To All Freshmen Poem by Njousi Abang

Soon classes will start in all the universities
And you will be called upon to apply yourself
To scholarship and moral rearmament
In this new fascinating world of education
Where you shall be governed by rules
And principles, but no bell will toll
To tell the time and move you on
Only billboards and posters will shape your moves

Soon you will realize that you are free
To do what you like at all times with no big stick
Behind you that will cause you to panic and pay lip service
You will also be shocked to realize
That you have got to apply the moral lessons
Which you learnt before without any checks
To verify whether you are right or wrong.

While you apply yourself to studies
Of every kind and hue remember
That freedom is good but excessive freedom
Can be very misleading and dangerous to yourself and others
Just watch in the same way that society will do
And you will observe that many will go wild
Until exams will set in to check their excesses.

Many have come to this level armed to study
But the excessive quest for material wellbeing
Will take them hostage as it did to their predecessors
Thereby rendering them ridiculous in the public view
Some had simply become tools that were used by everyone
Many have come to this stage with smiles
And later on ridden home many years after
With tears and wounds that cannot be cured.
So freshmen be watchful, conscientious,
Morally upright and patient enough
To gather all the nectar that will shape
Your destiny and make you great
And successful in all your endeavours.
If you must succeed where others have failed
Then you must read and read and read
And above all, study and study and study
You may as well begin from a perusal of Bernard Fonlon's
The Genuine Intellectual in order to lay
A solid foundation for all your work in the academia.