The Struggle for Sovereignty and Nation Building in Ola Rotimi’s Akassa You Mi: Implications for Contemporary Nigeria (Published)
Modern African dramaturgy is a re-enactment of native historical, political, economic and socio-cultural variables interfused with elements and modes of the west, which is a clear pointer to its dual heritage. This study, therefore, deploys Stephen Greenbalt’s New Historicism, as it privileges cultural context and history, to explore the struggle for sovereignty and nation building in Ola Rotimi’s Akassa You Mi. The main aim is not only to unravel the power play and concomitant rupturing of relations between the British (represented by the Royal Niger Company) and the natives in the ancient Akassa Kingdom of present-day Bayelsa State of Nigeria but also, perhaps more importantly, to essentialize the enduring virtues of unity of purpose and selfless leadership as a sine qua non for a hitch-free and viable contemporary Nigeria.
Keywords: Akassa You Mi, Contemporary Nigeria, Nation Building, Ola Rotimi, Sovereignty., struggle
The Challenge of Democracy and Development in Nigeria’s Niger Delta: The Case Of Delta State, 1999-2014 (Published)
This article examines the challenge of democracy and development in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, using the example of Delta State, 1999-2014. Against the backdrop of an expansive literature on the region’s state of decay, poverty, and conspiracy between the Federal Government of Nigeria and MNOCs to deny the Niger Delta of the benefits of its God-given oil resources, with attendant insurgency, this micro study cautions against the pitfalls of sweeping generalization. Adopting the critical, evaluative method of contemporary history, built on secondary sources, this work is significant in drawing attention to the manipulation and diversion of insurgency initially directed against the local elite by an aggrieved community to achieve political relevance and primitive accumulation by the former, who failed to judiciously and transparently utilize the huge sums of money from statutory allocation and donor agencies to transform the state. The paper calls for a review of the conventional wisdom on the subject
Keywords: Contemporary Nigeria, Corruption, Democratic governance, Development, Niger Delta problem, Resource curse
