Niyi Osundare, one of the outstanding second generation of Nigerian poets belongs to

the crop of writers whose works have been acknowledged to show concern for ordinary
Nigerians. He addresses the problems confronting the masses which range from exploitation by
the privileged few, poor leadership, poverty and the like. As a poet, Osundare constantly shows
his preoccupation with the plight of the masses. He voices concern against the greed of the
political elites in power and their disregard for the interests of the under privileged people. In the
selected poems under study, Niyi Osundare exposes the Nigerian leaders’ callousness towards
the ordinary Nigerians.
In the collection of poems Songs of the Marketplace (1983), Osundare’s political vision
and transformatory role is extensively defined. To illustrate this, Funsho Aiyejina states of
Osundare’s Songs of the Market place that “… by their very titles proclaim the public slant of his
poetry. The public, with which he is obsessed, is a defined one- the oppressed peasant who
may be found in our market places and villages” (9). As a poet, Osundare is a writer and
“righter” in the mission he has chosen. His ultimate aim is the discarding of capitalism, class
distinction, and elite exploitation. His constant assertion of hope in the oppressed people’s
capability to overturn the system to their advantage has endowed his poetry with a redeeming
quality. By aligning with victims of political tyranny, the poet Osundare presents himself as a
moral strength to check the nauseating condition of the Nigerian society. For Aiyejina, “public
spiritedness is one of the defining qualities of the new Nigeria poetry in English” (9). Hence in
Osundare’s Songs of the Marketplace resonate the fate of the society’s dispossessed. In this
collection of poems, Osundare advocates for a rational redistribution of the society’s wealth.
The poem “Excursion” one of the longest poems in the collection Songs of the Market
Place (1983) describes the socio-political hardships of the underprivileged. The poet impacts a
kind of immediacy- the need to carry out a radical upturn of the system as he bemoans:
we meet eyes in sunken sockets
teeth bereft of gum skins scaly
like iguana feet swollen like water melon (7)
From the above, a disturbing scenario of the Nigerian citizenry is realistically described. The
ordinary people are portrayed as living in abject poverty. This image of the oppressed “swollen
like a melon” portrays the sickening state of the masses. Osundare highlights the decadent
dwellings characterized by hunger. The perpetrators of this deteriorating state are the powerful
elites. The poet states “eyes in a sunken sockets”, “Kwashiorkor bellies, etc as the benevolence
of the body politics. In the same manner, the oppressive presence of some powerful
businessmen in “Liver pool”, “foremen soulless like a slave”, etc are portrayed cruising in
expensive cars. To these political elites, poverty “is an invisible thing”. Hence for their
insensitivity the poet laments: Several government people have/ passed through these streets,
several/ Mercedes tyres have drenched gaunt/ road lines in sewer water several/ sanitary
inspectors have come in but/ no tamwji escape the uniformed eye.(9) Osundare illuminates the
manner at which Nigerians are not only denied good governance, they are also assaulted.
 In “Excursion”, Osundare symbolically depicts beggars, as social outcasts whose
existence portrays the stifling and crooked practices of the government. Furthermore, he
describes them as “the crippling metaphor of our disabled conscience”. To the poet, the beggar’s
existence epitomizes the inhumanity and indifference of man to man. The poet laments that
these beggars are:
… living casualties of our recent war
the war we fought to make politicians
rich and the country poor… (10)
The war referred to here, is the historical Nigerian civil war of 1967- 1970 and the subsequent
events that emerged. It was a conflict in which the common man took up arms to defend the
country while a few individuals manipulated the opportunity to swindle the public fund.
Overnight these opportunists turned wealthy as Nigerian government and cohorts persistently
contrived ways to deplete the nation dry as the stanza above confirms “the war we fought to
make politicians rich and the country poor….”
In the third section of “Excursion”, the poet like a troubadour, transverses through twists
and turns to reflect Nigerians at work. He goes through the “push and pull” and “jab and jam”,
departmental shops, motor parks and government offices. He depicts petty crimes notorious at
motor parks and the gross inefficiency of the civil service. The citizens at the top neglect their
duties and make the poor messenger bear the brunt. Osundare explains that the class structure of
Nigerian society encourages these demeaning practices. The poet therefore lampoons the system
which has turned its people into irresponsible citizens.
The fourth section of “Excursion”, also situates the deplorable state of tyranny,
exploitation and depravity in the street, “in the university corridors”, and in the “Village”
respectively. The wide spread discontent of the body politics is stressed:

People whisper
About fortressed kings
Ruling by boot and butt (14)
The leaders whether in uniform or civilian robes are the despotic rulers. These leaders live in
fortified mansions and do not care about the commoners. The poet predicts that soon the
“people’s whisper” will soon become a shout when:
… murmurs break through muzzle
and will powers into action
then oppression’s cloud will clear
the sun eastering hence
a life full and free (15)
From the above stanza, the poet envisages a time when the economically and politically
marginalized masses will revolt against their exploiters and reverse the negative order. Then
there will be liberation for the people hence “a life full and free”. Niyi Osundare clearly
delineates the Nigerian society in a gloomy picture where for decades, the Political elites and
Leaders have saturated themselves in the country’s wealth. The poet states:
 … about a million million
naira of our blood
multiplying foreign fortunes
and the damnable years
of our blind slavery (13)
The poet points at the political structures that continuously hoodwink and impede the growth of
the populace by keeping them in perpetual want. The period of reckless living by Nigerian rulers
have brought what the poet refers to as “damnable years…” on the people.

Similarly, in the poem “Sule Chase”, the poet condemns the barbaric justice vented on
pick pockets in Nigerian urban cities. Sule, for instance is killed for stealing three Kobo in a
society where so many leaders have embezzled billions of naira. Till date, these “Execute thiefs”
roam the streets freely and are accorded the best reverence. The crest of the irony is pictured
when a police sergeant on his way back from the inspection of his tenth mansion built from
fraudulent means joins the mob to lynch Sule. The Police Sergeant in this poem is a microcosm
of the Nigerian military elites and politicians. The like of the Police Sergeant that walk freely in
the society should be condemned for their fraudulent practices.
In “Siren: music of the visiting power”, capture images of Nigerian rulers who cannot
share the roads with those they govern. People are chased off the roads with “wielding whips”
for their rulers to drive through. The poet comments:
…Police acrobats on motor bikes
wielding whips with consummate dispatch
the road must be cleared at once
for which worthy rulers ever shares the
right of way? (21)
These leaders have failed miserably to address the ailing dilemmas like hunger, poverty, under
development, unemployment, dilapidated roads, schools and good social amenities. Instead these
power brokers in order to show class distinction pose themselves behind their posh cars “far,
very far from the maddening crowd”. As a voice speaking on behalf of the people, Osundare
bemoans the privileged rulers who pass unnoticed the deplorable state of the people they govern.
These political elites pass unnoticed the putrefaction that lay waste in the society. The poet
articulates:
…they manage not to see
cornfield withering
and yam tendrils yellowing
and tubers smaller than a palm kernel
blind are they to the seeds of tomorrows famine (22).
In addition, “Siren: music of the visiting power” establishes that the Nigerian leaders have
misdirected and disordered the people’s priority by ignoring the essentials of government. The
siren blaring every time therefore announces the widening gap of leaders from the people they
govern. The people’s plants and crops too are not left out from deprivation and starvation as they
are portrayed as “withering” and “yellowing”. On this backdrop, Bakare maintains that: “… we
must resist what Chinua Achebe describes as the psychology of the dispossessed, a state of being
an oppressed that rationalizes and even justifies her victimhood. Our case is urgent. We cannot
afford to forget tomorrow until tomorrow …it will be our fate instead of future…” . There is a
dire necessity to change the existing status quo for the better.
In “Udoji” a poem of four stanzas, the poet highlights the governments’ hypocrisy by
exposing the working of the Nigerian society. The wanton materialism and gross inefficiency of
the rulers past and present have projected the nations’ deplorable situation. The Udoji award and
other wasteful ventures for instance, have not alleviated the people’s suffering. This Osundare
states:
We ask for food and water
to keep our toiling frames
on the hoes
but they inundate us with Udoji (35)
By inundating the citizenry with “Udoji” when all they need was “food and water”, the
government assumes it could suppress the people’s yearnings. According to Nnamdi (15) “…
Chief Jerome Udoji’s name has become the metaphor for the irrationality of Gowon’s
administration in Nigeria for the upward review of workers’ salaries which incidentally
pauperized them instead of making them live meaningfully”. Osundare lampoons this action in
the stanza: When a bribe is too heavy / it impoverishes the giver (35). In espousing the
conditions of the people, Osundare’s poetry “has become a tool for setting things right, for
praising virtue….genuine poetry raises political songs; political songs directly and indirectly. It
tells kings about the corpses which line their way to the throne. It tells the rich ones the skulls in
their cupboard (Balami 100). ‘Udoji’ is therefore a metaphor for the Nigerian rulers in their
habitual distinctive manner of exploitation.
The poem “The Horseman Cometh” is a poem of five stanzas that makes recourse not
just to the Nigerian military but the politicians. The politicians and military rulers invade the
corridors of power and repress the masses by their whims. These rulers most times multiply
“torture chambers” to suppress the people they rule. The masses are made objects of oppression
through different means of chastisement. The poet decries:
A new horseman will trust in might
will build arsenals in place of barns
and prod the poor to gorge on bullets (45)

Consequently, images of ‘arsenals’, ‘bullets’, ‘gorge’ and ‘prod’ are tactics of subjugating the
masses to submission. Typical of Osundare’s poems, he believes in a revolution against the
bourgeois, the power brokers of the society. As he proclaims “…but the grass shall rise, bladed
against pounding hoofs” (46). He looks ahead to when the society will be restructured to avail
the common man of his anguish.
Osundare’s poem “I sing of change”, indicts Nigerian rulers of rudderless leadership that
has shamelessly distorted the political system. A society where extreme affluence exist side by
side amid deprivation. A situation, where the citizenry are preoccupied with despair and
starvation imposed on them by their rulers. The poet urges, as a matter of urgency that political
and social injustice should be done away with as he proposes:

Of earth
with no
sharp north
or deep south
without blind curtains
of iron walls (89)
In his political commitment, Osundare communicates unpretentiously, the negative impact the
Nigerian military and civilian elites’ leadership has had on the citizenry. In this context, Amuta
(55-61) asserts “at the bottom of the social ladder in urban Africa, the encounter, the intimidating
face of a vast army or humanity existing in spite of a variety of deprivations. There are the
unemployed youths, pimps, beggars, swindlers, harm aide, bicycle repairs, small time thieves
and roadside hawker of assortments of inconsequential merchandise…”. In the face of betrayal
by the civilian and military elites, the poet craves for a Nigerian society with equal opportunities
and proper distribution of wealth in order to restore human dignity.
Osundare’s poetry oeuvre Songs of the Marketplace contributes to knowledge as it
expresses dominant themes significant in comprehending socio- political and historical
happenings not just of the past but of occurrences apparent in modern-day Nigeria. Osundare’s
poetry of study remains an important force within the field of Nigerian Literature because of its
commitment to analysis of power and class formation. The poet’s analysis reveal the persistence
of postcolonial inequities in Nigeria as well as the new guises of power play that continue to
shape national politics across Nigerian social space. Thus, Niyi Osundare’s Songs of the
Marketplace advocates for an egalitarian society that bridges the space between the affluent and
the deprived in contemporary Nigeria.

WORKS CITED

Amuta, C. The theory of African Literature. London: Led Books, 1989.

Balami, Shaffa. (Interview with Osundare) “ Poetry, Profession and Philosophy of life”
Perspectives on Four African Poets. Alu N.A. Ibadan: New Horn P, 1990.

Bakare, Tunde. “Why We cannot Wait or Be Quiet”. 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 16 April, 2014.
<http://ww.savenigeriagroup.com>.

Funsho, Aiyejina. “Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: An Alternative Tradition”. The Guardian
11 May, 1995.
Jeyifo, Biodun. “ Introduction” Songs of the Marketplace Niyi Osundare. Ibadan: New horn P,
1987.

Kolawole, T. “Niyi Osundare as poet of transformation” The Guardian Newspapers. 1997.

Nnamdi, Effe. “ Periscoping Africa’s Leadership of Anomie in the poetry of Niyi Osundare”.
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Ogunpitan, S.A. “Social consciousness in the poetry of Niyi Osundare”. Aesthetics and
Utilitarianism in Languages and Literature. Eruvbetine A.E. (ed).Lagos: Progressive,
1990.
Osundare, Niyi. Songs of the Marketplace. Ibadan: New Horn P, 1983.

Saleh, Abdu. The People’s Republic: Reading the poetry of Niyi Osundare. Kano: Benchmark,
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Udenta, O. Udenta. Art, Ideology and Social commitment in African Poetry. Enugu: Fourth
Dimension, 1996.