Because You Have Given the Best to the Gown
BECAUSE YOU HAVE GIVEN THE BEST TO THE GOWN
Since the day you stepped into the ivory tower
The Bower Tower has kept its eyes on your gallant steps
The eyele in Eleyele, the eagle on Oke Aremo
Have been noting your strides of a gem
From Latunde to Lagelu
From the King of Varsities at the Source
Down to the promised land of the Technical Tower,
Because you have given the best to the gown
The town is clapping with its ancient palms.
Right from your memorable childhood
When you hawked pap for your grandmum
And hawked kundi the dry meat for your darling mum
Right from the dawn of snarling wants
You have ever valued the dignity of sweat
You are ever the first to plant in the rainy season
You are the last to leave the farm in the season dry:
Oh, see he who is diligent in the science of the soil
He has become the toast at the harvest time
See he who is the diligent in his chosen gown
Has become the toast of his native town
I recall the other eve of the turning point
When adversity rose against the baobab tree
Desperate to stop the divine rain
They erected a barricade across the sky
Perceiving the grand light about to descend
They spread their human fabric to block the ray
But in the twist of God’s unfathomable might
Right before our aghast eyes
A call came on a silver platter
Because you were really destined to turn a forest into a citadel
You were beckoned by history for the Tech-U dream
The city is bound to find you out, Ayo Salami
Because you are not the egg-head that turns back to mock the hen
Not the cogno-eccentric scholar who gets drunk in the bar of books
And begins to trample on the Book of Life.
In the race for doctorate or professorship
You never sacrificed heaven in pursuit of earth
Scholar in the day, shepherd at night
On Sundays you tender souls the Cedar way
On Mondays you nurture the brains the Tech-U style
Because you make the Christ your corner stone
Your tent is reaching for the seventh sky.
After this entry into the hall of fame
We must propel the city into greater heights
From the memory of the brown, brown roofs
Must spout brighter colours of renewal
When solar panels grow from the buds of Okebadan
You must inspire the city to dream anew
When Igbo Agala will drip with tourism like a California grove;
Towards purifying our abused rivers
The city must be inspired into a thinking new:
You are endowed enough to steer the train, Ayobami Salami
Towards turning our notorious wastes into sustainable wealth.