The absurdity of Nigerian politics and governance: A critical reading of the drama of Ola Rotimi

Abstract

The writers’ commitment to the socio-political issues is highly commendable enough as different Nigerian playwrights such as Soyinka, Sowande, Osofisan, Hagher, yerima and many others who have painstakingly reflected the dismal performances of Nigerian politicians, or call them, the neo-imperialists who took over power from the colonial masters. This article, as a critical discourse unveiled the iconoclastic purview of Ola Rotimi’s dramatic culture within the context politic and governance. To this end, an interrogation of his dramaturge within the praxis of the absurdity and futility in Nigerian socio-political icons is treated in this article. Adopting a Reader-response/Receptive theories and methodologies which stem from hermeneutics, this paper therefore does a close reading of two of his plays; Holding Talks and Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again discovering the emerging features, imageries and images that depict the absurdity and futility of Nigerian politics and governance.