BECE RECOMMENDED POEM

NEPA by Niyi Osundare

Learning Objective: To discuss and critically
analyze a poem.

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 fears 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 in 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

Background/Setting of the poem:

Epileptic power supply in Nigeria is not
a new issue. This anomaly has been
there for decades. NEPA was first
inaugurated as Electricity Commission
of Nigeria (ECN). Due to its
ineffectiveness and failure to provide
uninterrupted power supply, the body
had to pass through changes until it was
taken over to become NEPA (National
Electric Power Authority). As at the
time this poem was compiled, power
supply was under the umbrella of this
body known as NEPA, hence the title of
the poem.

Lines 1-2:
The poet presents the image of
a society that hardly has access
to uninterrupted power
supply.

Lines 3-8:
He presents other indirect
punishment meted on the
citizenry by power outage. The
poet paints a portrait of how
power is being supplied on
daily basis to the public. He
makes us aware that the
power if supplied at all is
unstable, unsteady and most
time in half current. Therefore,
he associates it to “a yellow
candle”.

Lines 9-10:
The poet continues by
describing the difficulties of
the citizenry whenever there is
power outage.

Lines 11-14:
This is the pathetic part of the
poem- the manufacturing
sector of the economy is also
badly affected by the
irresponsibility of NEPA. The
resultant effect is that there
will be unemployment,
therefore, many will be out of
job. Furthermore, academic
work is also stagnant as
students and scholars are
unable to learn and study.

Lines 15-18:
The poet lampoons NEPA by
likening the organization with
“a leper”, that is ineffective,
hopeless, and incompetent. He
speaks out his mind that life is
not bearable to the populace,
that people are only suffering
in silence.

Language:
The poem is written in a simple
and straightforward manner.
Each and every word matched
the theme and content of the
poem.

Tone:
The state of mind of the poet
is that of anger, annoyance,
displeasure and provocation
while the tone is that of
indictment, condemnation and
attack on the sector that is
supposed to supervise and
check the so-called electricity
company.

Themes:
1. Theme of suffering
2. Theme of negligence
3. Theme of unemployment