Play performance as effective instrument for counter-terrorism: Productions of some selected Nigerian play texts as paradigms

Abstract

In recent time the Nigerian society has been bedevilled with avalanche of problems engineered by Nigerians themselves. One of such negative activities  that have posed threats to Nigeria’s peaceful co-existence is terrorism. The Nigerian space has witnessed different forms of terrorisms such as tribal,  ethnic, religion, and political terrorisms. Efforts are been geared towards countering this menace through different means of counter-terrorisms and one  of such means is play text. There are so many plays that captured the menace of terrorism and counter-terrorism in Nigeria. But because reading culture  is dead, or the little who read, their reading has no effect on curbing this peril in the society. It is against this backdrop that the paper looks at the  effectiveness of such plays on the populace and the campaign for the production of such plays as paradigm shift. The paper adopts the content analysis  of the qualitative research methodology by appraising the content of the productions of Musa Salifu’s The Rebel Soldiers and Amade and Salifu’s The  Revenge Mission in Owerri and Anyigba, respectively, with audience reactions. The research findings show that if plays like these with such serious  thematic preoccupation on terrorism and counter-terrorism are left for the readers, much meaning may not be made from the plays. The paper  recommends that there should be paradigm shift from play reading to performance. It concludes that if performances of plays with such thematic  preoccupation are taken into cognisance meanings would be made and applied to curbing the menace of terrorism.