Political Poetry in Recent Nigerian Writing:The Example of Abdullahi Ismaila

This study is a close explication of Abdullahi Ismaila’s political poems taken from his second volume of poetry, Ellipsis, published in 2001. Ismaila is a new poet in central Nigeria who has added his strident voice to the growing political or public poetry in Nigerian literature. This subgenre of poetry is characterized, at least in Nigerian literary scene, by the aesthetic of resistance and rage against militarized and failed leadership; and by the poet’s apparent empathy toward the ordinary people and fellow writers who are the victims of that leadership. This is what engages recent Nigerian poets such as Emman Usman Shehu, Afam Akeh, Chiedu Ezeanah, Remi Raji, B. M. Dzukogi, Moses Tsenongu, Nduka Otiono, Ismail Garba and many more others. In their disparate voices, these poets are singing songs that are suppose to achieve a dual aim:first, pierce the ears of the insensitive leaders as a poignant noise from conscientious poets; second, sensitize the society about the current anomie caused by an incompetent leadership and possibly offer hope to the land. But as we will see in Ismaila’s poetry, hope is illusory in his dramatization of the seizure of state governance by soldiers whose contribution to the society is blatant cruelty. Indeed Ismaila’s political poems studied here are focused on the heinous misrule of the late Nigerian maximum despot, General Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 to 1998.