Expounding the Frontiers of the Nigerian National Question: The Example of Ahmed Yerima
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Date
2025-04
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College of Humanities, Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria.
Abstract
Abstract
The Nigeria national question has generated recurrent national conflicts since her independence in 1960, and has not abated. The agitations in different regions of the country, particularly in the south-east and south-south bear testimony to this. Consequently, this study examines this perennial problem from the lens of Nigerian dramatists, as exemplified by Ahmed Yerima’s play, Hard Ground. The study interrogated the play from the conceptual framework of the character of the state as espoused by scholars such as Naim (1977), Oyovbaire (1985); and others. The study discovered that Yerima has taken a bold step to dramatise the problem of violent agitation for resource control and self-determination. It also discovered that the management of the relationship between the state and the sub-nationalities by the state and its leading personnel is mostly responsible for the tension and conflicts that often arise. Yerima, though condemns the bloodletting occasioned by the expression of discontentment, there is uneven handling in the treatment of the problem as only the agitation is roundly condemned by the playwright, leaving out the state, considered the harbinger of the problem as a result of its coercion, oppression, and neglect of peculiar needs of the sub-nationalities. The study concludes that as long as the state maintains a coercive posture, the problem will linger. It, therefore, recommends that the state and its leading personnel pay more attention to the complaints of the sub-nationalities. An even handling of socio-political conflict in the dramaturgy of Nigerian playwrights will further help the situation.
Description
The article engages in an appraisal of Ahmed Yerima's perspective on the burning Nigerian National question.
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Citation
Africa’s Nascent Democracy and Wole Soyinka’s Cautionary Engagement in King Baabu; GUU Journal of Humanities 4(1): College of Humanities, Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria.