Alvan Boy

The poem “Alvan Boy” depicts the harsh realities facing Nigerian students as a result of infrastructural deficits on campus. The Alvan Boy, which represents a student in a dilapidated school hostel, is left to survive on the debris of a failed system where he faces myriad of problems like - water shortage, bed bugs, lack of power supply, among other things. The boy defies all odds to overcome his obstacles by resorting to help from the females at the Nkurumah hostel. He is “always ready to whistle and wink at Nkurumah queens” says the persona in line 38 of the poem.