Sunday, 3 October 2021

NEPA

Niyi Odindare

Dark nights, hot days 
You spoil our fun and ruin our plays
  
The fridge is warm, the stove is cold 
Hunger in the house is strong and bold 
You come and go, you go and come 
Unsure, unstable, like a dizzy bum
  
A bright surge now, then a yellow candle 
Our darkest fear you hardly kindle 
Sweat at work, sweat in the homes 
In churches and mosques and their towers and domes 
Factories go without a hum 
The cost of your darkness is a pretty sum 
Our books unread, homework undone 
Though we stay awake till the dark, dark dawn 
NEPA, oh! NEPA Some say you rhyme with ‘leper’ 
In your dark we grope 
And it’s hard to cope. 

Niyi Odundare
Niyi Osundare was born in 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria. He is a prolific writer and highly valued literary critic. In December 2014, Osundare was awarded the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) for academic excellence.

4 comments:

  1. This is a clear picture of the power distribution company in Nigeria. The poet was a using euphemism in reporting the economic loss of the nation due to incessant power failure and sometimes total 'black-out' for weeks or even months. Today the textile industry that was booming in the seventies and eighties had died and there is no hope of its resurrection because of NEPA - rendering many Nigerians in that sector jobless. We cant actually depend on Nepa to do anything because they can disappoint in Africa: we now buy generators even to pump water to our tanks for domestic use. Nigeria need to wake up and face the realities, because nobody will face it for us.

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  2. What are the themes to thee poem

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  3. What kind of figure of speech are these

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