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“A Government Driver on His Retirement” is an African poem written by Nigerian poet, Onu Chibuike. It is recommended reading for O-Level, university entrance exams, Sixth-Form College, etc., literature in English.

CONTENT

This analysis covers –

• The poem
• About the poem
• Structure of the poem
• Content Summary
• Content Analysis
• The title of the poem
• Language and Diction
• Mood and tone
• Literary Devices used in the poem
• Themes in the poem

A Government Driver on His Retirement

by Onu Chibuike

Many years on wheels
In faithful service to his fatherland
Today retires he home
And a celebration he holds

Many years has he pummeled his boozy throat          
In obedience to duty rules and regulations
Today, he’ll go home a freeman
Eligible for his country’s services

“Come friends, rejoice with me
I shall booze and zoom myself home                      
Away from duty rules
Come celebrate my freedom”
“Early to duty tomorrow holds not,
Thirty-five years of faithful services
I’ll booze to sleep away my sufferings                    
Today I’ve long waited for”

More joy to send him home
A brand new car in his name
An appreciative symbol
For undented thirty years of service to fatherland      

“Come friends, and rejoice more,
Joy till no more joy to joy
Today frees and makes me a king
My patience rewarded.”

And so, he boozed and boozed                              
Celebrating the celebration of his retirement
From faithful service to fatherland
He battled with his bottle booze
On his way home on wheels,
Booze boozed his vision and clear judgment              
He boomed his brand new car
And it sent him home
Home to rest in peace.

About the Poem

This poem is unique in its focus – the status of a Nigerian civil servant, the rules he had to follow, and the joy of retirement, which, if unchecked, would be short-lived.

About the Poet

Chibuike Onu hails from Umuomu-Uzoagba (Ezenomi) in Ikeduru Local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria. He is a writer and educator, teaching in a secondary school in Anambara State. Besides “The Government Driver on His Retirement”, his other celebrated poems are published in his collection “Goodnight Africa”.

Structure of the Poem

The poem consists of six stanzas and thirty-three lines. Stanzas 1, 2, 4, and 5 are written in quatrains, while stanza 3 is in octets.

Stanza 1 – 4 lines

Stanza 2 – 4 lines

Stanza 3 – 8 lines

Stanza 4 – 4 lines

Stanza 5 – 4 lines                                  

Stanza 6 – 9 lines

There is no definite rhyme scheme, although some internal rhymes and repetition were used to provide rhythm. The poem also does not follow a regular traditional meter, although occasionally, a few appear in some lines. Examples include:

• Trochaic movement seen in line 1 – MANY | years ON | wheels
• Iambic movement seen in line 2 – In FAITHful SERvice TO his FAtherLAND

This poem depends mostly on sound devices (like alliteration, consonance, assonance, repetition, …) with no consistent syllable count per line nor fixed stress pattern. Therefore, it can be classified as free verse.

“A Government Driver on His Retirement” by Onu Chibuike is a narrative poem, and the story is told in a third-person voice. The protagonist of the story was quoted to amplify the effect of his invitation to his friends to celebrate his retirement. The poem opens with the speaker telling about the driver’s service and lifestyle, then it shifts to the driver calling friends to joy in his end of service. The speaker then continues and tells of the car the driver was given as a parting gift, and ends with the sad end of the driver in his new car.

Overall, the poem opens with the retirement and freedom of the government driver from civil service (Stanzas 1 and 2), then proceeds to tell of how he celebrated the event (Stanzas 3, 4, 5, and 6), and ends with a part of stanza 6 telling of the tragic accident that took his life.

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Content Analysis of A Government Driver on His Retirement

Setting

“A Government Driver on His Retirement” is written within the background of the Nigerian Pension Act, which established the official retirement age and retirement benefits like pension. Workers retire at a certain age or after a certain number of years of service, and more often than not, this is a celebrated achievement with a notable reward. The poem portrays these in the life of the government driver described in the poem.

Content Summary

The narrative in the poem opens with the declaration of the many years the government worker had served his nation, and that on that present day, he retires. His retirement is pumped with joy and celebration, and he invites friends to dine and wine together. Then mention of his retirement benefits with focus on his “brand new car”.

Line 9 – The retired Driver calls his friends to rejoice with him.

Lines 13-14 – He is glad he does not have to set out early to duty anymore, as he has completed his stipulated thirty-five years of service.

Lines 17-18 – He was given a gift, a brand new car, to celebrate his retirement.

The party sure was a “blast,” and in the euphoria of the moment, the driver drank so much, let go of the rules, and drove his new car in his drunken state. He had declared that he did not have to set out early to work anymore, and his pummeled throat can now have a taste of wine, as there were no rules and regulations anymore for him in this regard. This act to celebrate his freedom from rules and own his life as he pleases sent him to his death.

Content Analysis – Stanza-by-Stanza

Stanza 1

Many years on wheels
In faithful service to his fatherland
Today retires he home
And a celebration he holds

The service of the driver is introduced in this stanza. Within the four lines that make up stanza 1, it is clear that the driver served in a government office in his home country. This is common; many engage in service in a public or private sector to earn a living. With the introduction of the English government structure, paid employment has become an accepted way of earning a living with civil service at the core. People serve in different roles, looking forward to retirement and with their retirement benefits to live off their days without worrying. Therefore, retirement is celebrated.

“Many years” signifying the years of service to “his fatherland” and “wheels”, a synecdoche used to represent a car and also imply his job title and description. This stanza also shows that the driver spent his working life on this job. Now, he retires and holds a celebration to commemorate the occasion.

Stanza 2
Many years has he pummeled his boozy throat          
In obedience to duty rules and regulations
Today, he’ll go home a freeman
Eligible for his country’s services

The government driver’s perspective on his job is presented. He sees the service as laden with rules and regulations he must obey. To him, it was tough, tiring, and demanding. The day of his retirement is described as the day the shackles fall off and he is free. For many years, he had denied himself one of his most pleasant pleasures – alcohol. And it has been difficult, even painful, to maintain this image. The speaker described this in line 5 – “Many years he has pummeled his boozy throat”.

Evident from this stanza, the government driver never gave up drinking, nor did he keep the rules about drinking on the job because he wanted to or liked it. Rather, the need to keep the job compelled him to accept the rule while he counted down to when he would be free to drink as he pleased. He had done what he had to do to remain eligible to serve; now he is free.

Stanza 3
“Come friends, rejoice with me
I shall booze and zoom myself home                        
Away from duty rules
Come celebrate my freedom”
“Early to duty tomorrow holds not,
Thirty-five years of faithful services
I’ll booze to sleep away my sufferings                    
Today I’ve long waited for”

In stanza 3, the driver calls his friends to celebrate his retirement; he wishes to share his joy with others. However, the second line in this stanza shows how much his celebration is not just about retiring from active service but also about his freedom to drink, and his enthusiasm to do so is stated as “I shall booze and zoom myself home”. In other words, he would drink to his heart’s content, then drive himself home in his new car.

Again, he mentions how far away he wishes to go from the rules that kept him bound, unable to drink and enjoy himself as he pleases. Then he reiterates the invitation to celebrate his freedom. He would no longer set out early to work anymore; he had completed thirty-five years of service.

Then he declares that he would drink so much and then sleep away his sufferings. He clearly mentions that he had long awaited this day. His enthusiasm and excitement are over the roof. He is free from the daily labour of a civil servant, driving around the city; he is also free from the rules, and as a freeman, he can drink as much alcohol as he wants, and he can drive his new car even after having some drink.

Interestingly, in this joyous occasion that he invites his friends to celebrate with him, there is an undertone that signifies his deep dissatisfaction with the job he had done for thirty-five years. He was just hanging on, waiting for retirement. His frustration with the job may not have been just about the rules and regulations; it may also have been about other issues like low salary, little or no holidays, early start, and late closing of a civil service driver’s work, etc. Now that he is done with all of that, he can let go, be merry, and live as he pleases.

Stanza 4
More joy to send him home
A brand new car in his name
An appreciative symbol
For undented thirty years of service to fatherland  

This stanza mainly speaks of the gift of a car that the driver received as part of his retirement benefit. This gift of appreciation is in recognition of his faithfulness in service – “For undented thirty years of service to his fatherland” (Line 20).

Despite the rules, those who are able to obey them are gainfully rewarded in the end. This driver made that list.

Stanza 5
“Come friends, and rejoice more,
Joy till no more joy to joy
Today frees and makes me a king
My patience rewarded.”

The driver continues to beckon his friends to share in his joy. He repeats that today makes him free and adds that it also makes him “a king”. In other words, he had viewed the service years as servitude, not some fancy collar job, but work that came with restrictions to his life, which he was so glad to overcome.

Also, he was particularly happy that his years of endurance paid off in the end – “My patience rewarded” (Line 24).

Stanza 6
And so, he boozed and boozed                            
Celebrating the celebration of his retirement
From faithful service to fatherland
He battled with his bottle booze
On his way home on wheels,
Booze boozed his vision and clear judgment              
He boomed his brand new car
And it sent him home
Home to rest in peace.

In the last stanza, we see how the driver celebrated – “And so, he boozed and boozed” (Line 25). He celebrated without caution on his alcohol intake. He drank as if to consume all the alcohol he had not taken for his years of service. Now that he is retired from the job that caused him to pummel his throat, he opened the “boozy throat” to accept the drinks.

It was as if the only thing he did at the celebration was drink. This stanza says nothing else about the party or gathering of friends he hosted. There is no mention of the food, music, games, etc. Surprisingly, there is also no mention of his friends drinking with him or someone sober trying to get him home. It appears that his declaration of invitation to friends to celebrate with him was rhetorical or simply speaking to people around him in his joy. This is not uncommon, as with his earnings and responsibilities as a civil service driver, he may not be able to afford hosting many people to a meal or throwing a resounding party.

After he had drunk to his content, he sat in his car and drove home, ignoring the safety measures he had followed for thirty-five years in service. But the effect of the alcohol took hold, blurring his vision and judgment, and he crashed – not just the car, but his life as well.

The last four lines present the sad end in a satirical way. Within a few hours of leaving his government driver job and retiring, he drives himself to his death. Here, the irony of his illusion of freedom glares at the reader – he had seen the rules that kept him and those he drove safe on wheels as limiting, believing they were chains that kept him bound. And as soon as he was “unchained”, the protection he enjoyed also slipped with it. The message is that laws are made to protect, although they may seem stiff.

The Title of the Poem

The title “A Government Driver on His Retirement” whets the readers’ appetite for a story about the adventures of a retired government driver. The audience anticipates travels, challenges that come with old age and retirement, and maybe information on cars and a driver’s life.

With Nigeria as the setting of the poem, the title leads readers to expect dramatic driver life as the retired government driver reintegrates into the general society.

Language and Diction

The language of the poem is simple and easy to understand. The choice of diction is peculiar to the Nigerian way of speaking, and the use of such slang makes the poem unique, adds rhythm, and boosts the satirical effect at the end of the poem. Examples of the unique slang in the poem include:

• ‘Booze boozed his vision and clear judgment” (Line 30).
• He boomed his brand new car” (Line 31).
• “I shall booze and zoom myself home” (Line 10).

Mood and Tone

The mood of the poem is happy and sad. The beginning presents a joyous occasion with excitement, celebrations, presentation of gifts, etc. The driver had just retired and was calling on friends to celebrate with him as he completed his service in honour.

The last two stanzas present the contrast, sadness, shock, and pity. The driver who meritoriously retired after thirty-five years as a driver crashed his car and died in the accident, and the accident was due to drunk driving. Juxtaposing the end of his life with the fact that he was going home from celebrating his retirement makes it even more moody.

Onu pairs joy and gloom, and the core mood of the poem drives home the message. This also helps bring the satirical and sarcastic tone to light.

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• Literary Devices used in A Government Driver on His Retirement
• Themes in A Government Driver on His Retirement