Visionless leadership and the urgency of resistance: a perspective of Niyi Osundare’s<i>The State Visit</i>

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of visionless leadership which has plagued African countries since independence and has caused the entire continent to remain in the backwaters of underdevelopment. Though the paper is a literary analysis of the play, which is its primary text, it will review scholarship on bad, rudderless, visionless leadership, drawing from literature, history, sociology and political science. Also, though the play is clearly set in Nigeria, its contents are as valid for Nigeria as they are for the whole of Africa. Therefore, the paper will examine the texts by attending to leadership styles, patterns and structure in Nigeria and on the African continent. The play used as primary text is Niyi Osundare’s The State Visit. Now and then, a two-pronged thrust approach will be applied. In otherwords, evidence from the text will be examined either through deductive or inductive investigation and consequently subjected to diachronic and/or synchronic analysis. Evidence from the text show that the playwright believes that resistance against visionless leadership is urgently needed. This paper will point that out, making it a focus on the social functions of drama. Since an inter-generic approach will only serve to enrich the paper, whenever and wherever necessary, materials from other genres will be explored as long as they will throw more light on issues.