Once Bitten, Twice Shy

By Jerry Adesewo NextonSunday December 12, 2010 01:05AM

Nigeria is a richly endowed country with enough human and material resources to make her one of the most advanced nations in the world. Sadly, she is ranked among the world's poorest. The pervasive poverty is however attributable to the greed and insensitivity of elites occupying leadership positions, and not lack of resources. To make matters worse, the people, major stakeholders in the electioneering process, appear undiscerning as they either sell their votes for cash or lack the courage to exercise their power and stand by their convictions.

These and many more are the focus of Tunji Fatilewa's voter education play, ‘Bombshell'. The play was staged at the Cyprian Ekwensi Centre for Arts and Culture on Friday, December 3 by the Abuja Playhouse in conjunction with the FCT Social Development Secretariat's Department of Arts and Culture.

Corruption as a norm

‘Bombshell' contains important electoral education messages, delivered in a distinctive, uncommon theatrical manner to show our capacity as a people to effect change by holding politicians, public office holders and others accountable to their pre-election promises.

As it is typical of most politicians, there is nothing tangible Akinfunmilola (Kayode Aiyegbusi) can point to as a development project for his people in spite of holding public office for 10 years. Two of these was as a local government chairman and eight as Commissioner for Works and Transport. A pauper before coming into power, he acquires the mannerisms of the ‘nouveau riche'. He moves to the capital, away from the ordinary people and acquires about 20 state of the art cars for his fleet. His children attend one of the best private schools in the capital while the older ones attend universities in the Europe and America. The only primary school in his community, the same one he attended, is without roofing and the pupils sit and write on the bare floor.

The highpoint of the play which highlights the deceit Nigerians are subjected to, is the revelation by Engineer Jonah as to why water doesn't flow from the boreholes Akinfunmilola inaugurated as a local government chairman. Jonah discloses that the bore-holes were not completed and that tankers were used to supply water to them prior to the inauguration ceremony performed by the governor and covered by the media.

The money meant for the project, of course, disappears into private pockets. In spite of failing to give pipe-borne water to the people, Akinfunmilola has two bore-holes in his mansion from which his wife sells water to the people.

People power

Democracy vests in the people the power to elect and to eject. Sadly, many lack the requisite knowledge and understanding of the electoral process, thus they are easily deceived by greedy politicians.

‘Bombshell', which was first staged in April 2001, demonstrates the potency of the people's power. Oladipo, a retired school principal played by Jibrin Ahmed, invades Akinfunmilola's political rally where he is declaring his candidacy for the governorship positin. He instigates the people to demand an account of Akinfunmilola's previous stewardship, saying it will be the basis to decide whether he deserves to represent them once more or not.

He says, "You have the power. Not the power to work in the factories. Not the power to till the soil. Nor the powers to exhibit great dancing skills as you are ignorantly doing now. No! It is the power to elect whom you want to lead you and to eject him when he breaks his promises..."

Right environment for business

Speaking at the end of the play, Mike Oko, a representative of ExxonMobil Nigeria, sponsors of the production, disclosed that the oil company supported the play because its financial and business stability depends on Nigeria's political climate. "We are doing this to educate the people so that they can take the right decision when our politicians come calling, for we need a stable environment for business to grow."

Actor, Ropo Ewenla, commended ExxonMobil for the initiative. "I am shocked to see that ExxonMobil is putting its money in theatre as a tool for change. This is highly commendable and I hope other companies will do the same. It is high time our corporate organisations begin to see that they can do much more than just making money. Their corporate social responsibilities must be channeled towards activities like these that have direct bearing on the people." Ewenla added that a few technical lapses he noticed in the play should be addressed as the group plans to take it around Nigeria in due course