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BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST 2018: YABATECH POET OLAJUWON JOSEPH WINS BPPC APRIL 2018

<body><div class&equals;"booster-block booster-read-block">&NewLine; <div class&equals;"twp-read-time">&NewLine; &Tab;<i class&equals;"booster-icon twp-clock"><&sol;i> <span>Read Time&colon;<&sol;span>13 Minute&comma; 35 Second <&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine; <&sol;div><p><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5 style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Olajuwon Joseph Olumide is the winner of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;bppc-april-2018-my-african-hero-ine&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">April edition<&sol;a> of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;csr&sol;bppc&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST<&sol;a> &lpar;BPPC&rpar; 2018 which was themed&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;bppc-april-2018-my-african-hero-ine&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">&OpenCurlyQuote;MY AFRICAN HERO-INE’<&sol;a>&period; It is Olajuwon’s third pole position finish in the monthly poetry contest&period;<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p>Olajuwon is a final year student of Mass Communication at the Yaba College of Technology and a native of Ogun State&period; He teaches teacher of English Language&comma; Literature in English and Cultural &amp&semi; Creative Arts at secondary school level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Lagos based poet’s entry &OpenCurlyQuote;GOLDEN STATUES OF AFRICA’ which he dedicated to &OpenCurlyQuote;worthy African Mothers’ beat Kolofo Adejo’s <em>&OpenCurlyQuote;GHETTO ANTHEM’<&sol;em> and<em> &OpenCurlyQuote;LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER’<&sol;em> by Izuchukwu Saviour Otubelu to 2nd and 3rd place finishes respectively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The young poet had previously won the BPPC in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2015-olajuwon-joseph-olumide-wins-august-edition&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">August 2015<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;brigitte-poirson-poetry-contest-2016-march-ogun-poet-olumide-wins-2nd-bppc-trophy&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">March 2016<&sol;a>&period; He was the first contestant to win two editions and is now the 2nd to win three editions&comma; bettered only by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;chinazom-otubelu-bppc-2018-february-winner&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">serial BPPC finalist Chinazom Chukwudi Otubelu<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;OLAJUWON-JOSEPH-WINNER-BPPC-APRIL-2018&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-35007" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;OLAJUWON-JOSEPH-WINNER-BPPC-APRIL-2018&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" loading&equals;"lazy"><&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h4>Below are the top 10 poems&colon;<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>GOLDEN STATUES OF AFRICA &lpar;for the worthy afican mothers&rpar; by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>GHETTO ANTHEM by Kolofo Adejo<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER by Izuchukwu Saviour Otubelu<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>THE GOOD SAMARITAN by Akor Agada Nathaniel<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>HEROES NEVER DIE by Godwin Nket-Awaji Alpheaus<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>UNFADED by Ohiro Sarah<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>BLACK POWER by Tukur Ridwan Ishola<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>THE WIFE OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER&colon; WINNIE MADELA by Anyanwu Timothy Chibuike<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>REQUIEM KALAKUTA by Paul Chiwude<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>FEROCIOUS FELA by Emmanuel Faith<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<h5>GOLDEN STATUES OF AFRICA &lpar;for the worthy afican mothers&rpar; by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">o fertile wombs of the black shore&comma; blessed are you&excl;<br>&NewLine;for nurturing your seedlings through impulsive seasons&colon;<br>&NewLine;when scorched rays burned in rage&semi; and the sea ate lands&semi;<br>&NewLine;when the sky-god cursed our climes with regent drought&semi;<br>&NewLine;in all&comma; black gladiators yet emerge from your navels of care&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">lullabies of African mothers are ancestral encomium<br>&NewLine;chanted to our ears when hydra-headed life nods us<br>&NewLine;into frailty of fear&comma; and our mouths form self-pity cries&period;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;no scion of Akin&ast; prides in garb of dread&comma; man up child&excl;”<br>&NewLine;this food for the soul has fortified forts of black brave men<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">mothers are the genuine sage when life loots away truth<br>&NewLine;from the rowdy market stalls where cowries of hypocrisy<br>&NewLine;are heaped on black warriors though their stallions stray&excl;<br>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the brave who oft launches attacks with no retreat&comma; one day&comma;<br>&NewLine;may become eroded by unseen war”&comma; yeye&ast; warned jogunomi&ast;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">mothers are architects of nations as men build tall towers<br>&NewLine;when the walls begin to crack and thud&comma; it’s their weakness<br>&NewLine;in my homeland&comma; a cosmos of twin brothers split like red sea<br>&NewLine;when nature called their mother to rest from labour of life&period;<br>&NewLine;the brainy taps heritage of wealth from his mama’s spring<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">so&comma; in this pantheon of my poetic heart&comma; i have carved<br>&NewLine;golden effigies of ode for these African heroines of mine&colon;<br>&NewLine;the makers and refiners of future Madibas&comma; proudly warriors&excl;<br>&NewLine;the making mothers and refining wives of ingenious men<br>&NewLine;the widows wallowing in the mud of survival to mould futures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 60px&semi;"><em>footnotes<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 60px&semi;"><em>1&period; Akin&colon; a name from Yoruba lineage meaning bravery <&sol;em><br>&NewLine;<em>2&period; Yeye&colon; means mother of the son&comma; jogunomi<&sol;em><br>&NewLine;<em>3&period; Jogunomi&colon; a brave warrior from Ibadan who ceased not to war<&sol;em><br>&NewLine;<em>4&period; Madiba&colon; Nelson Mandela<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>GHETTO ANTHEM by Kolofo Adejo<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Kitchen empty&comma; wardrobe naked&semi;<br>&NewLine;credit plenty&comma; dirty full pocket&period;<br>&NewLine;This hardship no be chise&semi;<br>&NewLine;head dey parboil like rice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Poverty don mark our face&comma;<br>&NewLine;tears no wan give smile space&period;<br>&NewLine;Monday to Sunday na borrow&semi;<br>&NewLine;life rough like Agege agbero&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">But this dirty film no go play forever&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; our dry bread go soak butter&period;<br>&NewLine;This heart no go rust for pain prison&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; this rain eyes go enjoy dry season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">This dirty film no go play forever&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; miracle go wash this gutter&period;<br>&NewLine;This legs no go die for suffer church&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; we go shine pass D&period;P&period;O torch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">This dirty film no go play forever&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; beggar go give Cesar&period;<br>&NewLine;This burial songs no go master our mouth&semi;<br>&NewLine;one day&comma; we go vomit all with a joyful shout&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">We no go ever allow today deceive us&semi;<br>&NewLine;remember how many river bros Joseph cross&quest;<br>&NewLine;Our akpu go surely turn cake&comma;<br>&NewLine;na only small time e go take&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Till then&comma; we gallantly dey push&semi;<br>&NewLine;we no go fold hand dey look bush&period;<br>&NewLine;Our akpu go surely turn cake&comma;<br>&NewLine;na only small time e go take&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER by Izuchukwu Saviour Otubelu<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dear Unknown Soldier&comma;<br>&NewLine;Everyone supposes you haven’t got a name<br>&NewLine;But your blood pours along the riverside<br>&NewLine;Your face wears the smokescreen of injured pride<br>&NewLine;You have built a hut at the backstreet of fame<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dear Unknown Soldier&comma;<br>&NewLine;Your garden is a safe haven for homeless babes<br>&NewLine;Yet your name’s missing from the pages of Vanguard papers<br>&NewLine;I do not find your statues on the streets or anywhere<br>&NewLine;Your deserved glories have dissolved into sour grapes<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dear Unknown Soldier&comma;<br>&NewLine;You take a plunge into the sea when there’s a shipwreck<br>&NewLine;Yet the telecaster always forgets your name on TV<br>&NewLine;Your valiant deeds are swept under the cloak of obscurity<br>&NewLine;You haven’t got medals to wear around your neck<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dear Unknown Soldier&comma;<br>&NewLine;Stray bullets of Biafran war lodge in your bandaged arms<br>&NewLine;But the market women do not sing your songs at the square<br>&NewLine;Children do not carry your placards to dance in the open air<br>&NewLine;Everyone is quick to forget your broken bones and blistered palms<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dear Unknown Soldier&comma;<br>&NewLine;I remember the night you kissed your wife goodbye<br>&NewLine;With teary eyes&comma; she watched you step away from the door<br>&NewLine;She wished you wouldn’t go but you’d sworn to fight for your country’s honour<br>&NewLine;Months later&comma; she welcomed your headless body with a sigh<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">You remain a stranger in the face of your tireless fights<br>&NewLine;But in the blank pages of my heart&comma; you are a HERO&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>THE GOOD SAMARITAN by Akor Agada Nathaniel<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Every contact with him was a contract of eternal value<br>&NewLine;His smile his time were too cheap to be true<br>&NewLine;He never had a clue of what he could do<br>&NewLine;Until he came to the rescue<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">His greatest weakness was the greatest of all virtue<br>&NewLine;This virtue could transform a vessel to a vehicle of value<br>&NewLine;Love made him a god not just his word<br>&NewLine;Saving a soul in a dying world<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">He was a hero who has a heart<br>&NewLine;An ordinary man with blood and bones<br>&NewLine;He pleasantly played out his own part<br>&NewLine;His heart was of flesh not of steel or stones<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Today heroes are needed<br>&NewLine;You and I can be enlisted<br>&NewLine;The Good Samaritan is my favorite hero<br>&NewLine;He said saving the world starts from saving a soul<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">From zero to hero or hero to zero<br>&NewLine;The Samaritan sees everyman as a potential hero<br>&NewLine;He insisted that heroes are made and not born<br>&NewLine;That our decision in life determines our destination<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">This Good Samaritan is a black man<br>&NewLine;He is an African and a proud Nigerian<br>&NewLine;Everyone knows he is a Jesus fan<br>&NewLine;He is my father Akor Lawrence the vegetarian<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>HEROES NEVER DIE by Godwin Nket-Awaji Alpheaus<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Heroes never die&excl;”<br>&NewLine;I spotted on cosmic graffiti&comma;<br>&NewLine;Soused with icicles of sapience&period;<br>&NewLine;Their vestiges linger like bees on petals&comma;<br>&NewLine;Transmitting pollens to renascent twigs&comma;<br>&NewLine;On the bush paths&comma; tree trunks they transverse&semi;<br>&NewLine;Between zephyr&comma; gusty gale of their season&semi;<br>&NewLine;There I know heroes never decay like tree<br>&NewLine;Without wheat&comma; but live like eagle in its eyrie&period;<br>&NewLine;They reincarnate in man’s coronary cosmos&comma;<br>&NewLine;With shadows as sparkling as Jehovah’s&semi;<br>&NewLine;Always ascending on plume of metamphorsis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">How did Opi’s&ast; confluence gnaw Christopher’s&ast;&ast; anecdote&comma;<br>&NewLine;Yet he told me yesterday he died today&comma;<br>&NewLine;And will still die tomorrow&quest;<br>&NewLine;How did death disguise Achebe’s&ast;&ast;&ast; shadow&comma;<br>&NewLine;Yet he strides in phantasm into faceless moment&quest;<br>&NewLine;And million cold days&comma; Azikiwe&ast;&ast;&ast;&ast; died – still dying unremittingly&excl;<br>&NewLine;Yesterday&comma; Madiba&ast;&ast;&ast;&ast;&ast; take a cold kip&semi; elegies spiralled&period;<br>&NewLine;Today he continued his Long Walk in my nipples&period;<br>&NewLine;His cadence reiterates evanescent melodies of yester-festivity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">My dream becomes banquet&comma; where sepulchral faces<br>&NewLine;Dine with moths&comma; nocturnal birds frolic in the sky&period;<br>&NewLine;They seem to be more lively than my artificial father&period;<br>&NewLine;Their countenance tell tales of death throttled on deed’s gallow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Dive on Time’s plume into paths&comma;<br>&NewLine;Where feet streaked glistening footprints&comma;<br>&NewLine;There&comma; you will spot walls crinkled with heroes&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 60px&semi;"><em>Note&colon;<&sol;em><br>&NewLine;<em>&ast;Opi – a junction where Christopher Okigbo was shot during Biafran war<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>UNFADED by Ohiro Sarah<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Tomorrow is like the cunny adder<br>&NewLine;Lurking afoot the greenery of time<br>&NewLine;It is the prized chest<br>&NewLine;Where all great treasures lay rest<br>&NewLine;The face of courage and strength<br>&NewLine;The unbleached cover girl appareled in red<br>&NewLine;It is the speaking ink<br>&NewLine;The fastest legs<br>&NewLine;The fiercest but fearful moments before the curtain is drawn<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Yet<br>&NewLine;Courage sleeps in a dingy old bed<br>&NewLine;Her unbleached skin shivers inside a leaking roof<br>&NewLine;And the flood in her brain<br>&NewLine;Ink enough to swim in<br>&NewLine;Too still to scribble words<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">So<br>&NewLine;Let so great a cloud of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ancestors”<br>&NewLine;Fallen and yet upright<br>&NewLine;Let them stand at the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;T”<br>&NewLine;Where the junctions meet<br>&NewLine;Let them call forth the spirits of our inner selves<br>&NewLine;Let the words carry with them a great many convictions<br>&NewLine;A reminder too often forgotten<br>&NewLine;That we too are our own heroes<br>&NewLine;Fighting daily<br>&NewLine;For the freedom our souls seek<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>BLACK POWER by Tukur Ridwan Ishola<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Brighter days give nights of our skins a chance<br>&NewLine;to shade sketches of our symbols of the &lpar;he&rpar;art&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;A map with a horn cradles man &amp&semi; nurses him<br>&NewLine;to grow green &amp&semi; glow the sun’s eyes like melanin…<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;until he was free in chains&colon; trailed&comma; tailed<br>&NewLine;&amp&semi; trained through thorns &amp&semi; throes<br>&NewLine;to transcend time than trees of told truths&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;As a slave&semi; a distant relative like Kunta&comma; home he hives<br>&NewLine;in our hearts to house these hands held together&period;<br>&NewLine;One like Maya makes mankind feel the fortune<br>&NewLine;that fares upon failures to find freedom<br>&NewLine;for herself plus her kit &amp&semi; kin home &amp&semi; abroad&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;Scorned &amp&semi; severed of his sacred salience&comma;<br>&NewLine;but silence is not Malcom’s best answer to this<br>&NewLine;treatment &amp&semi; inhumanity to humanity&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;Michael also spoke to the man in the mirror where there was no water for others to drink &amp&semi; reflect with…<br>&NewLine;&amp&semi; water is blind&semi; can’t tell if thirst is coloured or not&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;Nelson would crack these walls of wails till<br>&NewLine;the prison yard becomes paradise through hell<br>&NewLine;in years spent to bloom in the cell of life through dearth&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;A woman like Rosa would insist to sit when asked<br>&NewLine;to stand against her will in the wheels of a bus&period;<br>&NewLine;&period;<br>&NewLine;These &lpar;wo&rpar;men would break black boundaries<br>&NewLine;to shed more light onto the nights of bias &amp&semi; hurt<br>&NewLine;like stars across the sky until bright becomes the days<br>&NewLine;after prior darkness beyond the cradle of humanity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>THE WIFE OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER&colon; WINNIE MADELA by Anyanwu Timothy Chibuike<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">A revered holy book said she was a product of a single bone&period;<br>&NewLine;It convinced the universe that she was a weaker vessel even before she was born&period;<br>&NewLine;It mapped out for her the status of a subordinate&period;<br>&NewLine;It made her recognition so much dependent on her luck to procreate&period;<br>&NewLine;With an ambiance of racial prejudice engulfing her youth&comma;<br>&NewLine;She convinced herself and promised a quota that is not mute&period;<br>&NewLine;Nomzamo&semi; she knew her part was that of strives and trials<br>&NewLine;She was determined for the June 14&comma; 1958 knot with a Madiba docked for betrayal&period;<br>&NewLine;Now&comma; married to a freedom fighter&comma;<br>&NewLine;Her Ideal idyllic bubble paved part for painful pleasure of dark moon<br>&NewLine;with no honey<br>&NewLine;8115 Orlando West of the 50s and 60s was not a place known for couple’s jolly&period;<br>&NewLine;Wife of a freedom fighter is a suspect under restrictions&period;<br>&NewLine;Marrying to a &OpenCurlyQuote;terrorist’ is accepting to live under suspicions&period;<br>&NewLine;It gives matrimonial bed adorned in the blissful Robben Island&comma;<br>&NewLine;Where nuptial kissing and hugging are for the oppressors to command&comma;<br>&NewLine;And conjugal coitus covered in cloudy cogitation&period;<br>&NewLine;Wife of a freedom fighter is a subject to the whims of the might&period;<br>&NewLine;Wife of a freedom fighter is with no freedom and right&period;<br>&NewLine;Wife of a freedom fighter is a frail widow&comma;<br>&NewLine;Tramped upon extensively like an Argentine meadow&period;<br>&NewLine;Hauled from Marshall Square police station to the hellish Brandfort&period;<br>&NewLine;Enjoying the Ninety Day Detention Act and the Terrorism Act&period;<br>&NewLine;Wife of a freedom fighter is a married single woman fathering her children&period;<br>&NewLine;She was seen by the King in Proverbs thirty-one verses between ten and<br>&NewLine;thirty one<br>&NewLine;She may quite be a single bone&semi; she is not a weaker vessel&period;<br>&NewLine;She married him to free him and them&period;<br>&NewLine;She is Winnie Mandela&comma; the heroine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>REQUIEM KALAKUTA by Paul Chiwude<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">How dark was the eve of hush noise&comma;<br>&NewLine;When the sounds of the jack boot&comma;<br>&NewLine;Crouched to silence the lone voice&comma;<br>&NewLine;Who sang tough with his open tooth&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Lo&comma; they came terrified by his guts&comma;<br>&NewLine;For he had no weapon but his song&comma;<br>&NewLine;With a message that drove them nuts&comma;<br>&NewLine;To liberate the masses from their torn&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Like a zombie in the night they came&comma;<br>&NewLine;Brandishing rusty gun and dagger&comma;<br>&NewLine;Their shirts were worn and legs lame&comma;<br>&NewLine;In service to the pot bellied of swagger&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Oh&comma; you princes of vibrant kalakuta&comma;<br>&NewLine;You fear not the men in khaki and beret&comma;<br>&NewLine;For your saxophone has broken the junta&comma;<br>&NewLine;And your fist have punctured their ferret&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">In your calmness they saw boldness&comma;<br>&NewLine;Standing tall where many feet tremble&comma;<br>&NewLine;Gladly daring the whips and the coldness&comma;<br>&NewLine;Of a ruthless era of iron clad rumble&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">But despite your dark travails&comma;<br>&NewLine;Your spirit was never conquered&comma;<br>&NewLine;Despite the shrine’s ruins and wails&comma;<br>&NewLine;You still gave strength to the shattered&comma;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Now the sunlight and crow dawns&comma;<br>&NewLine;Vanishing away the relics of the past&comma;<br>&NewLine;Your legacy and beats still yawns&comma;<br>&NewLine;Reminding us that a legend still last&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5>FEROCIOUS FELA by Emmanuel Faith<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">All hail the king of Kalakuta republic&comma;<br>&NewLine;Whose resplendent regalia radiates in mesmerizing music&comma;<br>&NewLine;Erupting from a polished potpourri of cacophonous choruses<br>&NewLine;– cymbals clashing loudly in captivating cadences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">The dazzling director-boisterous bevy of ladies&comma;<br>&NewLine;With whimsical waists that wriggle&comma; like KSA&ast;s steps in the eighties<br>&NewLine;Have you been inebriated with a cup of felagoro&quest;<br>&NewLine;A polished potpourri richer than ogogoro&ast;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">A sapient soldier whose weapon were neither guns nor swords&comma;<br>&NewLine;But synchronizing symphony of sagacious stringent words&comma;<br>&NewLine;That oppressed the oppressors and relieved the masses&comma;<br>&NewLine;– rained torrents of taunts on paunchy politicians in secluded classes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Those zombies were once zealots whose zeal and zest was zapped&comma;<br>&NewLine;Monkey dey work&comma; baboon dey chop3&comma; isn’t that how strength is sapped&quest;<br>&NewLine;Your yellow fever was a Blackman’s cry reaching bleaching divas<br>&NewLine;And the boisterous beats of beast of no nation sends callous shivers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Water no get enemy&comma; but heralds of truth breed many&comma;<br>&NewLine;The slaves of colonial mentality&comma; whose malady has no remedy&comma;<br>&NewLine;They did an army arrangement and invaded your apartment&comma;<br>&NewLine;But rays from the scorching sun cannot falter the firmament&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">Anikulapo&comma; you held death captive in your pouch<br>&NewLine;Till it stealthily encroached into your couch&comma;<br>&NewLine;Your shakara and grah-grah4&comma; made everything scatter&comma;<br>&NewLine;As the world of Afro beat suffered a disaster<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 30px&semi;">But you live in our hearts&comma; your name&comma; your fame&comma; your thirst and quest&period;<br>&NewLine;May your music make mellifluous melody to your soul wherever it rests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Olajuwon will be awarded the N8000 cash prize&comma; and his poem&comma; along with all the other TOP 10 finalists&comma; will be automatically entered for the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;csr&sol;albert-jungers-poetry-prize-ajpp&sol;">ALBERT JUNGERS POETRY PRIZE<&sol;a> &lpar;AJPP&rpar; 2018 and published in the BPPC 2018 anthology&period; The finalists will also each receive a certificate and free copies of the BPPC 2018 anthology&comma; to be awarded at the Words Rhymes &amp&semi; Rhythm Literary Festival 2018&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;OLAJUWON-JOSEPH-WINS-BPPC-APRIL-2018&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-35008 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;05&sol;OLAJUWON-JOSEPH-WINS-BPPC-APRIL-2018&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" loading&equals;"lazy"><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr>&NewLine;<h5 style&equals;"text-align&colon; right&semi;">The<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;wrr&period;ng&sol;csr&sol;bppc&sol;"> BRIGITTE POIRSON POETRY CONTEST<&sol;a>&comma; a brainchild of Words Rhymes &amp&semi; Rhythm &lpar;WRR&rpar;&comma; is a monthly writing contest aimed at rewarding the under-appreciated talent of young Nigerian poets&period; It was instituted in February 2015 in honor of Brigitte Poirson&comma; a French poet and lecturer&comma; editor&comma; who has over the years worked assiduously to promote and support of African poetry&period; Now in its third season&comma; and being one of the few credible contests for poets&comma; the BPPC has since grown to be one of country’s most popular&comma; especially among the younger poets&period;<&sol;h5>&NewLine;<blockquote><p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;BPPC-LOGO1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-34519 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;BPPC-LOGO1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" loading&equals;"lazy"><&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Click here to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wrr&period;ng&sol;news&sol;enter-bppc-may-2018&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Enter for  BPPC May 2018<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><&sol;p>&NewLine; &NewLine; <div 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