Whispers

We met on the corridors of power
chewing mouthful of contemporary issues
We laughed with pursed lips
emitting mouth farts and pebbles
We whispered to those with sharp ears
hoping we said the songless verses we know


By Professor Ike Igbokwe

Copyright: 2000

The mutely dance

Let's count our teeth with our tongue
The child in the storm accepts a drenched overcoat
Where are we now, the mute people of this nation
We are on the dance arena,
Where a step is double its cost
Where a step is not an ovation
But a pain in the striding foot
Just one litre of petrol for my grumbling car belly
Just a step to reach this glittering diamond
On this land littered with the priceless stone
A piece for no fixed price
A market madness with a lever
Driven into the bottom platform
Jacking the system to the heights

We are in the market arena
Chosen as our dancing stage
With hands folded on the chest
With mouth agape with no applause
Mute that we may save our sanity
As gorillas steal our dance
And ask us to clap in silent approval
We cannot be a failed nation
Where grass is found in the lexicon of grace
Let the constipated visit the clinic for
A laxative to move the bulk of filt of inefficiency
And discover a nation with good digestion
Let's forget that she is mute to our cajoles
Let's wage a war against her deafness.


(c) By Professor Ike Igbokwe

The national feast 1

Imagine;
On the day of the feast
No food nor drink on the table
Or a limited supply of the tantalizers
The grumbling mouths stampede to raise the stakes

See;
The kitchens are full of unruffled chefs
With no foodstuff, condiments and spices
The pipelines to our kitchens are broken
From the taps of our dream
And our nation is depleted of energy

Expect;
No cracking of cream eggs
That failed the candle test
In our national kitchen
No more untested chefs
No good meal without a recipe
Let's rusticate chefs that lack taste


By Professor Ike Igbokwe
Website: http://ikeigbokwe.blogspot.com

Reaching the Heights

Reaching the Heights
I am reaching for the heights
With grumbling belly on high gear
I know there is something there for me
Lend me your shoulder, the giant in the sun
That I may climb up to the heights
To find the scarce street petrol
To escape the stationary extorting patrol
To police hope into this place
My milk of humanity is soured
By the yeast of my internal strength
Wasted so far on a waste land
Rich in everything, but no will to stop
The drooling saliva of desperation from
The mouth agape with the surprises of
An oil-rich country with greaseless joints
And wobbling weak-boned limbs
If I take after this country
I will jump with fixed joints
And friable fractured bones
That spill the marrow of a nation
And deny her of a life-giving blood
I weep after each jump
When it seems my failing strength
Sets the height farther towards the heavens
Your fluty whisper tells me
My strength is not in the jumpy limbs
But in the flaying gas of my breath
I have chosen to fly even wingless
Beyond the skyless heavenly destiny
With a nation that has defied anarchy


(c) By Professor Ike Igbokwe

My Biodata

PROFESSOR IKECHUKWU ONYEBUCHI IGBOKWE was born on the 11th October 1958 in Jos, Plateau State to Mr and Mrs Ezekiel Echewendu Igbokwe, who are indegenes of Umuso-Eluama in Isuikwuato LGA, Abia State. After his Primary Education in June 1973, he continued in Isuikwuato High School, Isuikwuato where he obtained his West African School Certificate in Division One with an aggregate score of thirteen. He proceeded to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to graduate in 1983 as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with Distinctions. He joined the Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, in December 1984, rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Pathology (in the subspecialty of Clinical Pathology / Laboratory Medicine) in 1998, served as Head of Department in 2000-2002. He had enjoyed the University of Maiduguri Staff Development Fellowship to obtain a Master of Veterinary Science degree from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, in 1986 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1997 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He has researched and published extensively on the pathogenesis of trypanosomosis. His innovative researches were in areas of erythropoietic response, oxidative stress, peroxidative injury and intracellular glucose delivery in trypanosomosis. His authoritative reviews on the disease were commissioned and published by the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International, Oxon and one of them is on CD-ROM and online as a component of an Animal Health and Production Compendium ( www.cabicompendium.org/ahpc). He researched and reviewed information on the pathophysiology of water deprivation in ruminants, published by CABI, Oxon. He led a research on bovine tuberculosis in the northeastern Nigeria partly supported by NARP-NVRI programme and maintains interest in this area. His scientific publications are more than sixty. He was nominated for the award of International Man of the Year and International Scientist of the Year for 2003 by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England and Man of the Year for 2005 by American Biographical Institute, Raleigh, USA. He is a published poet and is attracted to an uplifting spiritual life. He is married to Dr (Mrs) Nanacha Afifi Dagwannah Igbokwe.

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