Lamentations for a troubled state at SOMAFEST

Pupils took centre stage with their thought-provoking lines on the state of the nation at the maiden Sam Omatseye Poetry Festival held last week in Ibadan, Oyo State

THEIR voices rang out clear and loud, lamenting the poor state of affairs in the country. Under the almond trees shading the stage inside the Alliance Francaise, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State, the pupils passionately declaimed the rot eating away at the soul of the nation.

Though still in secondary school, they showed that they were abreast of developments in the country, and like some of their forbears had done in the past, they, too, vented in verses – good and prosaic. The fact that prizes were available, further spurred some of them into their eloquent best.

Thursday last week at the Sam Omatseye Poetry Festival (SOMAFEST) organized by the Anthony Ebika-led Poetry Enclave (POEN) and with the theme Poetry and the state of the nation; the pupils mirrored Omatseye, the honouree.

The columnist, playwright, essayist, novelist and author of four poetry collections; ‘Mandela’s Bones and Other Poems’, ‘Dear Baby Ramatu’, ‘Lion Wind and Other Poems’ and ‘Scented Offal’ regularly reflects on issues of nation building, national life and character in his poems and the pupils chose to emulate him.

In the poems and plays they later staged, past and current events in the country were their source materials. Azeez Lukman of Distinct Jubilee International School, for instance, recited a poem entitled State of the Nation while Susan Arebofe of the same school presented Fallen Giant.  Ronke Ajobo from Mark Comprehensive School presented an invocative poem simply titled State of the Nation.

In its drama presentation, ‘Ambassadors of Poverty’ excerpted from a poem by  C.O. Umeh, Glory Academy highlighted the looting of Nigeria’s treasury, slothfulness, thuggery, electoral violence, corruption and the failure of the received religions to make any positive impact on people’s behaviour. Mark Comprehensive School, in its own presentation warned that “Nigeria will continue to be a miscarriage” until issues of equity, justice and love are addressed.  Pathfinder College warned against actions that can lead to war.

Aside the students, including pupils of Royal Jasper School, Orogun who presented choreography, older performers also had their say. Yinka Olorunsebi, a grandson of the slain Asipa of Oyo, Chief Amuda Olorunosebi, presented Feast of Dance in Omatseye’s honour, while a young lady called Bliss stirred the crowd with her  frank appraisal of the nation’s dysfunctional institutions. It was a heartfelt lamentation that drew warm applause from the audience.

The chief librarian of the African Heritage Research Library (AHRL) Adeyipo village, Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade, read Dr Bayo Adebowale’s Ogunmola taken from the poetry collection ‘Oriki’. The audience couldn’t resist smiles at the African-American’s pronunciation of words including ‘Olodogbokeri’, ‘Jalumi’ and ‘Adubi’. The clincher was the ‘Ese gan ni o’ (thank you very much) she said as she exited the stage.

A senior lecturer at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Muyiwa Ojo read ‘Leaders, a poem condemning Nigeria’s gluttonous rulers from Adebowale’s A Night of Incantations while Gbenga Oyelakin read The Selfie Leader. A teacher, Mercy Anthony sang a song in Igbo and French while Ebika read Omatseye’s The Pond’ and ‘Vulture’. The ex-ANA Oyo chair concluded with his own poem, Energised and Stirred to Change.

Earlier while welcoming guests, Ebika had explained why Omatseye, Chair, Editorial Board of The Nation newspapers, was being honoured. He said that apart from commemorating his 30th anniversary in journalism, “Omatseye is a highly respected and honoured journalist who has made a great impact by contributing an inestimable quota to the progress of journalism in Nigeria.”

The chief host and director of Alliance Francaise, Ibadan, Nicolas Michelland, was delighted at hosting the festival. He expressed hope that the “poetry in this celebration will mirror and reflect the happenings in the society and tell us where we were, where we are, and where we are moving to.”

In his keynote, Adebowale, ex-deputy Rector of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, opened with an explanation of how poets, from time immemorial, have addressed the issues of nation building in varying degrees and intensity. He cited the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Whitman, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Yeats, Milton, John Donne and Pablo Neruda amongst others that have addressed this. He also gave specific examples of American and British poets before shifting his attention to Africa and Nigeria.

“Poets in Africa and Nigeria are not left out in creating verses which interpret national life and character,” he explained.  “Most of the poets have succeeded in bringing out poems of enduring qualities, to shape African/Nigerian identity and personality. They have fashioned poems which engender total transformation of national consciousness and nationhood.

“A good number of them seem to have put aside the pioneering subjects of culture conflicts, segregation and apartheid, colonialism, neo colonialism, gender imbalance, female empowerment, post-modernism and negritude- to now face the reality of embracing contemporary issues”

The associate professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for Foundation Education, Bells University of Technology, Ota, added that how to present works that would truly reflect the problems of Nigeria was the task confronting contemporary poets.

“The problems now threatening to strangulate Nigeria are in myriads: the Boko Haram insurgency, the menace of cattle rearers, restiveness of militant groups, cultism, religious intolerance, kidnapping, ritual killings, armed robberies. Certainly, the present fraternity of Nigerian poets has before it the daunting task of addressing the country’s monstrous challenges and fostering a more aggressive poetic tradition which would properly enhance and restore the dignity of genuine nationhood.”

Nigerian poets, he reiterated, “must remember that they are not mere ‘griots in the courtyard of transient power’ but active parts of the propelling and vibrant engine of their age! I know that many of our poets in Nigeria are resolved and desperately unsparing. They all seem to have resolved to stand up straight and erect, with their armour and battle axe properly lubricated to fight tyranny and oppression; to combat miscarriage of governance; the betrayal of political leadership; and the dilapidated state of the Nigerian nation.”

In his brief remarks before prizes were presented to the pupils and schools, Omatseye admitted that he was humbled by the presence of the children and happy to see them perform. He added that from all what had transpired, “you get a sense of the society, know the angst of this society and know the cultures of this society.”

He expressed hope that the children would not follow in the footsteps of his own generation he described as “woefully bad’ and the current ‘yahoo-yahoo generation’ that’s as irredeemable as his own.  The poet further noted that things are this bad because “we are living in a society where nobody wants to take responsibility for anything.”