Ya Chidi!
Thanks for the up-date.
With Muhammadu Buhari the bandleader on trumpet, Tinubu on bass, Fayemi on vocals and Ogbeni Kadiri as minister of defence the chant will soon be changing to "Things are changing". We can't stop the river flow – on and on it goes and you notice that the energetic verb is in the present continuous, the chant of change – like a holy mantra or dhikr is beyond your control and continuously "entering into the yard of yesterday" since we all know that whether things will be changing from good to bad or from bad to worse – before getting better, change, however instantaneous, even if accomplished faster than the speed of lightning – with thunderstorms in the magnetic air , is a process – just like silencing the flare of gunpowder in the peace processes and "miracles" they say ,"take a little longer" after all, our man ( yours and mine) has said "do not expect miracle !"
Corruption is not part of our human nature. Or our culture. We've got to help our friend.
The more things change, the less we'll hear this kind of song
At this late stage change has already begun and I'm taking off my hat to Goodluck Jonathan, don't know what has come over the Nigerian military but some serious cleaning up search-and-rescue operation and the bringing back of kidnapped girls and women seems to be underway big time, so, the question is why didn't all of this happen before the elections?
My hunch is that with Goodluck still commander-in-chief,
The Army has galvanised into action to clean up so as not to give Muhammadu Buhari any due credit for that cleaning up immediately after he takes over.
It is all to the good that Goodluck accomplishes as much rescuing of kidnapped girls and women from the Sambisa Forest, as many as possible, before the new commander in chief takes over - so that nobody - not even Emetulu or Toyin V. Adepoju dare come out with another false flag that the new commander –in-chief was in cahoots with BH and knew all along exactly where Boko Haram was keeping Nigeria's kidnapped daughters. You must admit that to bring back all of the abducted Chibok girls, whether happily or unhappily married and in advanced stages of pregnancy, would be an unexpected miracle in the same league as crossing the Sea of Reeds or turning water into oil or holy akpeteshie
I got the chant bit alright but poetic imagination is still expanding on the yard, the backyard of yesterday, the "give them an inch and they take a yard" or mile…
In the meanwhile,
Cornelius sincerely looking forward to the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight
From his corner,
On Saturday, 2 May 2015 14:34:37 UTC+2, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:
Mazi Cornelius,
The poem in question treats "the chant of change", not change perse.CAO.
On Thursday, 30 April 2015 21:07:06 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:Dear Chidi,
Look – the Igbo people in Nigeria were so good to me that for me to ever respond in a contrary manner to even the miscreants among them would be not- me. Perish the thought! It's as simple as that.
A personal note:
You know how people quote and twist lines of scripture to suit their own purpose/ agenda…
RE-"The change chant
Is entering into the yard of yesterday." (Opara) -
Still in gear (using the present continuous tense) as long as you didn't say that yesterday's chant has entered "the dustbin of history" (a terrible expression - which fittingly endorsed today, the day - 30th April - that Mr. Hitler officially entered the everlasting dungeon of hellfire)
If it's today's Nigeria that you're talking about or insinuating, then you know as well as everybody else that you ain't seen nothing yet and that Nigerians will chanting "change!" each and every day, just as Brother Obama thundered "Change has come to America!" on the first day and we all watched a tear roll down chased by another, rolling down the cheek of the Rt.Hon. The Rev Jesse Jackson as he was quite overcome with emotion to be witnessing this change - a Black Man elected President of the Mighty United States of America – "almost impossible to do" like the fulfillment of an almost impossible dream such as the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a dream" still being quoted and chanted worldwide on national and international TV, each and every day. You know that you're famous when people hear / read you and start quoting you!
"Yesterday's just a memory
Tomorrow's never what it's supposed to be" (Dylan)
If it's Nigeria you're talking about I know this
It's not a time for being skeptical or cynical. WE ought not sabotage change. We've got to be positive about the change we're talking about. I hope that the Nigerian Civil Service will be more of a meritocracy…
The Holy Quran says in Surah ar ra'd ayat 11: "Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves."
Mahatma Gandhi said:" 'Be the change that you wish to see in the world" or indeed, in others
Since change is your theme, inevitably you echo not Brother Buhari but the Buddha
Nor can Chidi take a dip in the same Imo or Aba River, twice…
In Zimbabwe: Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
In Sierra Leone – not too long ago: The People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC)
The opposite of change is static stagnation, some kinda standing still at half-mast, watching the rivers flow by from your verandah, as your hair changes from black to the colour that Chinweizu so heavily critiqued when Brer Soyinka wrote "To my First White Hairs"
Gotta update my blog about what happened yesterday and today…
Sincerely,
Cornelius
On Friday, 24 April 2015 09:33:34 UTC+2, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:By Chidi Anthony Opara
The chant
Of change is fading,
The chorus
Too is fading.
The change chant
Is entering into the yard of yesterday.(Poem presented as social service, all rights reserved.)
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