Conference Paper

Stylistic Construction of Human Security and Socioeconomic Transformation in Niyi Osundare's Unequal Fingers

Poetic discourse in Nigeria, especially, can be serve as resistance to the systems most responsible for fostering poverty, exclusion and insecurity. In this study, Niyi Osundare's Unequal Fingers is examined as a means of establishing discourses on human security and socioeconomic transformation through stylistic devices. The poem highlights problems of corruption, inequitable distribution of resources, elite privilege, and the marginalisation of the masses - themes which remain relevant in today's Nigeria. It examined the poet's linguistic and stylistic resources of criticizing social injustice and pleading for a more just social order. Employing a qualitative textual research design and with close textual analysis of selected extracts from poem, the analysis is anchored on Critical Stylistics and Critical Discourse Analysis as framework. The findings unveil how Osundare uses metaphor, repetition, contrast, imagery and evaluative lexical choices to bring attention to the character of the power play in the context of exploitation, and the social and economic ramifications of corruption and mismanagement of resources. Collective consciousness thus becomes the precondition for sustainable development and social transformation, with inequality as a threat to human security. The study concludes that Unequal Fingers offers itself a very effective means to social critique and civic engagement through the power of the poetic language. The poem advocates a vision of justice, inclusion and equitable development as pillars of a meaningful socioeconomic transformation. Keywords: Accountability, deprivation, marginalization, redistribution