Dear Forum Members
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Professional Fellow of Institute Of Information Management Africa, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador, Registered Freight Forwarder and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.
More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara
Subscribe to Chidi Anthony Opara Online here:
https://chidianthonyopara.substack.com
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Chidi
Is being coy
Dear Chidi
Is the real McCoy
The People’s poet
Let me be clear: I love Chidi
I love Chidi for his total lack of pretence, for his being so down-to-earth and not
lost in the juggernaut’s gobbledygook using imprecise words like “nebulous”
for Uri Gargarin’s point of view on cosmological spheres and conjectures about Heaven…
Dear Chidi
Is begging the question and if not his is a question that begs/is begging to be answered.
Such coy, rhetorical questions can also be prosaically effective, for example, consider this series:
“Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.”
Our dear Chidi reminds me of this line in a song by Paul Simon
“ What the Mama saw, it was against the Law ”
Not according to law and not in alphabetical order either, the new kid on the block Chidi now approaching mid-age, i.e. 60 (n.b..on the day when the Holy Prophet Moses blessed the Hereafter at 120, his Brother Aaron was then at the ripe age of 123) not according to law, big grammar, etc Chidi can be truthful, playful, humble, honest, forthright, sceptical, reverential, satirical, and has been known to be terse, sometimes mischievous, insinuating this and that distrust, through him, for me the word “miscreant” has acquired a more mellifluous resonance, he has also poured out a lot of love poetry too on his spouse & family and can be laudatory ( cf. his heart feelings about Kenny Rogers’ demise…
Let me pause a little at this spot , this infinitesimal moment with the truism that “public is private and private is the way we behave” so hopefully without committing any biographical heresy I'll let the cat out of the bag with this little minimalist correspondence that occurred between me and Dea Chidi, yesterday 👍
Tue, 25 Jul, 12:33 (1 day ago
Dear Chidi,
Kedu?
I understand that President Ahmed BolaTinubu is about to appoint you the next Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, that's I'm inquiring from you, about what's happening at our USA-Africa Dialogue series, since it seems to have ground to a standstill.
Whatever it is that is the problem, please don't allow it to disturb you too much.
Have a nice day
Ya gazie
Cornelius
Tue, 25 Jul, 12:56 ( From Chidi to me ):
Mazi Cornelius,
I will be 60 by 8th August by God's grace.
Let me also remind you that I am a "Poet of the streets"(apology to Marxist scholar Jaye Gaskia).
The import of the above is that I consider myself too old to be head of a section of officialdom and since I must write poems, the ministerial burden would not allow me that.
As for the "doldrum" on the forum, it could be as a result of the kidnap of a certain loud social media native doctor (witch doctor?) from Anambra State in Nigeria who claimed to have the power to disappear when faced with danger but could not disappear when being kidnapped or better still, disappear from the den of his kidnappers. Forum members may be keenly watching the drama, some with popcorn of course.
Warm regards.
-CAO
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Professional Fellow of Institute Of Information Management Africa, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador, Registered Freight Forwarder and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.
Tue, 25 Jul, 16:11 ( From me to Chidi)
Chidi,
Many thanks.
I thought that you were just pulling my leg but I checked: Gunmen have abducted a popular native doctor in Oba
B'ezrat Hashem, Mazel Tov, and Many Mighty Congratulations on your forthcoming 60th - a very significant birthday indeed since by then you will only be halfway through life's pilgrimage, and May you live until 120
Whether making poetry should supersede serving your country, is up to you to decide, but don't forget there have been Senghor and other Poets who became politicians...
Young man, please bear this in mind and don't forget: "In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets"
# A nation perishes without poetry
Sincerely,
Cornelius
00:15 ( From Dear Chidi to me) :
"....and May you live until 120"-Mazi Cornelius.
No, thanks.
95 (minus the 60 already lived) would be okay.
Meaning that in the next 35 years, God willing, I would be ready to be welcomed into the league of ancestors.
Stay well sir.
00:31 (22 hours ago ( from me to Dear Chidi):
Chidi,
I'm not happy about your attitude. Should the Almighty bless us with long life should we not gratefully count and accept our blessings? So, what's this that 95 is alright with you when, God willing you could be a virile 120, like Johnny Walker, still going strong?
Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth
Great congratsYou have certainly made an impactI've watched your poetry mature over the years into something memorable and dynamicKeep flying lToyin
On Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 12:17 PM Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
I will by the grace and mercies of God be 60 years old on 8th August, 2023.If you think that by my writings I have made even a slight impact on our society, please drop a few lines about that in any medium of your choice.Thanks.-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Professional Fellow of Institute Of Information Management Africa, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador, Registered Freight Forwarder and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara
Subscribe to Chidi Anthony Opara Online here:
--
https://chidianthonyopara.substack.com
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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