Playwrights serve as the conscience of their nations. Through their plays, they showcase societal ills and proffer solutions. At this crucial moment in Nigeria’s history, what can playwrights do for the country? Has playwriting lost its voice or is the problem with what the politicians watch? These formed part of deliberations at the 2nd Playwrights’ Confab held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, reports Evelyn Osagie.
Has the playwright lost his touch in the face of disillusionment”; “Who is to blame for the crises in the land: the leaders or the led”; “What do politicians read” and “What plays do they watch” formed the discourse at a three-day National Playwrights’ Confab at the ancient city of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
The icing on the “dramatic” cake was the calibre of guests.
More than 50 scholars and playwrights braced the harsh Ilorin sun, and like the ancient Ilorin “mythical warriors”, converged on the Kwara State Council for Arts and Culture to redefine their course and rekindle their voice in the face of national anomie.
The conference was convened by the distinguished playwright, Prof Femi Osofisan, and hosted by the Kwara State University (KWASU), whose drama troupe entertained guests.
The place of playwriting in Nigeria’s history cannot be overemphasised, participants said. The playwrights noted that the genre has the power to rescue the polity, if the leaders and the led heed their warnings. They also sought an endowment fund for playwrights or a specialised bank from which creative artists can draw funds with minimal conditions, adding that cottage theatres should be established in council areas “in order to practically promote playwriting as a discipline”.
For KWASU Vice-Chancellor Prof AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, the relevance of literature, especially playwriting, in the development of Nigeria cannot be overstated. He noted that the genre and its writers should be celebrated for their achievements, saying the nation got the Nobel Prize through Prof Wole Soyinka, a renowned playwright.
He said: “Arts matter in the development of any society. Playwriting has brought fame to Nigeria over the years. We must celebrate the arts and artists because their contribution to the development of our nation. Today, we dedicate this occasion to celebrate the achievements of Nigerian playwrights – from Prof Wole Soyinka to Prof J.P Clark…Prof Osofisan and many others who have brought our nation fame. KWASU is known to celebrate culture and the arts. As a university, we feel that Nigeria is endowed and that it should be far from where it is today. It must recognise that the arts matter.”
For the 2014 winner of Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature, Akin Bello, playwrights can write all they want, “what happens if leaders don’t read or watch our socially-conscious plays?” Taking the stance of an investigator, he wondered what politicians, such as Mr President, read.
“What books does the President read? I have a right to know. There must be a way we can get our plays to the audience who are in authority for the desired change to happen.”
The Executive Director, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr Barclays Ayakoroma, a former director, Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture, intervened, citing an example of former Bayelsa Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and President Goodluck Jonathan, who was his deputy then.
He said: “Depending on those in authority, every leader wants to relax. As the director then in Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture, I’ll say the bulk stops at your table as playwrights. The then governor once told me that he would often go from home to office and back.
“he would often say, ‘The only thing you can do for me to help me relax is to have productions’. If you have good and well-packaged plays people will want to read and watch them, no matter who they are.”
On his part, former Director General, National Theatre and National Troupe of Nigeria, Prof Ahmed Yerima, said drama can be creatively used as a tool for change.
“Government listens. The theatre can be used to point them towards change. Know the kind of message that is needed at any given time and what message the government wants, and be creative about your delivery. When I was the director, National Theatre and National Troupe, I used drama to speak to the authorities, such as the late President Musa Yar’Adua. Through a Hausa musician I once urged him not to disappoint his forebears.”
The conference was a sequel to the first edition held two years ago at the historic town of Ile-Ife at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Osun State. The confab convener, who is now a professor at KWASU was then a Visiting Research Professor at OAU’s Institute of Cultural Studies. It was at Ife, according to Prof Osofisan, that playwrights took the decision to meet every two years to chart the way forward for playwriting in Nigeria.
With the theme, The Time is Out of Joint – Playwriting in the Time of Global Incoherence, the confab’s second edition was laced foreboding and apprehension, it was said.
“With all the joy of our reunion, we cannot but admit that our gathering here, today is haunted by a great unease,” began Prof Osofisan, “Here, elections are conducted like warfare, with all that this implies in terms of violence, furious and mendacious propaganda, and callous blood-letting. In our season of elections, we do not have politicians but, instead, maniacal freewheelers and gladiators. Law-enforcement officers turn to partisan thugs; professional assassins rage unchecked on the open street.”
Osofisan compared Nigeria’s political situation to the mythical ‘Prometheus’ chained to his perennial burden of stone, observing that more like programmed, recycled robots, “politicians seem condemned to an unending abyss of anguish, into which they must plunge all of us”. While urging political office holders to heed the warnings of history, the author of the insightful play, Another Raft, charged writers to use their literary and creative weapons against tyranny and oppression.
He said: “At a moment when the people are stricken or confused, our stage should be a refuge of resurging possibilities, a raft of dreams to keep the people above despair, a guiding light to serve as beacon to those adrift… The problem, some would say, is that we are not soldiers, but writers and, as writers, we have only one weapon —our pen. And pens only weave words.
“And yet remember this—that, weighted with metaphors and images, and other tricks of rhetoric, words can carry a deadly power. Furthermore, put in the mouth of actors on a stage, words can become a formidable arsenal of resistance or of re-assuring hope.”
Charged by the different electrifying sessions, the playwrights deliberated on “What plays to write to stir the sensibilities of populace and regulate the decay in the land”. Prof Olu Obafemi urged playwrights to mobilise their arts as instrument that can help redirect the course of the land. He said: “We must begin to think of the state of our society in these times of galloping inflation and deregulation; we cannot afford to remain as inactive followers but ensure we participate effectively.”
Associate Professor of English at Unilag, Dr Osita Ezenwanebe called for comical plays to douse the rising anger in the polity. “You can write all kinds of plays as long as they provide social healing and displaces the anger in the land.”
Ace playwright and veteran journalist, Ben Tomoloju, canvassed for people-centred plays, saying playwrights should ensure the masses are not alienated in the plays.
Participants also deliberated on the position of the academia vis-à-vis Nollywood on various allied institutions and professions that come under the purview of the dramatic arts.
In his paper, entitled Theatre and Film in Nigeria: Whither Goes the Academia in the Nigerian Film Industry, the Managing Director, Abuja Film Village International, Segun Oyekunle called for collaboration between the playwrights, other writers and filmmakers. Other participants included Prof Segun Adeoti; Dr Grace Hassan-Adinku of the University of Ghana, Legon; Dr Salihu Bappa; Vice President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Denja Abdullahi; Dr Bisi Adigun of Arambe Productions Dublin, Ireland; Dr Greg Mbajiorgu; Ag. KWASU Director, Centre for Nollywood Studies, Dr Carmen McCain; Dr Solomon Igunare; Jare Ajayi and Dr AbdulRasheed Adeoye.
At the close of the conference, participants came up with a communiqué, suggesting that: “theatre which seems to have lost its voice among other contemporary forms of arts should be re-energised to attain a competitive and profitable level”; “playwrights earn a place in the front-burner in the national reckoning by interrogating in an engaging and entertaining way issues of social discourse, such as leadership problems”; “playwrights take into consideration the moral and psychological health of children in the face of the corrupting influences of multimedia channels”; “effective collaboration between the town and gown in the playwright’s pursuit of excellence”, and “enhancement and sustainability of creative atmosphere and free expression by relevant authorities – governmental and non-governmental”.
