Title: Rich Who Cries For The Poor
Author: Tony Chibuzo Adibe
Reviewer: Chuks Nweze
Pages: 68
Publisher: JOMAP Press, 21 Edinburgh Road, Enugu
Not many read poems because not many understand the rhymes, but the author of the poems, Rich Man Who Cries For The Poor, Mr. Tony Adibe, wrote them in a prose like manner that any reader can easily read and understand. Adibe did a yeoman’s job of making the poems as simple as possible, even turning it into a song-like.
In Igboland and in many parts of Nigeria, Prince, Engr. Arthur Eze, Eze n’Ukpo is known but this poetry book will make him even to be known now and many years to come, not only in Nigeria but beyond. This is probably what prompted the author to devote his time to write the poems which many will appreciate the melodious way he rendered them that even children in kindergarten will read and enjoy.
The book is only a 68-page one but quantity does not define finesse and depth. Adibe, in a succinct manner projected Engr. Eze as a man of the people who is touched by the people’s concerns and moves to help them to have cause to glorify God. What is touching in the rendition is the manner he garnished the poems with Bible quotations.
He vividly captured the philanthropic gestures of Prince Eze, even going down to describe the people’s reaction when they saw Arthur’s picture on the cover of the book when it was in the making at the printing press. He went down also to describe how the staff of UNTH, Enugu reacted to Arthur’s presence in their hospital when he came to see some patients with a view to paying their bills and to know in which area he could help the hospital. The staff who were taken by his many philanthropic gestures, quickly improvised a song and dance in honour of Prince Eze that eventually fetched them millions of Naira in return from the man with the milk of kindness.
When handsome men are being mentioned in Igboland, nay, in the entire Anambra State and Ukpo Community where Arthur hails from, he is not to be counted among the most handsome but he has made himself the most handsome and most desirable with his philanthropy.
They say that a prophet is not honoured in his own country but Arthur, has endeared himself to his people because he has touched their lives in many ways. This is why whenever his elder brother, Igwe Robert Eze is celebrating his annual Ofala festival, it looks as if it is the Prince’s Ofala festival because he bestrides anywhere as if he is the chief celebrant.
From Adibe’s narration, which he weaved very well in poetry around Prince Eze’s personality as a man with a large heart, it was clear that Adibe was merely stating a fact, a palpable fact from the many testimonies that people shared in the poems even the eulogies poured on him by Senator Victor Umeh who wrote the foreward and Mrs Ifeoma Okoye of UNIZIK, Awka who wrote the introduction to the book.
It is not often that people pay tribute to someone that is living. Tributes are normally for the dead, those that deserve to be praised or not but because they are dead, you don’t speak ill of the dead but in the case of Adibe and the poems, he did not praise Prince Arthur Eze but only projected him so that posterity will know that there was a man that once lived in Ukpo, Dunukofia, Anambra State, Nigeria that used his wealth to transform the lives of many, hence he titled the poems, “Rich Man Who Cries For The Poor.”
Though the book does not have many pages, but because of the way the author rendered the poems, he made it a treasure to behold and one to be eaten and digested to the full.
Some people write to be noticed or to gain material wealth from paying tribute to the noble men like Prince, Dr. Arthur Eze, but the author wrote from the heart to let people know that in this wondrous world, people still have the heart to do good, not only Jesus the Christ who went about doing good because Prince Eze, too, has been going about doing good which individuals and organisations have benefited from, even the religious organisations who he had to build church halls for so that a place of worship will not look like a ramshackle.
As the Bible recorded it that not everything Jesus did was recorded, not all that Arthur did and is still doing was captured by the author but any reader who does not know Prince Arthur Eze, will from the poems know that Arthur is indeed a good man.
Adibe is not new in the book publishing arena. He has authored many books, among which are, ” Bible and Rifle; Secret Letter To Journalists; Experiment in Tyranny; In The Mind of Joshua; Springs of Wisdom: The Inspiring Words of an Air Commodore, and now the Rich Who Cries For The Poor. ” He brought his journalistic instincts to bear on the poems that if they were to be cookies, one would, after reading, begin to lick his fingers and pick his teeth.
Rich who cries for the poor
