Nipping terrorism in the bud in the Nigerian space: The vision in Irobi’s <i>Hangmen Also Die</i> and Ezenwanebe’s <i>Giddy Festival</i>

Abstract

Terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 and subsequent attacks on Pentagon and threats for more attacks on United State soil  made it painfully clear, even to an uninformed observer that we have entered a period of history; where states authorities can be confronted in anarchical  ways. In Nigeria on 20 February, 2009, a disagreement between a convoy of Yusuffiya sect and local police turned violent in North-eastern  state of Maiduguri leading to the birth of the dreaded terrorist group known as Boko Haram. This scenario challenged the global community and state  actors to declare war on terrorism and come up with counter-terrorism initiatives. What is terrorism? What scenarios can result to terrorist acts? This  investigation is grounded on qualitative methodology of literary criticism of the play text: Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die and Osita Ezenwanebe’s Giddy  Festival. It is also built on Marxist conflict theory of social strata. It can be established that the best form of counter-terrorism is for leaders to disengage  themselves from actions that can lead to terrorism.