Paradox of Location and Poetry in Yeibo's the Forbidden Tongue and Ikiriko's Oily Tears of the Delta

This research work aims at discovering the inimical acts of crude oil exploitation in the Niger Delta region as portrayed through select poems in the anthologies of Yeibo and Ikiriko respectively. The main objectives of this study is to discover the “paradox” of the location of the oil wealth region in the nation being the poorest and most marginalised region, it also seeks to project through the unique poetic tradition of the Niger Deltans the social, economic, political, and environmental issues encountered by the aborigines; this it does using the works of two prominent eco-poets from the region, Ebi Yeibo and Ibiwari Ikiriko. This work adopts theoretical framework of eco-criticism, which is a contemporary and interdisciplinary theory that examines the human and non-human elements of the environment and goes beyond the environment to protest the infringement on the rights of the people in the society. This work has come to discover that eco-criticism as a literary approach through the genre of poetry advocates the rights and privileges of the people and is a means to curbing the situation of the crude oil exploitation and struggle. This work thus submits that the poetry of the aforementioned poets has successfully portrayed these issues through eco-criticism and their socio-political views. This work is significant as it is of benefit to literary students' with interest in ecological studies, pastoral literature and to students of environmental studies.