Zipporah’s sudden shift was an alarm in the quiet of Communion.
A holy disruption at a New Year’s service.
How uneasy, for one who just took the flesh of Christ,
To groan while the congregation communed with the Spirit.
But she was a believer, heavy-burdened,
Casting labor pains onto the shoulder of the Son.
Midwife, clear the way! Receive the joy!
Deliver a boy: Chukwukadibia
How could she have known?
That her baby boy would carry the weight of Sahara under his feet.
A warrior from the womb.
When life whipped blades at his back and flayed his childhood into bitterness,
With bleeding eyes and open ears, He heard Ma Agnes whisper: “Run, if you want to be alive.”
So he ran!
Feet pounding, eyes blazing like tongues of Pentecost fire
With heat fierce enough to burn,
Yet soothing enough to calm the sand dunes and tame the wild-toothed winds of Agadez.
In his quest to conquer the wild, the skeptics mocked:
“This poor Black man will kill himself.”
“His imagination will devour him.”
They said the flood in his mind would bury him in the dust.
But look! From the Mediterranean North to the Atlantic West,
Through the shifting sands of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, and Mali,
He didn’t break, he sojourned.
Behold the Desert Warrior!
The man who raised walls of living trees in Makoda,
So displaced farmers could return home.
He is a collector and keeper of ancestral memory.
Look around Didi Museum, where history is preserved,
And see why little Edith looks down from heaven with a smile.
Look around Mandela’s Garden, where our breath is preserved, where we stand in awe of the canopy of trees
They say the planet is bleeding, the soil opening up in wounds.
But the Earth called for a doctor, and Dr. Newton answered.
He stitched the cracked skin of the desert with roots.
But he didn’t just seed the earth, he seeded humanity.
When young, striving minds were struck by a lack of opportunity,
He became our light.
He shine so bright
He sponsored our dreams, watered our futures,
And turned a generation of students into a forest of giants.
Delta, Nigeria, Africa, behold your son!
May the blessings of those who plant trees,
So generations to come may sit in a shade
Abide with the icon we celebrate today.
Because the Earth is a vast, fertile womb.
So plant a seed. Plant two.
Raise a canopy for me and for you.
It is time to F.A.D.E.
Fight Against Desert Encroachment,
so the glory of this universe will never fade.
Walk in the light of the Master Planter,
And let the legacy of Dr. Newton Jibunoh live forever.
- Melvis Ugo, June 17, 2026
