EXPLORING SOCIO-POLITICAL DECAY IN NIGERIAN SOCIETY THROUGH THE PIDGIN POETRY OF PETER ONWUDINJO

Abstract

The paper examines multifaceted decadences that have pervaded the society. The
problem of the study emanates basically from the fact that Peter Onwudinjo’s poems have often
been beclouded by other social themes and, most times, glossed over by pedestrian generalization.
This study pays critical attention to the distinctive aesthetic features of the pidgin poetry of
Onwudinjo, especially, in areas that have been relatively ignored in scholarship. The main
objective of this study is to show the effectiveness of pidgin in interrogating a society bedevilled
with institutionalised degeneration and prejudice. The choice of his poetry is informed by the
poet’s knowledge of the decay in Nigerian society as implicated in his poems. His aversion for the
rots in our educational sector, the inglorious behaviours of the youths, the atrocities practised in
our churches and visionless leadership are intricately woven in his poems. This study uses the
content analysis method of research and New Historicism as the theoretical framework to examine
the socio-political decay in Onwudinjo’s pidgin poetry collection entitled De Wahala for Wazobia
as the source of primary data. The theory re-emphasizes the fact that literary works should take
into consideration the poets, writers, critics and contextual space in which a work of art is written.
The findings reveal the efficacy of pidgin in addressing the decadence in the society. The paper
concludes that setbacks in our society are products of a particular history and should be
interrogated by scholars, writers and critics in that clime.