There are a lot of very good things happening in this poem. It has an obvious form and intent; a short first line in an ABAB stanza scheme, changing the to a different name for friend. It is a kind of what I call a "list poem", as you list the many different aspects a lot your relationship. I cannot tell whether this poem "evolved" as you were writing it into the from it is, or whether you set off to write a poem with structure having read something like it before. It is a common and well chosen devise. It is not a narrative, does not exactly tell a story and has a simple message. I like that you are using the "O". (It says to me you want to be a poet!)

The first stanza is my least favorite; I don't like fizzled connected to worries, a bit too saccharine, and don't understand the caps of ship and salt...I also don't know what the salt is (a place?) If it is something the common reader, like me, would not easily know about it, tell me in the notes. I do think it's fine for poets to use personal references, but owe it to the reader to more describe it in the poem or add notes.

The poem then shifts in interesting moods- you've won battles, share the same faith, had differences, has been intellectually stimulating,and finally in a love with I think the poem's best line:

The delicacy of this relationship is so sumptuous and tasty

My second favorite line is

My secrets have you kept in your zoar to protect

Using that word zoar is very unique and catchy, the place where Lot went with his daughters after Sodom. Having it at a part of the person is very fresh.

I have a few things for you to consider- There can be too many "tones" in a poem, too many voices. Some of the language is too casual, like " a goodie not a bully" or this stanza:

Ever meeting you has been a grand privilege,
For you've taught my thinking & reaction to align.
From your humongous experience, have I gained more knowledge

This is more prose than poetry. we need the magic of words. In any of these images you must search for different ways of saying it...maybe they will help create for us what type of knowledge
you gained.

One approach might be to consider metaphor- that the friend is a LIKE a ________ and feels like ___________or AS a ______________, ....or even direct- My friend IS a (soaring bird, whatever).

I think that will help your work. BTW, as an older American and not so hip sometimes, I don't really know what a padi or beastie is...but I assume they are positive terms!

Despite the fact that you have won battles together, which led me to think your friend was a soldier,
not a bully, and your friend is your pal and all these things, in the end it is one you love. There are for me, too many different voices, different styles such as : "No other pal knows me better than THEE," is a little forced.

I would like to know more, but in the end, that is all you have allowed us to know. There is a lot of soul searching in the process of poetry. You can only put on the page what you are comfortable with within the structure of the poem.

Thanks for sharing a few of your Nigerian slang. Enjoy the trip through your poetic voice