In ‘The Skeleton Says It All’, Anyaegbuna paints a gloomy picture of a society where many people of integrity are not celebrated. He laments the hypocrisy of cultural, ethnic, religious and political systems which give honours to questionable personalities in the nation, while hard working ones are left uncelebrated
As a medical expert and former Editor-in-Chief of the Medilag Journal, Victor Anyaegbuna’s foray into creative writing spans 40 years. This journey culminated in the recent debut of his poetry anthology, The Skeleton Says It All, which chronicles Nigeria’s sad experiences from independence to its present independence golden jubilee era. In its 147 pages, the book is a special collection of 100 poems spanning all ramifications of life. It contains poems like: The Skeleton Says It All; In Memory of George Akabokgu; Oh Michael; Dele’s Fours; The Price of the Gun; It Is Finished Ramat; White Africans; Scientific Rigging; Federal Character; Leadership; Big Man; Woman; Olanireti; Bedmatics; Invisible Cross; Be Yourself and some sonnets: Victory; Love; True Love; Disappointed; My Heart; and I Saw Her among others. In the poem, The Skeleton Says It All —an Ode to Ichie Nwanonukpo—, the author pays tribute to the subject whom he describes as: “...Esteemed apostle of integrity/In mortal doom, in cold rigidity../”. Still in the same poem, Anyaegbuna paints a gloomy picture of a society where many people of integrity are not celebrated.
He laments the hypocritical situation of the cultural, ethnic, religious and political system of giving honours to wellknown questionable personalities in the nation, while hard working ones are left uncelebrated. Hear him in these lines: “...In the prolonged battle for existence / Frail tears of rapture scuttle deserved peace / Vanity at the peak of truth denied / Trailing a soiled generation, famished / Renting sweet balms of mission in the dust / Yes! The Skeleton Says it all, and must!” Most of the opening poems in the early pages of the book are dedicated to some personalities in the Nigeria. For instance, in the poem titled In Memory of George Akabogu, the author bemoans the past childhood experiences he had until things started falling apart as he grew up to adulthood. In the poem White Africans, the author reminds the reader about the colonisation of Africa. The beauty of this poem is its even couplet rhyme schemes giving it a kind of musicality that emphasises the suffering meted on blacks through apartheid. The poems bare the poet’s candid views not only on issues concerning Nigeria and Africa, but universal injustices, challenges, romance and mysticism. Though most of the pieces in the book were written thirty years ago as indicated in the dates below them, it is very saddening Nigeria’s situation is bleaker than when the poems were written. It is therefore, not surprising that the poem titled Backward Ever, written in 1979, is still as relevant as ever.
The falling standards of education in the Nigerian society is one of the areas the physician poet uses his medical stethoscope to poetically diagnose in the poem titled Half Kobo Professor. He makes a caricature of university dons involved in the condemnable act of awarding grades to undeserving students. However, the book is not all a potpourri of sorrowful expressions. In The Beautiful Ones; The Midnight Drivers; Who Else; Olanireti; and Bedmatics, hope is expressed. Nonetheless, in spite of the amorous feelings, there are times love become tasteless like life generally. Hence, in the lines of the poem titled Sometimes, the author offers that; “Many a time, Solomon was precious / Yet the five late virgins were valued / Sometimes, I try to make odd ends meet / When even ends are at odds / In my flying moments / it is the philosophy of confusion”.
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