By Dike Chukwumerije
No lie, I had the opportunity to settle in London. To stay there and chop life. It was a very attractive offer. Particularly that day I went up to Oxford, and wandered around those different campuses, and allowed myself to daydream. Of what to me is the ideal life – that of a career scholar. Just reading and researching, and writing and reading, and reading and teaching, and lots and lots of public speaking. But – and it was a big but – I really could not get the noise of bus and conductor out of my head. You know? Yes. I knew I came from a broken country. And that many people my age at the time (mid 20s) would have given a lot for the opportunity I had to escape it. But, honestly, fish and chips is not my thing. You see? Burger does not hungry me. You know? You have to be honest like that with yourself. Because not every open door is yours to walk through. So, I came home. Yes. With true love. For, no, I am not trapped here. No. Every single day, I choose it, to identify with this conflicted nation. To help her find herself, her feet, her place, her purpose. To shine the light of love – for love alone can make things grow – so she may feel its warmth and awaken. For she lives, already, in me. Maybe not yet in her own political institutions. But in me – an authentic child of her contradictions – she lives already. And the Almighty God always makes us, at least, in pairs. So, I know, I am not alone. Yes. So, if this is you too, link up, and let us huddle together. For Love is always a choice.
The MIN Poetry Show
Date: Sat. 26 Mar 2022
Venue: Banquet Hall, Owerri Hotel Plaza
Time: 4pm
Tickets: N2k regular, N1k students/youth corpers with ID
First 70 students/youth corpers with ID enter free! Courtesy of individual donors.
