Satirical drama, political corruption and development implications for Nigeria: a reflection on Ola Rotimi’s <i>Our husband has gone mad again</i>

Abstract

Since the departure of the colonialists from the Nigerian shores, the elite have been in control of political powers in Nigeria. The corrupt tendencies of this select few, which come in various forms, have in no small measure, primarily been the key factors hampering national development and creating a gloomy atmosphere of insecurity and despair. African writers generally, according to Ngugi wa Thiong’o in Oha (2008), are “sensitive needles” that record the tensions and conflicts in their ever changing societies. Many African dramatists especially those that wrote after colonialism, have recorded the existence of different acts of corruption among the educated elite in positions of authority. Many Nigerians thought that independence would bring a state of transformation but the reverse was the case as the situation has grown perennially worse. It is in view of the above that this article examines the cankerworm as it is captured in Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has Gone Mad Again (1997) with its attendant implications for national security and development. The paper exposes how the issue of corruption, among other things, is treated with humour and disdain in the text and subsequently explicates how corruption has generally been the bane of Africa’s underdevelopment. It submits that as the nation undergoes another transition period, there is need for caution on the part of the populace about the crop of people they elect as leaders because every citizen has a role to play in the crusade against corruption in Nigeria, if national security is to be guaranteed

Keywords: Drama, Corruption, Power, Politics, National development