Sunday Joseph Ayodabo
Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, Nigeria
Abstract
Peter Onwundijo’s poetry collection, De Wahala for Wazobia (2007), comments
on the contemporary Nigeria’s pitiable social problems. The poet employs Nigerian Pidgin English, not only as a
dialectal tool to examine the issue of Nigeria’s
amalgamation, but also as a lingua franca, which aptly describes the polity of
multilingual Nigeria. It addresses the myriad hydra-headed issues like corruption,
educational decay, election malpractices, neocolonialism, and insecurity among
other forms of vices plaguing the nation which continue to militate against her
development. The poems were analysed using sociolinguistics and semiotic
theories as frameworks. The result of the analyses showed that the poet’s ability
to effectively use the Nigerian Pidgin English to address such important issues
does not make the language inferior when compared to the other established
languages of the world. Rather, it should be seen as a language (second) that
reflects creativity, productivity, simplicity, acceptability and understanding
among the Nigerians. Indeed, it makes for a wider understanding of the poet’s
major concern, as the pidgin, in Nigeria, is often being described as “the
language of the people” The study appraised the collection as an attempt at demystifying the Nigerian
Pidgin English as well as evaluating its relevance for modern Nigerian poetry
in its quest to radicalize the political and economic situation in Nigeria.
Keywords: Pidgin, De Wahala for Wazobia, Sociopolitical
challenges, lingua franca, acceptability.
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