Politics of Resistance and Emancipation in Obari Gomba’s <i>The Ascent Stone</i>

Abstract

This paper examines Obari Gomba’s position, as expressed in his collection of poems, The Ascent Stone on the myriad of problem facing the people of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. To him, there is a consistent pattern of upheavals that will remain for a long time, and so he suggests, through his poems, that the people should reject and resist every form of social and economic oppression. He has shown through his poetry that to overcome the myriad of problems that the nation has encountered since it gained political independence, videlicet corruption, coups d’etat, the Nigeria-Biafra war, Oil theft, and Boko Haram, amongst others, rebellion against the “hunters” remains the only option. The hunter can be the hunted. Gomba’s masterly new voice has spoken well enough for one to understand that these problems that have remained from the time of the British maladministration of the nation, Nigeria can be solved by our current leaders. The leadership must sit up and work. The led too must do everything to urge the leadership on to doing the right thing. Our study reveals that time is of the essence here; the oppressors have started to “even spin God to the side/of oppression.” They must be resisted before the entire house becomes “A House of Thieves.”