PIDGIN ENGLISH AND REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS IN NEW NIGERIAN POETRY: A STUDYOF EZENWA-OHAETO‟S I WAN BI PRESIDENT ANDIF TO SAY I BI SOJA

The African poet is constantly in search of a new ways to express African experience as well as to communicate to a wider audience. It is this desire that has provokedthe contemporary African Poets to find in Pidgin English a new medium through which to inform the African masses on the myriad of national issues like social, cultural, economic and political among others. This dissertation: “Pidgin English and Revolutionary Consciousness in New Nigerian Poetry: A Study of Ezenwa-Ohaeto‟s I Wan Bi President and If To Say I Bi Soja, analyses the poetry of Ezenwa-Ohaeto written in Pidgin English. The work discovers that Ezenwa-Ohaeto uses the Nigerian Pidgin English to bridge orality and elicit some positive and revolutionary actions towards a purposes change in the African polity, because an orally informed poetry makes poetry genre popular and appreciated by the masses than conventionally written Western influenced poetry. The study also reveals that the poet is committed to the welfare of the masses hence the need to criticize the African corrupt leadersin a language they speak and understand to engineer collective revolutionary transformation.In achieving this, the study uses postcolonial and Marxist approaches to make case for the downtrodden. It analyses Ohaeto‟s two volumes of poetry to point out populist themes in the poetry as well as demonstrate how Pidgin English is receptive to the masses who are said to be the agents of change. Finally, the study concludes that, Ezenwa-Ohaeto identify his ultimate goal of motivating mass revolts through his rhetoric, accessibly of language and mob appeal