On Degenerating Leadership and Cultural Regeneration: Lessons from Esiaba Irobi’s Nwokedi

The prevalence of socio-political disenchantment in contemporary Nigerian society specifically, and many lowly endowed societies around the world, have been traced to poor leadership and this situation has continued to attract the attention of committed creative artists. The main concern of this paper is based on the sociopolitical context of Esiaba Irobi’s dramatic works, with particular interest in his play, Nwokedi, which projects a revolutionary vision of social change. The lackluster response to the ravaging COVID-19 global pandemic by the federal government in Nigerian and the evidenced very bad state of critical infrastructure such as basic and sophisticated healthcare facilities, further demonstrates the absence of development-oriented and visionary leadership in the face of huge budgets annually allocated to infrastructural development over the years by successive regimes. The social concerns of Irobi’s play in context is portrayed in the roles played by the eponymous hero in the drama piece, named Nwokedi, who personifies a front-runner and a violent revolutionary figure, poised to overthrow the inept regime and entrench a better world order in Irobi’s artistic universe. This paper examines the artistically recreated social backdrop to a complex, oppressive universe and the roadmap to revolutionary transformation that could usher in a better world order for the good of all.

Keywords: Degenerating Leadership Revolutionary Change Global Pandemic Esiaba Irobi

Author

• Chinenye Amonyeze
  Dept. of Theatre & Film Studies
  University of Nigeria, Nsukka