These Not My Business objective questions cover the whole poem: its poet, victims, refrain, themes and devices. Try all 20 before you look at the answer key at the bottom. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn from every mistake.

Line numbers follow the official WAEC text, which has seven stanzas and 26 lines. Want to revise first? Read the complete study guide.

Not My Business objective questions

Questions 1–5: The poet and overview

1. Who wrote Not My Business?

A) Niyi Osundare    B) Gabriel Okara    C) J. P. Clark    D) Wole Soyinka

2. Niyi Osundare was born in

A) Oshogbo    B) Ibadan    C) Ikere-Ekiti    D) Abeokuta

3. How many stanzas does the poem have?

A) Five    B) Six    C) Eight    D) Seven

4. Critics most often link the poem to Nigeria’s

A) civil war    B) years of military rule    C) slave trade    D) colonial era

5. Osundare writes the poem in

A) free verse    B) ballad metre    C) sonnet form    D) heroic couplets

Questions 6–10: The victims

6. The first victim in the poem is

A) Chinwe    B) Akanni    C) Danladi    D) the speaker

7. According to line 2, the attackers beat Akanni

A) until he ran    B) black and blue    C) soft like clay    D) with a cane

8. When do the attackers come for Danladi?

A) One afternoon    B) One evening    C) One night    D) One morning

9. The attackers take Danladi off to

A) a lengthy absence    B) his village    C) the hospital    D) a new job

10. Chinwe loses her job despite

A) a probe    B) a warning    C) a query    D) a stainless record

Questions 11–15: The refrain and the ending

11. In the refrain, the speaker cares only that nobody takes

A) his job    B) his house    C) his children    D) the yam from his mouth

12. Which stanzas contain the refrain?

A) Stanzas 1, 3 and 5    B) Stanzas 3, 5 and 7    C) Stanzas 2, 4 and 6    D) Stanzas 1, 4 and 7

13. At the end, what freezes the speaker’s hand?

A) Cold weather    B) A phone call    C) A knock on the door    D) A letter

14. Where does the jeep wait at the end?

A) At Chinwe’s office    B) On the speaker’s lawn    C) Outside the market    D) At the police station

15. After the last stanza, the refrain

A) comes from Akanni    B) does not return    C) opens the poem again    D) appears twice

Questions 16–20: Themes and devices

16. The main theme of the poem is

A) the beauty of nature    B) religious faith    C) romantic love    D) indifference to injustice

17. The names Akanni, Danladi and Chinwe suggest that injustice

A) affects all Nigerians    B) ends with the speaker    C) happens only in cities    D) affects only the Yoruba

18. “Bewildered lawn” (line 25) is an example of

A) transferred epithet    B) hyperbole    C) onomatopoeia    D) pun

19. “Lengthy absence” (line 11) is an example of

A) alliteration    B) rhyme    C) euphemism    D) paradox

20. In the poem, the yam symbolises

A) a festival    B) farming    C) wealth for all    D) the speaker’s comfort

Answer key to the Not My Business objective questions

Answers 1–10

1. A (Niyi Osundare): Osundare is a Nigerian poet and professor.

2. C (Ikere-Ekiti): He was born there on 12 March 1947.

3. D (Seven): The poem has seven stanzas and 26 lines.

4. B (years of military rule): It reflects arrests and detentions under soldiers’ rule.

5. A (free verse): It has no fixed rhyme or metre.

6. B (Akanni): Line 1 names Akanni.

7. C (soft like clay): The simile shows how brutally they beat him.

8. C (One night): Line 8 sets the raid at night.

9. A (a lengthy absence): This euphemism in line 11 hides a disappearance.

10. D (a stainless record): Line 18 shows the injustice of her sacking.

Answers 11–20

11. D (the yam from his mouth): Lines 6–7 show his selfish concern.

12. C (Stanzas 2, 4 and 6): The refrain follows each story of injustice.

13. C (A knock on the door): Line 24 describes the knock.

14. B (On the speaker’s lawn): Line 25 places the jeep on his lawn.

15. B (does not return): Its absence shows his excuse no longer works.

16. D (indifference to injustice): The speaker ignores others’ suffering.

17. A (affects all Nigerians): The names come from the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo peoples.

18. A (transferred epithet): The speaker, not the lawn, feels bewildered.

19. C (euphemism): The mild phrase softens a disappearance.

20. D (the speaker’s comfort): His yam stands for his personal comfort.

How did you do?

Scored 16 or more? Well done, you know the poem well. If you scored lower, go back over the areas you missed. Our guides to the themes and poetic devices explain each topic in detail.

Not My Business objective questions test facts, but essays test understanding. To practise both, try our Not My Business questions and answers.

More Not My Business guides: complete study guide, poem summary, themes, poetic devices, tone, mood and structure, setting and background, Niyi Osundare biography, questions and answers.

Frequently asked questions

Does WAEC set objective questions on this poem?

In the WAEC objective paper, set-text questions come mainly from the Shakespeare play. Poems usually appear in the essay section, but schools often use objective questions like these in class tests and mock exams.

Can teachers use these questions?

Yes. They work well as a quick class test or revision quiz.