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Browsing Scholarly Publication by Author "Olanrewaju Agboola"

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    paradox and the changing face of dramatic engagement in two selected Nigerian play-texts.
    (Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA), 2014) Olanrewaju Agboola
    By its nature politics, particularly a democracy is globally expected to be a vehicle for development, wealth creation, care of the citizenry, and accountability of political office holder. Political development in Nigeria over the years, however, appears to hold the contrary as the nation remains in a parlous state, despite the enormous human and material resources with which she is endowed. this paper, therefore, illustrates this paradox and its influence on Nigerian drama. This paper employs the descriptive methodology, taking a critical look at Wole Soyinka's King Baabu and Alex Asigbo's Reign of Pascal Amusu as primary sources. Books, published articles and unpublished theses, among others, constitute our secondary sources. Our theoretical framework is post-afrocentricism, which advocates situating the cause of Africa's underdevelopment elsewhere other than slavery, slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. Our finding shows that Nigeria's problem does not reside in the paucity of resources but in the highhandedness of its leaders. The study further discovers that the response of Nigerian dramatists, rather than a vertical or horizontal contours, assumes an undulating formation right from the pre-independence period to date. It observes that drama seems to be tempering its fangs, probably as a result of the euphoria of the present democracy. It, therefore, concludes that though Nigeria operates a democracy, dramatists cannot afford to recede from their radical and critical engagement of the military era, otherwise, the political class will capitalise on the elasticity offered by democracy to further plunge the nation.