Please don’t say me dead I am still alive after death I am living in the pages of history In the laughter of a child’s mystery I have conquered death of time Now everything is mine Look my face in the Flag Everyday I rise with the rising sun Every night I gossip with the stars I fly in the belief of patriots And the hope of new generation Every moment l listen your heartbeat I hear what your tongue utter I am not worried about my life That I gave in the Liberation War See, me, I am always with your prayer. I am always with the feeling of crore Death has nothing to do I am over death I’m still alive And I will be alive generation after generation.
Midnight Soul and Hay Meadow Heart
Night comes creeping softly
Like a ghost descending the stairs
Dragging reluctant shadows behind it
With a dark beauty that mystifies reality;
Flooding my being with midnight skies
And lining the walls of my soul
With planets, suns, orbiting moons, swirling
Nebulas and covering the Sistine ceiling of my soul
With the layers of a million Milky Ways.
My super-conscious is a blackness
Lighted by a billion twinkling stars.
There is just room enough left in my psyche
To fill each crevice with the scent of new mown hay
And the site of the burgeoning meadows of home
Over-flowing the memory banks of my heart.
When Tomorrow Has Flown
When tomorrow has flown
Into future memories
Where will love be then;
Still strong between us?
Will your mind burn
With indelible images of me
Swirling just below instant recall?
Will your heart still ache
From the memory of my touch?
Will my undying words of love
Still echo in your chambered soul
When tomorrow has flown?
Love does not seek assurances;
It lives or dies within a dream.
Within the soul of yesterday
Love comes naked and barefooted;
A deep passionate flame
Burning in the wonder-filled darkness
Where twin souls are melded by time.
We are alive on sacred promises
And the murmuring madness
That comes whispering through time
To bind us soul in soul, as one.
Annie Johnson is 84 years old. She is Shawnee Native American. She has published two, six hundred-page novels and six books of poetry. Annie has won several poetry awards from world poetry organizations including; World Union of Poets; she is a member of World Nations Writers Union; has received the World Institute for Peace award; the World Laureate of Literature from World Nations Writers Union and The William Shakespeare Poetry Award. She received a Certificate and Medal in recognition of the highest literature from International Literary Union for the year 2020, from Ayad Al Baldawi, President of the International Literary Union. She has three children, two grandchildren, and two sons-in-law. Annie played a flute in the Butler University Symphony. She still plays her flute.
Nigeria, the so-called ‘giant of Africa ‘ is fast becoming a shadow of itself. From the pinnacle of relevance as being the most populous black nation in the world to a land endowed with enormous human and natural resources, the country is loosing its highly magnified framework of international and global recognition.
October 1 1960 birthed a nation that would be known to be home to the highest concentration of black people in the world. Known for its enormous resources, each regions at the time survived independently through the instrumentality of viable and sustaining agriculture. The Eastern region was known for the abundant production of palm oil and other related derivatives. Cocoa was an export crop produced in the western region and the famous groundnut pyramid was the symbol of the food strength of the northern region. Together, Nigeria prospered economically.. The political sagacity and geniuses of the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Western region, late M.I Okpara of the Eastern region and Sir Ahmadu Bello of the Northern region ensured peaceful co-existence as they independently mapped out posterity-driven strategies to make their respective regions peculiar. Consequently, Nigeria, before the coup in 1966 and Civil War of 1967-1970, was one of the best nations to visit from anywhere in the world!
Unfortunately, the discovery of oil was the commencement of what would epitomize the decline of the viable economy. There was a subsequent shift of focus from Agriculture to oil. The 70s saw the emergence of oil gradually taking its stance as the main-stay of the Nigerian economy. The oil boom of the 80s had the Nigerian attention completely focused on the oil sector. A mega-business it was and fast growing, the politicization soon crept in. Before eyes could bleak, corruption was the developing cancer whose anomalous spread affected other sectors of the economy. Hence, making difficult foreign investment to thrive in Nigeria.
As more multi-national companies begin to contemplate leaving the once-prospering economy, the following are reasons their decisions to leave Nigeria would see the light of day
Irregular Power Supply: Nigeria is own to be the parent supplier of the power to neighbouring countries as Ghana, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Benin Republic and Togo. But it’s ironic these countries experience steady power supply whereas it’s just the exact opposite in Nigeria! Most of these corporations spend on petrol and other alternative power sources astronomical amount of money to keep business operations running. The recurrent deficits make many foreign companies check out of Nigeria to even other countries like Ghana due to power issues. A typical example is Michelin Tires. They shut down operations in Nigeria to set up a base in Ghana due to the incessant power instability in Nigeria.
Unhealthy Political Interference
There is hardly no business set up emerging in Nigeria that would absorb one form of political interference or the other which would pose dents on the technocratic integrity and affirmative philosophy of business establishments. With that in place, private investors would have to cough out certain money to grease the palms of politicians who would use their cronies to disrupt the smooth-running of businesses run by private investors through heavy taxes and unnecessary impositions on company expenditure. If the said company complies to the status quo, service delivery would be affected and quality of products may not commensurate with consumer’s satisfaction. In addition, to recoup the expenses, consumers are being charged exorbitant prices which is actually a counter-productive one!
Security tensions
The ‘grey-area’ security architecture in Nigeria creates a topsy turvy has created clap-backs by established private investors in the country. The almost-collapsed security system in the country has paved way for several terrorist groups constituting cataclysmic aftermaths to individuals and businesses. With the dreaded Boko Haram, threatening Herdsmen, notorious Miyati Allah, masquerading Unknown gunmen and mean kidnappers destructively interfering the security structure in the North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-South, South-West , South-South and South-East geo-political zones, Nigeria is one of one that nations of the world on the Terrorist Watchlist. That alone makes it unsafe of foreign investment to thrive in the country.
Stephen Jarrell Williams has published over a thousand poems here and there and distant places where the light still glows. He can be found on X Twitter @papapoet
Let's save the "dying" World!
It's your turn, Oh scholar, Oh poet,
Humanity is dying before your eyes.
The greedy say everything is mine
He divides what he doesn't have into a hundred!
Make an invention, brainstorm,
Say such a word, let it touch the heart,
Let the soul-conquering song be sung,
The world has come to life, they are alive again!
We extend a helping hand with care,
Let's save the "dying" World!
Elmaya Jabbarova - was born in Azerbaijan. She is a poet, writer, reciter, translator. Her poems were published in the regional newspapers «Shargin sesi», «Ziya», «Hekari», literary collections «Turan», «Karabakh is Azerbaijan!», «Zafar», «Buta», foreign Anthologies «Silk Road Arabian Nights», «Nano poem for
Africa», «Juntos por las Letras 1;2», «Kafiye.net» in Turkey, in the African's CAJ magazine, Bangladesh's Red Times magazine, «Prodigy Published» magazine. She performed her poems live on Bangladesh Uddan TV, at the II Spain Book Fair 1ra Feria Virtual del Libro Panama, Bolivia, Uruguay, France, Portugal, USA.
