Adieu Tolulope Arotile (Nigeria's First Combatant Helicopter Pilot) Poem by Raimi Babatunde

She was created to fly, are we not all?
No, she was designed to soar
Oh! What an Eagle she turned out to be
Scalling new heights
Following the paths of least resistance
While we slept and snore in our palaces
She conquers the skies, that we may live
She is Nigeria's first female Combatant Helicopter Pilot

She is a trans-generational blessing to generations unborn
A pacesseter and trailblazer by all standards
The bullets didn't kill her, who did?
She was a faithful steward with a knack for excellence
She did it tirelessly beyond her best
Sacrificially, she advanced the Nigerian cause
To us, she is a legend, so we engrave her eternally in a poem
With pens of gold and points of diamond

Your assignment was to give Nigerians rest
And you did this in flying colours in your uniform
You didn't make mistakes flying our birds
Why are our youths dying at their prime?
This could have been averted, but why did HE allow it?
"This one pain us well well..."
Is it because we have bowed to foreign gods?
Sadly, who are we to question the Maker?

You have exchanged mortality for immortality
Zoe, the God kind of life is bestowed on you
You have exited this world with a clean bill certificate
Inspiring the next generation of female combatants
If you really want anything done, give it to a female
This you have displayed in grace and style
Sometimes, answers to great things are found in death
Your death taught us to live for legacies not luxuries and frivolities

In the end, we are all accountable to The Supreme Being
The One that knows the end from the beginning
If you die today, what will be said of you?
It is inevitable, it will come when it will come
True books never die. True songs never fade.
True heroes and heroines never die
They live forever, even on the pages of poetry
That's why, as a Poet, I join my fellow countrymen to say;
Thank you for your service to our nation and the world
Till we meet again, adieu Tolulope Arotile.