He walks alone on sanity path (For Prof. Is-haq Oloyede)
19 October 2024 |
1:58 am
A lavender has emerged from our self-inflicted jungle.A gem has popped up from our violated hydrosphere
A lavender has emerged from our self-inflicted jungle
A gem has popped up from our violated hydrosphere
Heroes are rare here
Heroines are rarer than a horse’s horn
But from the pool of our cherished rot
From the massive carnival of our versatile sleaze
A gazelle shuns corruption boulevard
He walks alone on sanity path
Conscience is often an orphan here
Quota before excellence,
Our politics and competence are siamese foes
But, somehow, the goldfish zooms to limelight from our heritage of mud:
Promise of a new dawn
Pride of our patrimony
Silver lining in our tattered sky, Oloyede
He is the best mistake we’ve ever made
Until Providence popped him up in the Admission house
Snakes used to swallow millions
Our billions were noodles for giant rats
JAMB has been since the pregnancy of my greatest grandmother
But ‘Mú wá, mú wá’ had always been its favourite song:
The ‘Bring, bring’ chant of the pigeon’s wings
Grey ever tilted its account as the appointer coveted cuts
And the appointed responded with licentious graft
But in the hand of a righteous man
Operating deficit turned into operating surplus
The JAMB which languished in perennial stagnation
Today a seasonal booster of the national barn
Now we know JAMB never eats naira
It was the JAMBER that jambed its yields
Snakes never swallowed our collective gains
Our bane were humans with reptiles’ throats
Your character befits your First Class, Oloyede
Your integrity depicts the best of your Muhammadan world
Teacher as exemplar,
If I had a tenth of your tested faith
I would change my name to Pius
Or turn my house into a worship ground
But virtue needs no drumming
For integrity cannot be hidden by a thousand masks
What is a professor without the trait of a model?
As a VC you gallantly acted your Cee Vee,
Solidifying the Varsity like the Zuma Rock
As President of Africa’s Citadels’ Union
You propelled the continent in the direction of the great
When our Varsity Commission was caught in a maze:
Because you are the ivory in our knowledge towers, Oloyede
You were the tested doctor who oversaw its journey back to profound health
Then, would you not be the candidate to beat
If there was a Nobel Prize for Accountable Leadership?
Whoever would have threatened your golden chance
If there was a global prize for moral dons?
Most deserving custodian of the Arab League Prize:
Merit in the citadel, meritorious in service
Silver lining in our dusty sky,
You walk alone on sanity path.
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