Opinion I Today is World Water Day!

PROMOTING REGULAR INTAKE OF CLEAN WATER AS THE 2017 WORLD WATER DAY IS COMMEMORATED ON WEDNESDAY MARCH 22

     

         

Today Wednesday March 22, the world over is marking the 2017 World Water Day. The international World Water Day is held annually across the globe as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This year’s theme is ‘Why waste water?’.

       

Water is a clear, colourless and transparent liquid that has no taste or smell, and that is required for the survival of all plant and animal lives. In the same vein, a large amount or area of either natural or manmade water such as lake, pond, pool, river, sea, ocean, and so on, can be referred to as water or waters.

        

Water, which is as old as the world, is consumed as food by both animals and human beings, and it is also required in various fields of endeavour or human activities including, farming, cooking, manufacturing, sports, bath, hand washing, brushing of teeth, laundry, sanitation cum other forms of domestic and environmental activities, just to mention but a few.

        

The functions of water in the body ranging from cell life, to chemical and metabolic reactions, transport of nutrients, body temperature regulation, elimination of waste or toxic substances, among others, are numerous and innumerable. Water is a carrier that distributes essential nutrients such as minerals, vitamins and glucose, to cells. Furthermore, it removes waste products including toxins rejected by the cells through urines, sweats and faeces. It also participates in the biochemical breakdown of whatever we consume.

        

Inter alia, water has a large heat capacity which helps to limit changes in body temperature in a warm or a cold environment. It allows the body to release heat when ambient temperature is higher than body temperature. Most importantly, water is an effective lubricant around joints; it also acts as a shock absorber for eyes, brain, spinal cord, and even for the foetus through amniotic fluid.

       

Water is indeed at the centre of life. This is why nobody can live more than three to five days without any water intake. Suffice to say that, its role in the body is not just important, but inevitable. It has succeeded in proving to mankind that it is the most important form of food among the six classes of food in existence.

       

Considering the agricultural sector; the absence of water would simply cripple the entire activity in the aforementioned area thereby terminating the lives of crops or livestock, as the case may be. Same is obtainable in the manufacturing industry, like the pharmaceutical firms, bakery and breweries, that requires water as one of the basic raw-materials for its day-to-day activities.

       

The positive impact of water on cooking and other household cum industrial works, is another factor that cannot be taken for granted whenever the societal importance of water is discussed. It is noteworthy that without water, most other forms of food or diet would not be prepared or provided. On the other hand; swimming, which is one of the most lucrative kinds of sporting activities in recent times, wouldn’t have been founded if water is not obtainable.

       

As it is widely noted that the significance of water to mankind cannot be overemphasized, it is also worthy to note that intake of dirty or impure water remains one of the primary causes of several diseases or infections such as, typhoid, diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, staphylococcus and other sexually transmitted diseases, experienced across the globe.

       

Without mincing words, statistics show that over sixty percent (60%) of death rate recently is attributed to consumption of unclean water as well as residing in an unsafe environment. We shouldn’t forget that accommodating dirty stagnant water such as gutter, pool et cetera, in our environments or vicinity attracts mosquito which remains the sole cause of a killer disease known as malaria. According to the United Nations (UN) findings; 768 million people worldwide lack access to improved water sources while 2.5 billion persons have no improved sanitation.

         

As the global community commemorates the World Water Day, I call on all stakeholders and the civil society to pledge to develop the policies needed to ensure that sustainable water and energy are secured for the many and not just the few as it is presently the case. In this regard, we should ensure that our respective communities are provided with adequate and safe water sources.

        

On their part; the various ministries of Water Resources and their Environment counterparts, ought to ensure that adequate and reliable boreholes are sunk in every community that is related to them and also endeavour to sponsor series of radio/television jingles to sensitize the populace on the unavoidable role of clean water as well as safe environment. The various Water Corporations are also expected to live up to the expectations. 

         

Among all, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) ought to, from time to time, endeavour to checkmate the activities of the various registered water companies. Also, it should not hesitate to sanction or closedown any one that is set up illicitly.

        

Most importantly, in our individual capacities, we ought to endeavour to properly boil any water we intend to drink, and also adequately sanitize any stagnant pool of water within our surroundings as well as fumigate the said environments when necessary, in order to guarantee purity and thorough sanitary thereby boasting the safety and well-being of our bodies. To before warned is to before armed. Think about it!

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Opinion I 2017 World Poetry Day

PROMOTING THE UNIQUE ROLE OF POETRY IN LITERATURE AS THE 2017 WORLD POETRY DAY IS MARKED ON TUESDAY MARCH 21

        

         

Tuesday March 21, the world over is commemorating the 2016 World Poetry Day. A decision to proclaim 21^st of March as an annual World Poetry Day was adopted during the 30^th session of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference, held in Paris, France in the year 1999. One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expressions, and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their respective communities. In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.

         

Poetry – a genre of literature – which is a collection of series of poems, can be defined as a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. It’s a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre, to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

          

Poetry has a long history or lineage, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics. Ancient attempts to define Poetry focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated mainly on features not unlike repetition, verse form and rhyme, as well as emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing.

          

From the middle of twentieth (20^th) century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act that employs language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.

          

In poetic presentation, devices including assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony or sarcasm, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction invariably leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, figures of speech to include metaphor, simile and metonym create a resonance between otherwise disparate images – a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived.

         

Some poetry types are not unconnected with particular cultures and genres, and respond to features of the language in which the poet writes. Most modern poetry reflect a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing among other things, the principle of euphony, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. Perhaps, in today’s increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.

         

Because of its nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another. A possible example of this is the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the weight of words that are majorly important. Such attribute can be difficult to interpret thereby causing different readers to hear or understand a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are logical interpretations, the truth of the matter is that, there can never be a definitive or specific interpretation attached to a particular poem.

         

So far, by painstakingly considering the use of poetry in various artistic areas or fictional works such as folk tales, advertisement, music, short stories, children’s literature, drama or play, prose, and what have you, anyone can easily assert that its significance in both human and societal development cannot be overemphasized. Poetry has indeed created an enormous positive impact on literature, and has contributed immensely in the promotion of languages, cultures and education in general.

         

No doubt, poetry has succeeded in awakening man’s quest for learning or discovery as well as his interest to educate, entertain or inform his immediate society through the use of any language within his reach. Apparently, the use of sarcasm or irony in poetic presentations is one of the yardsticks that signify how far poetry can go while conveying messages irrespective of its content.

         

As Nigeria joins the global community in marking the World Poetry Day, I enjoin Nigerians to endeavour to promote the unique role of poetry in literature by understanding the fact that poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals – anywhere in the world – share the same questions and feelings.

         

Hence, we ought to comprehend that poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition; and over centuries, can communicate or convey the innermost values of diverse cultures. Above all, we should always note that poetry is the only genre of literature that saves time, space as well as energy, and can be written or expressed in any language as it pleases the writer.

           

On this background, every concerned stakeholder such as parents, guardians, counsellors, and teachers, among others, needs to vigorously contribute its quota towards ensuring that the unique art of poetry will no longer be considered as an outdated form of literature, but one which enables any society to regain and assert its real identity. Think about it!

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Opinion I 2019 and Okorocha's Apparent Confidence in the Youth

IMO, 2019 AND OKOROCHA’S APPARENT CONFIDENCE IN THE YOUTH

        

The last time I painstakingly checked, Imo – the Eastern Heartland – was indeed intensely hot owing to a view aired by the state’s governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha as regards whom takes over the helm of affairs of the Douglas House come 2019. In his words, the state’s number one citizen unequivocally claimed that nobody above fifty years of age would become a governor in the state again.

        

The boss who stated this penultimate week in Owerri during the ceremony marking the commencement of the 2016/2017 Legal Week of the Imo Judiciary, precisely on Monday 6^th March 2017, said that all politicians in the state, whom are above 50 years, had at one time or the other in the past improvised the state to the detriment of the citizenry, thus ought not to be allowed to ruin the state anymore.

         

Governor Okorocha who was the Special Guest of Honour at the event, was of the notion that Imo should be entrusted to individuals whom had the burning and genuine desires to move the state forward after his exit as the state’s governor come 2019, and such persons could only be found within the 50 years and below age bracket. He went further to boast that aside the past governor of old Imo State Late Dr. Sam Mbakwe, no other governor that served before him (Okorocha) did up to twenty per cent (20%) of what he had done as the state’s governor.

        

The governor’s frank statement, which was conspicuously controversial, has generated deep ripples among the state’s gubernatorial aspirants and Imolites at large since it is no longer news that the majority of the said aspirants are above 50 years. In various quarters across the state, and even beyond, you would see men and women gathered in their numbers discussing the scenario. Some were of the opinion that Chief Okorocha’s claim was an expensive one whilst others believed it was timely and a right step in the right direction.

        

An old time friend of mine who called from Canada to register his mixed feelings, wanted to know what actually necessitated the utterance. To him, the governor was yet to disclose the real reason behind his submission. According to him, there were still individuals above 50 whom could be entrusted with the state’s treasure; on the other hand, ‘there are many whom are below 50 but have the tendency of defrauding the state if given the opportunity to lead just for a day’.

        

Away from Canada, one of the roadside commentators whom I ran into last weekend in the vicinity of my place of residence in Owerri opined that the governor remained a man whom does not get deterred by anything, hence, it could be the statement was one of the ways of asking his opponents to keep off as far as the awaited 2019 governorship race is concerned. He stated that the boss was an ‘intriguing politician who understands the best language to use in whisking some perceived enemies/rivals away.

        

Whichever the intention of the said leader could be, it’s imperative for him to acknowledge that Imolites are only interested in receiving someone who is keenly and genuinely ready to deliver, and not just a person who is below 50 years of age. Age, from my understanding, is never a criterion while assessing one’s potentials or qualities, but what he/she can offer to the society coupled with his/her background and antecedents. Hence, regardless of age, Imolites as a people want an individual who can consolidate on the good works of his/her predecessors, and not otherwise.

        

Gov. Okorocha was born on 22^nd September 1962, thus he is currently 54, meaning that he assumed duty as the state’s governor at the age of below 50. He may have performed credibly well since assumption of office, but that isn’t a clear indication to assert wholly that anyone below the stipulated age means well for the state. Performing ‘very well’ having ascended the throne at below the age of 50 could be a mere coincidence, and not that people within that age bracket mean well for the state.

        

However, if critically examined, one would acknowledged that come 2019 gubernatorial polls, that statement of Gov. Okorocha was for the good of the Imo youth. This implies that the aforementioned class of persons that seemed to have been enjoying a state of slumber is expected to at the moment, as a matter of urgency, wake up from such unwarranted mood. The youth had, via that utterance, been conscientized to reclaim power as well as sustain it for eternity. It’s a sure way of informing the teeming Imo youths to key into issues that would draw them closer to the corridor of power.

        

In other words, Gov. Okorocha may have made an expensive and controversial statement, but the truth remains that it is time for the youth to bounce back and never go back to the relegation lane. It is the ripe time for them to lead and not just follow. Worse still, most of them don’t even follow wisely, but sheepishly. It suffices to say that the speech in question is not just an eye-opener but a pathway to the long-awaited emancipation of the youth in the state, and of course Nigeria in general.

        

Nevertheless, as much as it’s apparent that his Excellency has explicit confidence in the youth, let it be in record that Imo is never in any way interested in habouring riffraff in the name of ‘vying for governorship position’. Nature itself abhors nonentities, thus let the youth utilize the glaring opportunity judiciously to avoid crying ‘had I known’ in the long run. Think about it!

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