyclopedia which, according to the author, listed several variants of crystal spells.

Beneath the thrust of Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery is a creatively veiled non-didactic but instructive web of stories to remind the reader that, no matter how one pretends to be good or holy, whereas he is evil minded, a day of reckoning waits at the corner, even though the world may have been looking at the person as a saint. The result of Graves' mystical investigation to find out the cause of Lady Allons's abrupt death established this. Graves was surprised when the truth dawned on him that his teacher was murdered by her own priestly son, Eben. Hence, Graves was dreadfully amazed in his inner mind saying, "So Eben is the black artist...

He must have fought with his mother so he would have an excuse to stay away from her. He was going to be a wizard before he entered the church. As a priest, he works with the 'Powers' all the time. That would cover up most magical mysteries..."

Nonetheless, when the hour of revelation came, Eben screamed a terrible gibbering sound. He lurched backward against a table. Taking shape in front of him was the spirit-form of his late mother, tall elegant, and uncanny. She looked down at her son with contempt in her eyes..."No" Eben said, holding up his arms in front of his face in a futile gesture. "Mother, no! Don't!" late Lady Alloons's spiritual voice registered on Graves mind that moment like the sound of rushing water as she accuses her son thus: "False, Eben Allons... false son, false brother false wizard, false priest. Bear the burden of that falseness- take back your broken oaths." With this occurrence, power poured through the room where the incident took place. Eben screamed again, a keening, an eerie sound that went on and on and on until all the world seemed swallowed up in it, and he was put in a state of "Catatonia mysticae."

A character in the story, Master Eschar, describes "Catatonis mysticae" as "a magically induced condition resembling certain forms of insanity." Moreover, Eben also earned a prison sentence where he has to spend the rest of his life with insanity.

Though the book is a fictional work, it contains a lot of societal realities that can easily be related to things happening among some so-called men of God. It also brings to the fore the dangers inherent in magical practices and its consequences, like what happened to a character named Doctor Faustus, in Christopher Malowe's play, Doctor Faustus.

Journeyman Wizard: A Magical Mystery, is a readable material for all who may be interested in identifying strange vibrations in any environment they find themselves, and how they could repel such negative forces by taking full control of their will power and astral energies as they wish, with telepathic artistry and mastery of their environment and the developments around them.

  

The nexus among poetry, politics, culture

 Title: A Flat World
Author: Yusuf M. Adamu (PhD)

Publisher: Adamu Joji Publishers, Kano

Pages: 69

Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

                  

If the ten definitions of poetry propounded by Carl Sandburg (1878) are used as yardsticks to classify Yusuf  Adamu’s poetry volume titled  A Flat World, one could say the seventh definition best describes Adamu’s cosmological verses full with acres of anger.

Sandburg’s seventh definition of poetry says “poetry is the harnessing of the paradox of earth cradling life and then entombing it.” In this wise, as a medical geographer cum poet, Adamu always employ different commendable instruments of geography in his psyche, such as barometer, compass, wind vane, thermometer, rain-gauge, telescope and so on, in investigating both local and international political weather / cultural climates; and voices out his observation in poetic garments.

Hence, in A Flat World, made up of 51 poems that span 69 pages of the volume, the reader encounters various paradoxical situations that are making the world a bitter place for many peace-loving people; due to bullies on both the local and international topography and socio-cultural spheres. Wondering why acrimony pervades human existence, the author rhetorically welcomes the reader with the first poem in the volume titled, Why Do We Fight?

Although, rhetorical questions don’t deserve answers, Adamu generously provide answers in Why Do We Fight? as follows: “Sometimes we fight / For sacred reasons / Sometimes we fight / To emancipate ourselves / But at times we fight / For naïve and selfish reasons / We fight to make life hard for others / We fight to make the world a brutal place / But must we always fight to have peace? / Isn’t there any other way? / Why must we always fight?”

Having set the ball rolling with the aforesaid poem, the poet paints a beautiful canvass of the hitherto peaceful Jos plateau in Nigeria, which has suddenly become a theatre of concurrent genocide in recent times over the years. Listen to Adamu in the poem titled The Jos Plateau I, where he geographically, socially and resourcefully versify the region in a Michelangelo-like artistic imagery thus: “Tin ores and mines / Volcanic cones and dones / Crater lakes and ponds / Spring-water and waterfalls / Escarpments and slopes / Fluvio-volcanic and granitic hills / Spread on the table land / Nations of people / Biroms, Angas / Pyem, Mwhavul / Mada, Irigwe / Hausa, Fulani / Irish potatoes and maize / Vegetables and fruits / Cool weather, fine scenery / Jos plateau / Land of nature and nations.”

This versification of Jos by the poet clearly shows that it is a place of multiple natural blessings. Who knows? Perhaps, Jos is the original much talked about biblical Garden of Eden.

From the first two poems in the volume already discussed, the reader is not surprised why Adamu is so annoyed with the spate of quarrels, killings and disunity among local, national and international folks in a paradise earth created by God for human enjoyment. On this basis, the reader could feel the author’s cup of thoughts winking with worries at the brim of consciousness like a traffic light.

Therefore, with poems such as The Oro Trap; Ungrateful Brothers; Global Village; Arrogance; Prime Suspect; Injustice; Crumbling Blocks; Filters; Strange Irony; Reciprocate With Love Not With Bombs; Branding; New Imperialism; Murder Is Murder; Pretence; The Rich; Stature’s Ordeal; New Freedom; Hypocrites; Cowardice; The Holocaust Card; Immigration Laws; Niamey; Baghdad; International Community; Bushnization; The Migrants; Palestine; The World After Bush; Jos Plateau II, Gaza; Blind Hearts; Fuel Subsidy; and so on, Adamu expresses his unhappiness with the systems of things going on in the world. This is in similitude with some poems in Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga’s Nightmares in Paradise volume, which underline the thinking patterns of contemporary poets.

While conjuring metaphors, ironies, innuendos, amongst other literary devices blended in the frying-pan of sarcasm, Adamu’s poetry hisses with volcanic gases bombarding traitors and oppressors gallivanting worldwide.

Moreover, in some lines, you could feel the temperature of the poet persona’s emotion, eager to imprison every global evil doer. The thermostat of his verses is full of brimstone, sulphur, caustic soda, magma, monosaccharide and disaccharide, belching like an angry anaconda, warning the real terrorists of the world, spreading tongue like dark menacing winds.

In the light of the foregoing, one could say the title of the volume, A Flat World, is a metaphorical microcosm of Jos as an epic center symbol of the entire world, where abundant milk and honey flows, but hatred, sorrow and death are the ‘medals of joy’ some self-acclaimed saints of universal authority shower on weaker people daily.

Despite all the oppressive tendencies of the powers that be from the grassroot to international level, Adamu rolls up every atom of his anger from A Flat World into a ball of defiant hope in the book last poem titled Our Spirit Has Not Broken!. In the epilogue poem, he pays glowing homage to some personalities coupled with prayer in the last line thus: “May Allah help us! Amin.”

Though no mechanical or psychological noise was noticed in the book, there is need for the use of a better legible font for the volume’s title (A Flat World) in the front cover during re-impression. The font used in the current edition’s cover is too blank, and there is also no point writing El-Mina Castle simultaneously in the front cover as it tends to confuse a first time observer of the book, as regards the real title.

Adamu is a professor of Medical Geography at the Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. He has published numerous works in Hausa and English languages.