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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Man cannot be separated from his environment because his perception and
interaction with his surrounding make up his being. The destruction of the natural things
that surround man is caused by man himself by the acts of destroying and recreating his
habitat. Thus, ecocritical studies examine the way in which humansand the natural
environment interact and counter each other.The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is rich in
crude oil, but it is in a state of Omnishambles because of ecological problems. The
discovery, exploration and exploitation of oil in the region have affected agriculture,
fishing as well as the living conditions of the people. With the leakage of oil from pipes
and its spillage into lands, farms, and water, the Niger Deltans are faced with a threatening
disaster.
Best Ordinohia and Seiyefa Brisibe note that “oil spillage affected at least 1500
communities in the eight crude oil-producing states in Nigeria, and were mainly from the
5284 oil wells that were drilled as at 2006 and the 7000 km of crude oil pipeline that cross
the Niger Deltaregion. Oil spillage often results in contamination of surface water with
hydrocarbons and trace metals, as measured using atomic spectrometry.”(4) They further
note that “the crude oil of the region contains some naturally occurring radioactive
materials. The crude oil spillage reduces soil fertility.The deterioration of the quality of
staple food leads to a 24% increase in the prevalence of childhood malnutrition.” (4) Crude
oil spillage also results in the bio-accumulation of heavy metals in surviving food crops
like cassava and pumpkin. Pat Okpoko in Environmental Impact of Technological Intrusion
in Nigerianotes that “crops and economic trees affected by oil spillage show signs of
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scorching, yellowing and shedding of leaves, stunted growth and death.” (4) He notes
further that “fishes caught from the polluted streams are often unpalatable and show signs
of reduced growth and reproductive performance and consequently decreasedpopulation.”
(62)
When pushed to the wall, some Niger Deltan’s try to make the government and the
world to understand their predicament. This has led to untold violence, killing, maiming,
gunrunning, destruction and vandalism of pipelines,and the kidnapping of foreigners.
Young girls who cannot find jobs find succor in the hands of foreigners and wealthy
Nigerian men who after sleeping with them give them money that ought to be naturally
theirs. Chris Onyema notes that “since the discovery and commercial exploration of oil in
this area in 1958 until date, the people of the Niger Delta have beensuffering from acts of
bioterrorism, oil pollution of lands and water, gas flaring, hunger, diseases and poverty.
Poverty breeds prostitution, gas flaring breeds cancer and respiratory diseases.”
(189)Sometimes, they feel that violence is the only answer to their problem. After the
amnesty that was granted to the militants of Niger Delta, some of its indigenes still resort to
thuggery.
Drama is one out of many other instruments used in resolving the Niger Delta
crises. As is often the case in Africa, many of Nigeria‘s problems come as much from
wealth. The fate of African countries blessed with valuable natural resources like crude oil,
diamond, and gold seems to be unending violence leading to not only destruction, but
leaving the countries very poor and the citizens suffer untold hardship due to bad
governance. Junger Sebastian calls this kind of phenomenon ‘resource curse’ since the
underdeveloped countries have failed to diversify into other sectors of the economy like
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agriculture and invest in education for the future of the country. African countries that fall
under this kind of situation include Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and
Democratic Republic of Congo. The Niger Delta crisis is multi-faceted and multidimensional as it cut across all segments of the society –men, women, youth, politicians,
godfathers, environment, corruption, patriarchy etc and this is amply represented in the
plays chosen.
The blame for the pollution and spillage of oil in the Niger Delta region are not
supposed to be apportioned to foreigners alone because Nigerian leaders collude in the
decay that is threatening to gulp the nation. Oil activities take a toll on the people ofthe
region, and people migrate to other parts of the country in search of a better life. It is
ironical that the region that contributes to the growth and development of the nation cannot
cater for the needs of its indigenes. The research looks at how drama is being used to
expose the problems of the Niger Delta especially the impact of oil exploration on the
environment, pipeline saboteurs, kidnapping/hostage taking, youth restiveness as well as
local wrangling within communities and between government, oil companies and the
communities and suggests the way forward in tackling the situation. To achieve this, two
plays would be used as yardsticks; Hard Ground by Ahmed Yerima and All for Oil by J.P
Clark Bekederemo.
Statement of the Problem
Oil exploration in the Niger Delta is associated with internal (Nigerian government)
and external (multinational oil companies) collaborative politics. The collaborativepolitics
that goes with oil and gas exploration in the region hashad negative impacts on the peoples
psyche and their ecosystem, triggering the violent environmentalism in the area. Most
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literary essays on theenvironmental crisisin the region, however,interpret the singular act of
oil/gas exploration. Richard Ulman and Doris Brothers argue that trauma is not provoked
by a single event no matter how horrible but by the individual’s interpretation of the event.
Unfortunately, existing literary essays interpret the insurgence in the area as resulting from
the oil and gas exploration in the Niger Delta, thereby neglecting theimplications of the
people’s perception of the collaborative oil politics. This thesis, therefore, examines the
people’s interpretation of the totality of the politics that goes with oil exploration vis-à-vis
the ecoactivism in the area; this is with a view to establishing how the literary writers on
the crisis connect the two -alienating effects, that is, their interpretationof the oil politics
and ecoactivism.
Aim and Objectives
The major aim of this research is to show the disastrous results we get by the rough
handling of the environment by man. The objectives are to show that this environmental
degradation is not only in literary texts but that it is also part of the Niger Delta situation.
Therefore, the themes in the plays will be related to the current issues in the society,
thereby exposing the degradation and exploitations of the people of Niger Delta and its
environment. The research alsoattempts to establish how the writers connect the
ecoactivism in the area toerosion of self or alienationin the people, thus providing
deeperunderstanding of the psychological implications of environmentalissue in the region.
Scope of Study
This research is about Drama and the Niger Delta challenges. It is a study of Ahmed
Yerima’s Hard Ground and J. P Clark Bekederemo’s All for Oil. It takes into account
perspectives and nuances of degradation, oppression and marginalization of the Niger Delta
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people. The experiences of characters in the plays help to expose the problem. As such,
views expressed in the selected plays chosen as case study are supported by opinions of
writer’s andcritics from the broad and related fields of humanities and the social sciences
regardingrelevant issues contained in the research topic.
Significanceof Study
This research will add to the growing number of research done on environmental
studies. It will also add to the rich and encouraging research done using the Niger Delta
literary texts. The significance cuts across almost all fields of life because man cannotbe
separated from his environment. When the environment is endangered, the responsibility of
restoring it to its default nature rests on man. To this end, this research becomes of value to
all who struggle to find answers to theoverwhelming ecologically-motivated challenges of
the twenty-first century. It is furthermore of importance to literary artists, critics and all
who struggle to find meaning in theseemingly meaninglessness of realities of degradation
of the ecosystem. Activists fighting for restoration of lost environmental glories will find
support from this work. They will be encouraged by a study devoted to the issue of the
environment. It is, most importantly, believed to make a significant contribution to the
body of knowledge and serve as anchorage for other researchers in the field of literature
and environmental studies.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical Framework for this research is Ecocriticism. The term has a broad
domain and has been expressed through many literary genres. The fundamental stand of
ecocriticism is that the ideas and structures of desire which govern the interactions between
humans and their natural environment are important if we can get a handle on our
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ecological predicament. Invariably, over-exploitation of natural resources and man’s
disregard for air, water and soil that sustains human life have given rise to the question of
survival of bothman and the environment that inhabits him. Ecocriticism is one the ways in
which human’s fight for their habitat. This is because there rising frustration exacerbated
by people’s inability to derive tangible benefits fromtheir God given wealth.
Some of the most widely known ecocritics are Lawrence Buell, Cheryll Glotfelty,
Simon C. Estok, Harold Fromm, William Howarth, William Rueckert, Suellen Campbell,
Michael P. Branch and Glen A. Love. Hojjat and Daronkolae note that “ecocriticism as a
term emerged in the world of critical study in the late 1970s by combining ‘criticism’ and
‘ecology”. (1) They further note that M.H. Abrams believes that “ecocriticism or
environmental criticism designates the criticalwritings which explore the relations between
literature and biological and physicalenvironment, conducted as an acute awareness of the
devastation being wrought onthat environment by human activities.” (1)As Cheryl
Glotfelty and Harold Fromm mention in The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary
Ecology, “even in the field of literature, ecocriticism took longer to become established
than most recent movement in literary theory.” (12)
Geeta Sahu suggests that the word ‘ecocriticism’ first appeared in William
Rueckert’s essay Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism, in 1978.
However, it was only in the 1990s that ecocriticism emerged as a separate discipline,
although it is a fact that the relationship between man and his physical environment had
always been interesting to literary critics. The interest is at the social level as well as
various forms of literary expressions. Human beings have a natural quest to find their roots
and be a part of the natural environment that they belong to. But at the same time, they
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have overexploited natural resources and exploited nature to its fullest. In essence,
ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how
man's relationship with his physical environment is reflected in literature.
Ecocriticism shows that literature should be approached in a way that includes man
as an ecosystem, and not in isolation. In the words of Chris Onyema, “ecocritics must
outgrow the notion that human beings are so specialthat the earth exists for their comfort
alone, to move beyond a narrow ego-consciousness towards a more inclusive ecoconsciousness.”(196) As Klue argues, “man is neither master nor slave to it, but simply one
part of an intricate system”. (1) It seeks to inquire into its reach and studies
theinterdependence of man and nature. The study is a cautionary warning to mankind that
the exploitation of nature over a period of time will lead to its outburst.
Serpil Oppermann notes that the only discernible pattern among critical definitions
is their focus on the importance of the relationship betweenliterature and the physical
environment. They also share the common aim to synthesize literary criticism with the
natural sciences, and the literary studies with environmental philosophies. Thus, the ‘fight’
is no longer between people of different colour. It is now between man and his
environment. Ecocriticism strives to challenge the status quo, to change the injustice that is
meted out on the environment by man. Thus, ecoriticism is a revolutionary theory, a theory
that tries to retrace man’s steps and strives to stop him from destroyinghis environment.
Review of Related Literature
This is particularly reviewing criticisms or commentaries that scholars have said
about the researched plays in relation to Niger Delta Literature. It is a survey of scholarly
articles and any other sources relevant to the area of research and by so doing provides a
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critical evaluation or description of the plays in relation to the research problem being
investigated.
The environmental crisis in the Niger Delta has provoked into existence writing
which thematic focus is on ecological degradation. Before the crisis in the region, the
writers of Niger Delta origin had contributedimmensely to modern African literature in
general and that of Nigeria in particular. Like most non-literate societies, the people of the
regionhad expressed theirliterarinessthrough folklore, dance drama and poetry in forms of
songs, dirgeand incantations. Modern literary engagements began in the region with the
introduction of Western education. Some of the prominentwriters and critics from the
region include Gabriel Okara, James Henshaw, J.P Clark-Bekederemo, Elechi Amadi,
Okugbule Wonordi, Isidore Okpewho, Buchi Emecheta, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Festus Iyayi,
Tess Onwueme, Ben Okiri and Tanure Ojaide.
With settings located in the Niger Delta, these aforementioned writers contributed
to the corpus of African literature or Nigerian literature through the exploration of issues of
national focus, ranging from corruption, oppression and misrule by the Nigerian leadership.
In recent times, the reawakening of insurgency in the area has engendered the appearance
of a new genre of writing of commitment that explores environmental activism. In thecase
of the Niger Delta, the authors that are compelled to respond to the challenges of the
ecological devaluation in the regionare a mix of old and new writers.It is worthy of
mention here that this sub-genre of literature is distinguished by its contributors whoare
both from within and outside the zone. What qualifies or constitutes the corpus ofrecent
writing on the Niger Delta are the environmentalism and revolutionary aesthetics in the
works. This recent writing is a body of writing that identifies with the struggle of the
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people of the Niger Delta to salvage both their environment and themselves from
destruction. Given its mixed composition, in terms of the origin of the writers, we do not
see this body of writing asbeing all that Niger Delta literatureis about. Thus, thisemergent
works aresubsumed under the wider Niger Delta literature.
There are exploitative activities by man in the name of development. The negative
impact of this development emanates from his neglect and disregard for the growth of a
populace. Ambrose Akinbode in Introduction to Environmental Resource Management
describes the environment as ‘the totality of the places and surroundings in which we live,
work, and interact with other people in our cultural, religious, political and socio- economic
activities for self fulfilment and advancement of our communities, societies or nations. It is
within this environment that both natural and man-made things are found.”(2) Human
activities have continuously revolved around man’s environment, the experiences and
endeavours of man dwell with his inseparable and unceasing interaction with the
environment.
Edward Relph in The Modern Urban Landscape notes that “the landscapes and
places we live in are important. Whether we shape them or they shape us, they are the
expressions of what we are. Our lives are impoverished precisely to the extent that we
ignore them.” (14) In a strict and natural cause effect interrelationship, the biotic
constituents are linked and balanced through the resource system of the environment.
Relph’s claims connect to that of H.O. Agarval who in International Law and Human
Rights reports that “the tremendous advancement of industrialization resulting in economic
development had also continuously degraded the human environment.” (285) Furthermore,
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urbanization, over-population, and poverty also intensify the problem.In the present age,
human activities exert enormous influence on the natural conditions of the entire planet.
Since Nigeria’s independence, the nation has beenfacing environmental challenges.
There are some critiques who believe that the people of the Niger Delta are marginalized,
while others argue that the degradation in the area is caused by poor management of
resources by the government. In The Nigerian State, Oil Exploration and Community
Interest: Issues and Perspectives, Inya Eteng notes that “the highly exploitative and grossly
inequitable endowment/ownership-exchange entitlement relations between the Nigerian
state and the oil-bearing communities in particular explain why the enormous oil wealth
generated is scarcely reflected in the standard of living and life chances of the peasant
inhabitants of the oil-bearing enclave.” (21) A significant dent on the socio-economic life
of the Niger Deltans is environmental degradation and is largely the outcome of pollution
and the exploitation of natural resources. This perspective of Eteng leads W. Reno to state
in his articleForeign Firms and Financing of Charles Taylor’s NPFI that “the exploitation
of natural resources has played a prominent part in conflict in Nigeria. Ever since the
discovery of oil in 1956, it is estimated that over USD300 billion has been acquired by the
Federal Republic of Nigeria from sales of crude oil over forty years of exploration.” (4)
We will note that one of the causes of the region’s degradation is oil spillage. This,
S.O. Adelana describes as “the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the
environment due to human activities. Oil Spillage is a form of pollution and the term is also
applied to marine oil spills (release of oil into the ocean/coastal waters). Oil spillage
includes releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells as
well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-
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products.” (835)It destroys vegetation, mangrove forests, food crops, cash crops, fishing
ground/marine life, reduce nutrient value of the soil, induce land fragmentation, and, in
some cases, set communities on fire. It also has a significant impact on vegetation, water
supply, and marine life and local livelihoods dependent on agriculture. Oil companies have
often blamed most spills on sabotage, but Adelana contends that “the severity of spillage,
measured by the amount of oil spilled, is higher in the Niger Delta than in Western Europe.
The reason could be poor contingency planning for rapid response to spills; poor detection
procedures; long distance between emergency shutdown valves; or the larger average
diameter of pipelines.”(5)
C. Opukri and Samuel Ibaba in Oil Induced Environmental Degradation and
Internal Population Displacement in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta note that “environmental
degradation arising from oil spills result in internal displacement of communities in the
Niger Delta. This tends to diminish the productivity of farming and fishing in the
community. It causes its members, as a group, to relocate. It also results in occupational
and income losses that lead to both voluntary and involuntary migration. Opukri and Ibaba
further state:
Environmental degradation, caused by the oil industry does not only
have the potentials of exacerbating the tragedy of internal
displacements in the Niger Delta, but is responsible for many of the
dislocations experienced in the area. The collapse of local economies,
induced by oil spillages, and other activities of oil has displaced many
from their occupations, without providing viable alternatives. The
pressures of survival do encourage forced migration or induced
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voluntary movement that manifests as rural–urban or rural–rural
migration in the area. (173-174)
In an effort to salvage their pride or what is left of it, the Niger Deltans fight to be
recognised. Most times, their fight results in conflict with the oil companies and
government. While discussing conflict in the area, Caroline Ifeka in Oil, NGOs and Youth
Struggles for Resource Control in the Niger Deltanotes that “conflict over the ownership
and distribution of resources have been a defining feature of Niger Delta’s economic
history. For example, in The Great Ponds, a novel set in pre-crude oil Niger Delta society,
Elechi Amadi captures the violent dispute between two coastal communities over the
ownership of fish ponds. “The presence of oil companies in the Niger Delta over the last
fifty years has not only altered the nature and dynamics of environmental conflicts in the
region, but also exacerbated them in ways that have defied solution.” (110)The level of
poverty, squalor and degradation to which the Niger Deltans are subjected to is captured
well in the words of Ray Ekpu. He says that “the story of the Niger Delta is the story of a
paradox, grinding poverty in the midst of vulgar opulence. It is the case of a man who lives
on the banks of a river and washes his hands with spittle. It is the case of a people who live
on the farm and die of famine.” (10)
Explicating on the role of drama in the Niger Delta Crisis, Akoh Ameh notes that
“the play All for Oilreminds us of the fact that ‘campaigns’ for the soul of the Niger Delta
region since the 19th century have not ended. J. P. Clark exploits the colonial history at his
disposal to address burning socio-political and economic issues in contemporary Niger
Delta region of Nigeria. The play exposes the intrigues, betrayal and oppressions involved
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and the business concerns in the colonial administration of the region and the questionable
role of the local business and political bourgeoisie.” (3)He further states that:
In an ideological turn-around, the play attempts to define a
continuing relation between the past and the present and draws
analogy between the continuing rivalry in the Niger Delta and the
intriguing ethnic relations in Nigeria, yet haunted by a curious
colonial amalgamation and its early post-independence history which
again, continues to hang on the country‘s neck like a death knell. (3)
From the perspective of oil companies, oil spillage is a product of sabotage perpetrated by
oil thieves and other criminal gangs, rather than equipment failure as the inhabitants of the
region will argue. Chris Onyema in Jungle and Oil Green: Currents of Environmental
Discourse in Four Upland Nigerian Niger Delta Narrativesopines that “the endless rain of
disasters, genocides and biocides in the Niger Delta are strung together to reveal a
collapsed sense of humanity in the world controlled by greedy pacifiers.”(206) He further
notes that “pipeline vandalism and hostage taking are local reactions to the insurmountable
neglect and deprivation of the oil producing communities in the face of seeming
government pathological and heinous agenda.”(206) Victims of environmental conflicts are
forced to abandon their ancestral homes to the relative safety of places other than their
original homelands. As should be expected, the most vulnerable inhabitants of the region,
the women and children, are often the worst victims of forced migration in the Niger Delta.
Ngwoke Omeh Obasi in Water and Animal Imagery in the Drama of J. P. Clark –
Bekederemo says “All for Oilcomes out full sail with the story of Nigeria, the country the
British createdfrom the trade in palm oil and other agricultural productsin the 19th century
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to the present wasting economyof petroleum and gas.” (54) The play reveals that the Niger
Delta is under socio-economic, political and environmental “terrorism” of the Federal
Government of Nigeria, multinational oil companies, and reprobate, self-seeking sons and
daughters of the Niger Delta. However contributory issues of ethnicity and marginalization
may be to the crises rocking the Niger Delta, is that by polluting Niger Delta communities
youth groups, chiefs, economic and political elite with the viruses of greed, corruption and
violence, the collective aspirations and goals, patriotic spirit, unity, collective struggle of
the peoples of the region have been gravely undermined.
In reading All for Oil, Udumukwu, Onyemaech in Nigerian Literature: The 21st
Century Conversation, comments that:
The various forms of violence against Niger Deltans by the combined
forces of the Federal Government and oil companies is worse, but the
worst tragedy that has befallen the Niger Delta is that oil politics has
turned brothers and sisters against one another and created enemies
within, who are strong allies of both the Federal Government and
multinational oil companies. (2)
This is an important message of postcolonial Niger Delta drama. What resonates in the play
is that oil politics is both exclusionary and divisive; it corrupts and breeds traitors among
those who ought to fight against external and internal oppressors (neocolonial forces).
Some Niger Delta elements have become the home rats which show bush rats where food is
stored in the house. This is partly why the Federal Government and some Niger Deltans
have joined forces with multinational oil companies (agents of neocolonialism) to exploit
and oppress the Niger Delta with impunity.
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The Niger Delta setting has been highlighted as a moral landscape symbolizing the
universal realities of marginalized youth living in poverty-prone areas. It is apparent that
the violence motif in the selected literature parallels the reality of the region and derives
from trado-ritualistic grafts. In Ahmed Yerima’s Hard Ground, violence is a key tragic
element that compels the targeted youth to contemplate the play’s mirroring of depressive
social reality. The shock technique of their fiction formulates the young protagonists as
complex characters manifesting frustration against a corrupt society. Violent rebellion is
readily advocated in these writers’ works as an ideological way to violently relieve
tyrannical oppression. Esiaba Irobi comments that:
The youths, collectively presented as a homogenous protagonist in the
play, depictsuicidal psychopaths tethering on the edge of social
disaster. The language of Yerima’s literature is combative and directed
at the Niger Delta resource control questionand the legitimacy ofthe
youth militancystruggle. (2)
This correlated binate trait, according to Kimiebi Ebienfa, exists because the origins of
militancy in the Niger Delta haveremote and immediate causes. He states that the remote
causes consist “environmental degradation, marginalization and underdevelopment in the
region, the existence of obnoxious laws such as the Petroleum Act of 1969 and the Land
Use Act of 1978, and the killing of Saro Wiwa. The immediate causes of militancy on the
other hand include the militarization of the Niger Delta by the Nigerian state...” (637)
Mohammed Ahmed further comments that Yerima’s:
Hard Ground intensely analyses the political and militant subterfuge
in the Niger Delta area due to the economic mismanagement of crude
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oil resources. His fugitive protagonist, Nimi, is the face of the Niger
Delta youth whom Yerima presents as a doomed character. The
playwright focuses on youth restiveness, attendant militancy, oil
bunkering, and hostage taking, the dangers of god-fatherism and
political patronage. Yerima’s play is infused with elements of
Marxism, expressionism and idealist realism. (3)
In buttressing this, a Nigerian environmental expert, Victor Ojakorotu in his article, The
Internationalisation of Oil Violence in the Niger Delta of Nigeria says that this activism
can be attributed to frustration (on the part of the region) arising from both state and oil
companies negligence and destruction of the Niger Delta’s ecology, which is the basic
structure that supports life in the region, as elsewhere. It may be said that the struggle by
the people of the region have been predicated on certain fundamental issues, namely: their
exclusion or marginalisation in terms of access to oil revenue; their struggle for greater
access to resource sharing (known in Nigerian parlance as resource control); environmental
degradation; and egregious human rights.’ (93) If the Nigerian Government fails in its duty
to protect and develop the region and its people, the people must resist allowing themselves
to be used to ruin their people’s lives and communities. As the plays dramatize, a house
divided against itself cannot stand.
Research Methodology
This research utilizes first, secondary source materials which include journals,
books gotten from libraries, internet materials. It then further uses the knowledge and
insightsderived from the secondary sources to have a base for analysis of the primary
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materials which include the two plays selected for this research for analysis to prove the
authors point of view through critical lens of Ecocriticism.
Organisation of the Study
The research is divided into four chapters. In Chapter one, background of the study
and preliminary issues of research are outlined and explained. In Chapter Two, a critical
overview and study of ample number of existing literatures on the identified issues of Niger
Delta is carried out.Furthermore, perspectives of this issue are drawn from authorities
across major and notable finds made regarding bases and consequences of ecological
degradation. Chapter Three is devoted to establishing ecological/environmental degradation
as core issues in the plays and the result of willful tendencies by man to destroy in order to
build. In addition, there is a critical examination of environmental degradation and a
successful establishment of same as subversive of natural ecological order. Chapter Four is
a summary and discussion of notable findings and their contribution to knowledge in the
course of the research work, so are suggestions for further studies in literature and climate
change, as well as ecological degradation.
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CHAPTER TWO
ANALYSIS OF ALL FOR OIL
This chapter focuses on analyzing the text All for Oil by J.P. Clark showing the various
forms of human activities that leads to the destruction of the natural environment. The discovery,
exploration and exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta region have affected agriculture, fishing as
well as living conditions of the people.
Author’s Background
J.P. Clark was born at his maternal grandmother’s home in the Urhobo village of
Erhuwaren on the 6thof December 1933 into two old Izon families, Bekederemo and Adomi, of
Kiagbodo, now in the Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. After his early
education at the Native Administration Schools, Okrika and Jeremi ( Otughievwen ), in the
western Niger delta, he went on to Government College, Ughelli and the University College,
Ibadan , both by entrance examinations , as a Government Scholar and State Scholar. The poet,
playwright and scholar early showed his genius and calling in life. At Ughelli, distinguished for
sports and scholarship under the legendary V.B. V. Powell, he earned himself a reputation for
reading every English literature title in the school library, and so his next principal, Major Cyril
Carter, kindly allowed him the use of his personal library as he received new titles from the
Readers’ Union in London.
But it was at Ibadan, where Clark read English that the bud bloomed into the flower that
immediately caught the eye of the public. He became editor of the Students’ Union magazine
The Beacon, and then, most significantly, the first editor of The Horn, the poetry journal at the
University College, Ibadan, that launched modern Nigerian poetry in English . It introduced
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Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka, Clark being the major contributor. His poem Ivbie, on
the wrong of imperial power, beginning with the slave trade, created a great stir among staff and
students. Others like Abiku, Agbor Dancer, Fulani Cattle, Ibadan, Night Rain, Olokun,
Streamside Exchange and The Water Maid, were recited at sight across faculties on the campus,
later becoming favourites in anthologies. On graduation, Clark served briefly in the Nigerian
press corps, first as an Information Officer at the Western Nigeria Ministry of Information,
Ibadan , and then at the Express Group of Newspapers in Lagos as Features Editor and the
Editorial Writer. It was, as it turned out, straight into the storm of the Action Group schism that
threw up the political turbulence out of which Nigeria has not emerged. Those were the heady
first years of Independence. It was then Clark wrote his first play Song of a Goat, and had ready
his first collection Poems, both published by Mbari. This new club for artists and critics had just
opened with him as Honorary Secretary. Funded secretly by the CIA through Congress for
Cultural Freedom in Paris, a fact that he and others invited by Ulli Beier and Ezekiel Mphahlele,
to be foundation members did not know, the club instantly became the hub for the arts in the
country, attracting new members from Lagos, Enugu and Zaria.
A Parvin fellowship to Princeton in the United States in 1962 gave the poet a break.
There he wrote his two plays The Masquerade, the sequel to Song of a Goat, and The Raft which
some scholars instantly saw as a prophecy of secession.America, their America is Clark’s
account of that year abroad. Ayo Banjo identifies it as the only critique of a world outside by an
African writer in modern times. In 1963, Clark came back home, an artist, to a full life in
academia, a position new then in the Nigerian university system with no criteria to judge it by.
But as a Research Fellow in the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, under Kenneth
Dike, he collected the Izon epic of Ozidi on tape and in wax and film, as performed in situ to
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music, dance and ritual for seven days, first by the bard Okabou, a state night watch in Ibadan;
then the sailor Afoluwa , at Ajegunle in Lagos; and finally by the local choice, Erivini, at Orua,
with the entire clan and community, now in Bayelsa State. The Ozidi Saga, which he transcribed
and translated from the Okabou version, was published in a bi-lingual edition by Oxford
University Press, London, and Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, in 1977. It immediately received
critical acclaim as a landmark in the study and interpretation of oral literature.
When Civil War came, the poet, of all his close literary contemporaries, chose the
Federal side, a patriotic act which attracts hostile criticism to this day. In Casualties, Longman,
1970, Clark tells the story in verse, unfortunately not understood by many. Only now has
Professor Femi Osofisan, the most gifted writer of his generation, told the full story in his
recently released biography of the man J. P. Clark: A Voyage, Book craft, 2011. During these
years of trauma in Nigeria’s literary life, Clark edited with Abiola Irele, then teaching at Legon
in Ghana, Black Orpheus in a new series , with sponsorship, first from the then Daily Times , and
later by the University of Lagos. It was quite an assignment after Ulli Beier.
Not noticed by many critics, much of Clark’s poetry and drama has always engaged in
the politics of his country. It was therefore a matter of great surprise to many, when in 1986,
together with Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe; he went on a mission of mercy to General
Babangida to appeal for the life of the soldier and poet Mamman Vatsa and his men. The so called aloof non - activist was in fact the initiator. The same political passion flows through
Mandela and other Poems, 1988, while the collection A Lot from Paradise, 1999, takes him back
home to Funama, his personal settlement between the twin creeks of Kiagbodo. Clark, however,
is never far removed from the national scene. In All for Oil, 2000, he comes out full sail with the
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story of Nigeria, the country the British created from the trade in palm oil and other agricultural
products in the 19thcentury to the present wasting economy of petroleum and gas.
Clark recreates the same national tragedy in the television documentary Oil at the
Bottom,broadcast twice across the country by Channels Television in 2007, and now the pilot
episode for the forth coming series of 13, telling the story of how a nation abandoned her ports to
a network of oil pipe-lines. It is a subject that the poet and dramatist has openly dealt with over
the years, from his inaugural lecture at the University of Lagos, The Hero as Villain, 1978, to A
Peculiar Faculty, 2000, the foundation lecture, starting the annual series by Fellows of the
Nigerian Academy of Letters, and finally to his Nigerian National Order of Merit award
lectureThe Burden not Lifted, 2001.In addition to winning the Nigerian National Order of Merit
and being named one of the seven Foundation Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters,
Clark’s honours include This Day Life Achievement Award. In 2014, he received The Nigeria
Centenary Award.
In 2017, University of Lagos awarded the poet The Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters
(D.Litt) It therefore, can be safely argued, allowing for the politics of ideology and ethnic
interests in the criticism of African literature, that Clark is the great poet, the pre-eminent poet of
a unique period of the 20th century in Africa, during which a few of his generation created on the
continent, side by side with others of their kind in French and Portuguese, a new literature in
English. As poet, playwright and scholar, Clark’s works have long received wide attention
abroad and, of course, at home. His poems have been translated into many languages, including
Chinese, Hindi, Russian, French, Portuguese and German.
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Synopsis of the Play
All for Oil opens with Chief Bekederimo, the largest trader and middleman for the Royal
Niger Company, in the Oil Rivers Protectorate embroiled in a conversation with Egbe, his friend
and brother-in-law, and Fiobode, Egbe's wife. The three are later joined by Chief Dore Numa, a
political collaborator with the British, who accompanies the British in their campaign against
King Nana Olomu at Ebrohimi in 1894 and the sacking of Oba Ovoranwen of Benin in 1897.
Through the exchange of invectives between Bekederimo and Dore Numa who has come to
accuse his host of stealing the British attention during a reception, one gradually gets acquainted
with Dore Numa's personality as a betrayer of his people; who seizes the people's land and
passes it over to the British for selfish rewards. And with this, Clark brings in a recurring theme
of betrayal in the present crisis of oil in the region.The message is that, while the British uses
Dore Numa, an Itsekiri who is married to an Ijaw woman, against powerful natives during the
trade in palm oil, the same strategy is still being employed by the present alliance of the British
and the Nigerian government. Nigeria, in collaboration with the multi-national oil companies,
has perpetrated untoward atrocities against the indigenes, in the maintenance of the culture of
desperation in the protection of the economic interest which has remained largely the same in the
past 100 years.
Clark-Bekederimo is again caught joking through a fundamental issue which is indeed
central to the people's disenchantment with Nigeria. Chief Bekederimo, engrossed in a business
chat with Fuludu, his son and heir, raised the issue of the Whiteman, a buyer, who arrogates, to
himself, the right to determine the prices at which the seller should sell his product. Again
Bekederimo's poignant comment on the Whiteman’s overwhelming monopoly in the palm oil
trade is reminiscent of the consternation of the Niger-Delta people on the present oil crisis, in
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which the Nigerian government determines what should be given to the Niger Delta people;
while the lion share goes into building new cities in the dry aridness of the Sahara, and the
maintenance of old ones, far away from the frontiers of the Niger-Delta. Chief Bekederimo and
his lawyer, Egerton Eagleton, goes to the office of the Governor-General to complain about the
nefarious activities of Dore Numa, who has connived with the British in a land racket, against the
Ogbe-Ijoh people, the Agbassas, the Urhobos of Warri and his Itsekiri brothers. We see a
shocked Bekederimo, protesting having an audience with Col. Moorhouse, the acting GovernorGeneral on behalf of Lord Lugard. Through Bekederimo's brief complaints about Col.
Moorhouse, we are let in to the privileged information that Moorhouse is not any better than
Dore Numa and could even be worse.
However, a reluctant Bekederimo, is convinced, with entreaties from his lawyer to make
his case before Col. Moorhouse, in accordance with the law, while Moorhouse, on his part
reassures the agitated chief that action would be taken on his case. He specifically promised him
"British Justice." But the theme of vicious deception and insincerity against the champions of the
peoples cause became poignant when Bekederimo's wife, Mitovwodo, alerted her shocked
husband that Col. Moorhouse visited the region, to see Dore Numan, without even dropping a
reference to Bekederimo. We see a Bekederimo completely aghast at Moorhouse's deception,
and insincerity, in spite of his loud emphasis on "British Justice," which he promised to offer.
Even here, Clark-Bekederimo makes a clear castigation of the Nigerian ruling class, in that just
as it happened in the colonial period, the interest in crude oil does not create room for the ethos
of judicial fairness and equity. In the concluding scene, we see Bekederimo on his sick bed being
attended to by his wife, Mitovwodo. His spirit is low, and in spite of his wife's reassuring and
endearing words, which are intended to fortify him for the many battles ahead, the chief queries
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in frustration, “what is there to live for in this world,” in the face of the travails of his people. As
if complementing Bekederimo's summation of the harsh realities of existence in the Niger Delta,
Mitovwodo's lamentation, remains a gripping portrayal of the sorry state of the Niger Delta. “In
day light, we are in darkness.” (56) the woman laments.
All for Oil, is written from an insider point of view as an Ijaw citizen from the Niger
Delta. A popular adage has it that ‘he who wears the shoes knows where it pinches’, thus Clark
knows the dilemma of the region like the back of his hand. His creative works therefore not only
reflect the happenings in the region, but tries to mitigate and intervene as well. Many who are
able to read his plays would testify to this. All for Oil and The Wives Revolt are among some of
his latter plays which seem to deal with the issue of oil exploration in the area and the
consequences of such petroleum activities in the socio - economic and political life of the people.
From the play‘s setting, it is clear that All for Oil draws from the official colonial document as
well as oral tradition and presents a powerful panorama of the players in the original drama of
the creation of Nigeria. Sir (later Lord) Fredrick Lugard and Col. M. C. Moorhouse aided by
Chief Dore Numa, a local stooge for the British in their wars of aggression against Nana Olomu,
the Itsekiri and Oba Ovonramwen of Benin. Chief Bekederemo, a rich merchant and his in law,
Chief Egbe represents the conscience of the people against exploitation.
Explicating on the role of drama in the Niger Delta Crisis Ameh Akoh notes that the play
All for Oil reminds us of the fact that ̳campaigns for the soul of the Niger Delta region since the
19thcenturyhave not ended. J. P. Clark exploits the colonial history at his disposal to address
burning socio - political and economic issues in contemporary Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The play exposes the intrigues, betrayal and oppressions involved and the business concerns in
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the colonial administration of the region and the questionable role ofthe local business and
political bourgeoisie.
In an ideological turn - around, the play attempts to define a continuing
relation between the past and the present and draws analogy between the
continuing rivalry in the Niger Delta and the intriguing ethnic relations in
Nigeria, yet haunted by a curious colonial amalgamation and its early post independence history which, again, continues to hang on the country‘s neck
like a death knell. (3)
The Nigerian state is implicated in the “we/they” or self/other discourse, and the government,
unfortunately, is a principal part of the other. As play on the Niger Delta studied here
demonstrate, the Nigerian state has abandoned the decolonization project its nationalists started
in their agitation for independence and rather joined forces with neocolonial agents to re colonize its citizens in general, and the Niger Delta in particular. The deep sense of otherness
expressed by Niger Delta characters is in scribed and reinforced by the marginalization and
neglect the people have suffered from the Federal Government.
In All for Oil, Chief Dore, a local stooge acknowledges how he gets land from the people.
“I have just taken new parcels of land from them without their knowledge and consent. The
white man seems to needmore land every day, not just for his stores, I see, but for offices,
barracks and quarters for his supporting staff from Sierra Leone and Gold coast.” (22) Clark’s
portrait of Col. M.C. Moorhouse is that of exploitative manipulator who uses Chief Dore Numa
to perpetrate land-ownership atrocities against the natives of Warri. He is the one who rewards
Chief Dore Numa with medals and portion of land and political power to intimidate and deprive
people of their lands. Col. M.C. Moorhouse is a satanic agent who is responsible for the land-
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related problems in Warri. Through manipulation, Ogbe people are driven away from the
headland for the purpose of building offices, barracks etc. From the portrait of the three
characters, Clark’s message is a very clear one: the present ethnic configuration of Warri is
flawed and needs to be reversed; the issue of land ownership should be redressed because the
acquisition process masterminded by Chief Dore Numa is self-serving and manipulative; Chief
Bekederemo’s activist prescriptions and complaints which culminate in his opposition to Chief
Dore Numa should be the basis for the reconfiguration of the nationalities in Warri since all –
Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo are exploited by Chief Dore Numa.
The issue of corruption has been the bane of Nigeria‘s growth and development for over
five decades and it is still being perpetuated especially in the Niger Delta issue where people
benefit from the crisis. Andrew Obinna Onyearu notes that “the result of the vast fortunes earned
from oil revenue is inversely proportionate to the tangible benefits and the anti-corruption graft is
visibly undermined by an ossified social ethos of corruption and the incapacity or failure in the
implementation of infrastructural objectives.” (45) The activities of oil companies operating in
the Niger Delta are also suspect to the ongoing crisis in the region. Most of them cannot be
exonerated from the problems.
With a visit to Bekederimo by a wizard, who predicted that, death is far from Bekederimo
because of the war he has to wage for the interest of the people; promising that his exploits
would be appreciated on the court of posterity. “Your song would always go on as long as there
are voices to sing.”(22) And on this note, Clark-Bekederimo's narrative draws to a halt, with a
bold question mark, on the status of Nigeria as a federation. The skepticism of the Niger Delta
people, over the fraudulence in the Nigeria unity is re-echoed, in Bekederimo's and Mitovwodo's
last and penetrating commentary- “We hope this prophesy would put oil into our lamp in the
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night market, the white man calls Nigeria.”(34) All for Oil is symbolic and has implications for
the future. Actors like Chief Dore Numa, Chief Bekederemo and Col. M.C. Moorhouse are still
alive; this means that the problems of Warri are not over as Chief Bekederemo will continue to
agitate until his genuine complaints are properly addressed which is the task his ancestor Ngbile
has thrust upon him. Clark is calling on the relevant authorities to rectify the injustices in Warri
in line with Chief Bekederemo’ sagitations, Chief Bekederemo who clearly awakens Chief Dore
Numa to the reality that he (Dore Numa) knows who the true owners of Warri are.
May his life go out with all his minions he placed in all courts to preside in
Izon, in Urhobo, in Isoko, in Kwale, in Aboh, and even in his own Itsekiri
land, yes, everywhere the white man has overpaid him for the dirty services
he has done against his own people. Whisk! Whisk! Whisk! May Dore’s life
go out like the puff of a foul wind. May it evaporate like the mist when the
sun rises. May he leave behind no seed to increase the tree of his life. May
his life end with his career… (47)
Clark’s artistic vision is that Chief Bekederemo will not die until the injustices in Warri
particularly and the injustices generally in Nigeria are corrected because to Clark, the making of
Nigeria by the colonial masters is flawed. This is a heavy statement from Clark who has turned a
human rights activist in All for Oil having set ablaze his characteristic cultural edifice in pursuit
of new realities in his literary career. Chief Bekederemo’s manipulation by Chief Dore Numa
and Douglas is followed by his illness. Chief Bekederemo becomes ill, confined to his sickbed.
He feels within him that he will die, and out of deep concern, he asks his elder sister Yenken to
die before him so that when he eventually dies, she will not suffer but she only claps in his face
in derision.
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Clark draws on these individual qualities and identities to build his artistic vision about
the problems plaguing the different nationalities manipulatively fused into unholy union by the
colonial masters. Clark’s character portrait shows that both the minor and major characters are
germane to the development of the plot – the plot itself being chronological in arrangement
because the characters are drawn from history. All for Oilshows Clark’s healthy exploitation of
historical materials in the construction of his vision for Nigeria using a language that is skillfully
an admixture of prose, poetry and quotable philosophical expressions. Lines like these from
Bekederemo who says; “Fetaroro, you know life is only a bubble made in the river. We see
ourselves large in it, but it bursts in our face before we know it” and from Fetaroro who
maintains thus; “And we also know the deepest track we make here on earth, and call our
careers, is no more than the wake a boat makes. It tears up the river with pride but the river soon
swallows it up. Arrival is all, yes, it is the arrival…” (55)
Premised on the contours in All for Oil, the consummation of Clark’s incineration of his
artistic cultural costume is his gallant flight to the world of Marxist writers like Ngugi Wa
Thiong’O. It appears that pulverisation of all institutions and structures of exploitation and
oppression plaguing man on any planet using any necessary instruments as a potent counterforce is Clark’s new revolutionary persuasion. Structures of oppression should no longer be
given a breathing space or spell of hibernation anywhere on earth.Clark’s communicative
character – Chief Bekederemo in All for Oil, the preoccupation is towards the extirpation and
pulverisation of invading oppressive structures typified by Chief Dore Numa until justice
descends on the plagued humanity.
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CHAPTER THREE
ANALYSIS OF HARD GROUND
This chapter also focuses on analyzing the text Hard Ground by Ahmed Yerima showing
the various forms of human activities that leads to the destruction of the natural environment.
The discovery, exploration and exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta region have affected
agriculture, fishing as well as living conditions of the people.
Author’s Background
Professor Ahmed Parker Yerima was born on May 8, 1957 in Lagos to Alhaji T. Musa
Yerima, a police officer, and Hajiya Saidatu Yerima. He had his primary education at St.
Benedict’s Private School, from where he proceeded to Lagos Baptist Academy, and he obtained
the West African School Certificate in 1975. In 1978, he was awarded a Certificate in Drama at
the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He also obtained a Bachelor of Arts
(Honours) degree in Drama and Literature from the same institution in 1981. In 1982, he went to
the United Kingdom and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Playwriting and Acting in the same
year. He then proceeded to the Royal Holloway College, University of London, for his doctoral
studies, and obtained a Ph.D. in Dramatic Criticism in 1986.
Upon his return to Nigeria, Professor Yerima worked in some Nigerian Universities,
including the-then University of Ife (1984-1985), and Ahmadu Bello University (1985-1991).
His research interests centre around playwriting, with particular emphasis on performance,
culture, analysis and criticism. In 1991, he became Deputy Artistic Director of the National
Troupe, and in 2000, he became its Artistic Director, a position he held until 2006. In 2006, he
became the Chief Executive Officer of the National Theatre and the National Troupe. In the
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same year, he was designated Director General of both organizations until 2009. As leader of the
National Troupe for seven years, Professor Yerima has helped to positively project Nigerian
culture far and wide. He has played significant roles in the formulation and administration of
Nigeria’ scultural policy, especially in the use of culture as a tool for development,
understanding and integration.
Professor Yerima was an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos between
2002 and 2007, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the same institution from May 2007. He was
appointed Visiting Professor at Nassarawa State University in 2008, and was Professor at Kwara
State University between 2009 and 2011. He joined Redeemer’s University in 2011 as a
Professor. He is currently the Dean of the College of Humanities. He is also Congregation’s
representative in Governing Council, and Chairman, Students’ Investigation and Disciplinary
Committee. Professor Yerima is an accomplished playwright and has published over thirty plays,
many of which have won local and international awards, most notably the prestigious Nigerian
Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literature in 2006. Professor Yerima is very happily
married to Bridget Rupmicit Yerima, and has five children.Yerima's play, Hard Ground, won the
drama category of the 2007 Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas literary prize. The play later went on
a country-wide tour.
Synopsis of the Play
The play starts on a somber note with Nimi, the protagonist in a defiant mode. He is
deeply involved in the Niger Delta struggle. He protests his recue from the creeks, where he was
among the youths fighting the cause of the marginalised Niger Deltans. His father, Baba appears
to be ambivalent in his behaviour and reaction to his son’s aggressive desire of the struggle,
Mama had lost all her children except Nimi to the struggle and as such her passionate hatred for
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Nimi’s romance with the cause. The news that comes from the creeks is that Nimi is in the thick
of the struggle, murdering people at will, including his colleagues. Mama is angry at her son’s
behaviour, but apart from the fact that Nimi does not waver in his resolve, he also considers his
father to be a coward, because of his non-involvement in the struggle.
Meanwhile, the whole community including Nimi’s uncle, Inyingifa, is demanding a
revenge on Nimi, who is now regarded as a traitor having led other boys to their early death.
Thinking that Reverend Father Kingsley is the person who leaks the operations secret to the
soldiers, Nimi accosts him and pins him down on the ground to slay him. But Inyingifa saves the
Reverend Father. A small group of individuals including Alabo, Tonye and Charity delivers a
gift to Nimi whom they praised for his exploits in advancing the struggle. But Mama shows up
and sends them away. Later, Nimi is discovered to be dying from a drink poison. The whole
family begins to run helter-skelter in order to revive him. In a trance like manner, Tingologo
masquerade, which is death personified, appears to Nimi and accuses him of killing two fleeing
men in front of his shrine, the result which is death. Though Nimi is eventually spared, however,
he pays dearly with the lives of his beloved Pikibo and their unborn baby. Against all
expectations, Nimi, on slaying the dreaded Don, who had placed a death sentence on him
discovers that the notorious leader of the struggle masked as Don, was actually his father.
The play Hard Ground is one of Yerima’s contributions to the nation’s socio-political
dialectics. The play examines the form and pattern of agitation and militancy that engulfs the
Niger Delta region. Oil was first discovered at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State in 1556, but it was two
years later that oil production started in the area. In 1957, the Niger Deltans and other ethnic
groups in the area started to express grievance against the federal government in terms of
infrastructural facilities and political appointments then at the Willinks Commission. This
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marked the beginning of what seemed to have turned to an intractable crisis. Thus, Ameh Agbo
summits that “the restiveness of the Niger Delta is as old as the discovery of oil in the region.”
(13)
Nimi is symptomatic of the aggressiveness of the Niger Delta youths, with a passion for
armed struggle as against dialogue, as the quickest way out of the several years of neglect of the
region. Yerima throws light on the plight of the youths in the Niger Delta who are being killed
on a daily basis. Baba gives the gory picture; “But twenty people died in camp, butchered like
sacrificial dogs for the gods. Bodies littered everywhere. Young men who are supposed to be in
school suddenly turned militants overnight and are being cut down in their prime by soldiers.”
(14) The play is a creative contribution towards bringing to the fore, the intractable Niger Delta
question. It addresses the Niger Delta dilemma through the stage. The play is steeped in the
activities of the guerrilla militants in the creeks of the Niger Delta who on a daily basis, abduct
oil workers and destroy oil drilling facilities in the name of fighting a just cause.
Nimi also laments; “After capon had been shot in the exchange with the boys.All my
eighteen boys were killed. One parrot has sung. And so well, their blood flowed like a stream
down my conscience.” (14) All these deaths are a result of the confrontational strategies of the
militants which brought them in direct conflict with law enforcement agents. Mama lost her
brother to the struggle while an active member of the camp (Ngofa) is also killed.
Nimi: He listens, mother, but even Him has become disillusioned with
our ways. He has, mama. He did not create all those sufferings. No.
God created a fine life for us Mama, but a few people say no, we must
live a hard life. We are the natives, and they, the well-to-dos. So we
have to survive. The deadly swamp, the murky water, the heavy rain
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forests.The pocket of little villages separated by salty water.The black
oil under the ground. One thing we know is that if we die fighting or
accepting the way we find ourselves, it is six feet down the hard
ground that we go. (13)
This statement by Nimi is pregnant with a lot of meaning and helps to highlight some of the
salient issues happening in the Niger Delta region and appraise in this research. The peace and
stability of any country can only be guaranteed when its citizens are living in peace with one
another and in such an atmosphere where the machinery of government is allowed to function
effectively for the common good of all. The Nigerian state is faced daily with one form of
upheaval or the other. In the North, it is the religious crisis orchestrated by the Hausa-Fulani,
while in the South currently; the Niger Delta youths have made the region unsafe for residents
demanding for their rights.
Nimi, thus represents thousands of youths out there in the cold, who have refused to go to
school and are wasting their lives away. In response to his mother‘s emotional trauma, Nimi
intimates her that “there are younger boys and girls than me in the struggle. Children who
believe in the cause...By the time you are half way through primary school, you carry guns for
the boys, and by the time you are eleven, in these days of automatic guns, you become an
expert.” (12) This is a clear case of children‘s rights abuse which is against international human
rights law. Nimi, ‘the scorpion’, as he is popularly called by the group for his bravery did not
complete his education due to this kind of youthful experience. At the camp during the struggle,
about 20 people were killed but Nimi survived due to the rescue effort of his family. Killing
therefore does not mean anything to him; in fact his utterances after the rescue depict a youth
who is desperate to fight against poverty and exploitation.
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Nimi: The school you sent me to was made up of wasteland and
poverty. And even as a child you smell it and you quickly learn that
nothing is free, unless you ask for it, and when they refuse to give you,
you grab, and that is what we are doing... asking for our rights.(11)
In the struggle, he organises the breaking up of some oil pipelines and unfortunately for
him, eighteen of his boys were killed by the military. When the mother asks him a fundamental
and philosophical question about his future, the response from Nimi is tragic for the future of the
country.
Mama: What about the future...your future?
Nimi: I don‘t know...we never really think about it. All we know is our
future is what we want. But... our lives...this is in the hands of God, he
will direct us on what to do (12)
He believes in getting what he can immediately and has noplan for the futureor consequences of
his actions. The breaking of oil pipelines and siphoning of fuel is an illegal act punishable by
law, but the youths of the Niger Delta engage in it to make to quick and easy money. This
singular act is capable of draining the needed income that is supposed to be accruing to the
economy of the country.Similarly, the hazards involved in the bunkering business is such that
many lose their lives due to fire outbreak, or military shoot outsas portrayedin the play
andinstances abound of pipeline vandalisation across the country.
At the supernatural level, the gods or ancestors are equally angry with the situation in the
Niger Delta. Represented by Tingolongo, the masquerade, the gods of the land vow to deal with
Nimi and all involved in the desecration of the shrine and the senseless killing of the youths. In
the dream inquest that transpired, Tingolongo seeks to find out the truth especially of the much
Obaje,35
avowed struggle for the land, thus the rhetorical questions he asked Nimi really showed the
genuineness or otherwise of the struggle: “Are you sincere to each other and the cause? Are you
sincere to the people? (pause) Answer, leader! The people have to die. For whose cause?Yours
or theirs”?(48) The problem of youth militancy in the Niger Delta is brought to the fore when the
oil producing community of Umuechem was besieged and about thirty people killed in 1989 by
the Babangida military junta. The youths in the town approached Shell, which has been mining
oil in the community for over twenty years to assist them in providing some social amenities for
the people. They were also unhappy because of the environmental degradation that has taken
place, oil spillage, gas flaring,etcand wanted to discuss with Shell officials but they were ignored
and only for anti-riot police to be sent to deal with them.
Yerima mirrors the activities of corrupt and insincere politicians at all levels of
government. Though the special allocation to the region from the Federal revenue is 13%, the
judicious use of the appropriated money is doubtful, considering the level of development. The
issue of corruption has been the cog in the wheel of the nation’s growth and development for
over five decades and it still rears its ugly head in the country especially in the Niger Delta where
the leaders from the region benefit from the crisis. Tonye, expatiates on a particular case of Chief
Tomfort who enriches himself being a middleman between the government and his people. He is
first regarded as a hero for building a school and a clinic for the people but was later buying arms
and ammunition to young ones while his own children are outside the country. In the midst of
such poverty, Chief Tomfort rebuilds the church altar for his daughter’s wedding. He also
repaints the whole church and gives a blue Volkswagen Beetle as a wedding gift to the couple. In
the words of Tonye:
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We need new leaders; new hero’s who will fight not for their pockets
but for justice. Those who will not let the blood of our past leaders,
shed for our cause be in vain! He (Chief Tomfort) was a middleman
who enriched himself rather than taking care of the people. As long as
people like him are the power brokers, there was no future for the
youths. (33)
The role of politicians, local compradors and godfatherism is presented as part of the
militating factors fuelling the Niger Delta crisis. The politician, local business man or god father
actually hire the youths to carry out nefarious activities for them and at the end of the day are
paid some stipends not enough to sustain such youths. Nimi‘s belief in the Don in the play is
infectious, the kind that youth restiveness condones. To Nimi
The Don is the head of everything,the supreme commander, ...the one who
knows what the children need for the future. A man of God, Mama. A man
sent as our messiah. The Don is god in our part of the country. He feeds and
clothes us, he is not like some men that we know... (14)
This outburst definitely suggests that the issue of poverty is paramount and people capitalize on
it to recruit youths for their selfish interest and the misguided youths see their benefactors and
godfathers as messiahs. The politicians who are supposed to be representatives of the people are
not left out of this quagmire. Nimi, in a state of drunkenness (which is usual for drunks) supports
this thesis in a dialogue with his visitors:
Tonye: (pours him another glass) The politicians.
Nimi: They created us. They gave us the reason to find our place...first we
were errand boys, and so we got guns and money. We started asking
Obaje,37
questions, they had no answers. We all knew what they looked like before
they got into power. We dumped them. They gave us no respect, because of
the crumbs they give us while they kept the chunk... (37)
Apart from the politicians, traditional rulers, petty bourgeoisies like Chief Tomfort, Inyingifaa
and Nimi‘s father are all guilty of one form of involvement or the other. Praising Nimi on his
exploits, Tonye reveals the dirty game being played: “It was the way you handled the removal of
Chief Tomfort that amazed us all. He was a middleman who enriched himself rather than taking
care of his people. As long people like himwere the power brokers, there was no future for the
youths.” (33)
One prominentfeature of late that dominates the activities of the youths of the Niger Delta
and all in the name of making quick money is kidnapping. The youths do notdiscriminate in
these nefarious acts as they kidnap expatriates, children, politicians and the aged for ransom to
be paid. In the interrogation process with his father and Uncle Inyingifaa as well as the
discussion with Chief Alabo, Christy and Tonye, Nimi acknowledges their kidnapping plots in
the swamp this way: “Yes when the report came that we kidnapped the four white men.” (17)
This is made more explicit in his drunken stupor:
I was a little man in trenches, planning the attacks of blocking the oil
wells in trenches, finding how well to kidnap the white men, exploiters
of our nation state, and making their hearts feel our pains. ...They dress
in fine clothes at weekends in the cities after exploiting our oil,
dancing to town in their helicopters and jeeps, to exploit our women
and girls. (37)
Obaje,38
The high rate of unemployment in the country is partly responsible for the youth restiveness not
just in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country where sectarian crises have been witnessed.
Such indolent youths who have nothing doing become ready instruments in the hands of
detractors for communal, religious and ethnic civil unrest.
Inyingifaa, Nimi‘s Uncle is also a dealer in weaponry and perhaps supplying the militants
with guns, thus suspects Nimi for the killing of his boys and threatens to kill him but for the
timely intervention of his father. He knows that the nephew and his gang have been involved in
raids and must have something to do with his business at the sub-textual level. His lamentation
before the boy is also indicative of that suspicion: “But I never meddle in oil, only guns. Now the
lives of my boys must be avenged.”(22) The family has a vicious circle of criminal activities and
tendencies which is not healthy for the family and society in general. This family is used as a
typical example of other families in the Niger Delta region and this does not urge well for peace
and any meaningful development.
Obaje,39
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This research shows the working of ecocriticism and its attempt to be a descriptive
theory that lends voice to writers who in turn lend their voices to the downtrodden and
the subjugated in the society. Oil spillage has led to poverty, death, unemployment, youth
restiveness, among those indigenous to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Thus, peace
becomes trifle. The oil companies have not in any way helped matters as they continue to flout
environmental
regulations
in their
areas
of
operations
and
pay
less attention
to
environmental protection regimes that will help to abate oil pollution. The government on
its part has not shown any commitment to enforcing the minimal environmental laws
which it created.
In the words of Ifeanyi Izuka, “while we have right on our side, our adversaries have the
big stick, sovereignty with which they can always beat us back into the line.” (276) Onukaogu
and Onyerionwu note that “the activities of imperialists, corrupt government officials and local
chiefs gave rise to militancy, prostitution and all kinds of moral short-comings in the Niger Delta
region of Nigeria. They note further that “... Clark and Yerima puts the growth and
development of the Niger Delta in social focus... that the average Niger Delta Youth is a
potential criminal or prostitute implicates a most painful kind of loss in the oil war.” (128) Thus,
the playwrights are not only passionate in portraying the loss of the present but that of the future.
They question their situation, living in squalor while barrels of oil are pumped every minute of
the day, to provide luxury for the oil workers and the elite of Nigeria.
Obaje,40
With the working of ecocriticism in the analysis of The Wives Revolt and All for Oil, we
discover that there is no ‘ecohesitation’. Writers are now challenging the status quo; they are
not hiding behind their writings to support the evil of the oil exploiters and their
constant marginalisation of the people, rather they are arming the people with the tools
that will restore their environment to normalcy. They also shun the notion by some black
writers that ecocrtitism as a theory is a dominating discourse issuing from the colonising West,
and it is an “attempt to right out the black nation by coloring it green”. (Slaymaker, 268)
This they did by providing these narratives that authenticate the usefulness of ecocritism as a
literary theory. What
can
be
deducted
from
the
analyses
is
that
freedom
from
environmental despoilment and degradation can be attained when victims rid themselves
of ecotrauma. Victims must learn to speak out against the constant rape by the oil explorers and
exploiters. They can recover but only through the emphatic embrace of their perpetrations and
wounds. They must acknowledge their violent histories, grieve out their transgressions,
make reparations, and begin the healing process again. This healing process lies with
ecoactivism and resistance.
The issue of corruption has been the bane of Nigeria‘s growth and development
for over five decades and it is still being perpetuated especially in the Niger Delta issue
where people benefit from the crisis. Andrew Obinna Onyearu notes that “the result of
the vast fortunes earned from oil revenue is inversely proportionate to the tangible
benefits and the anti-corruption graft is visibly undermined by an ossified social ethos of
corruption and the incapacity or failure in the implementation of infrastructural objectives.”
(45) The activities of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta are also suspect to the ongoing
crisis in the region. Most of them cannot be exonerated from the problems. Junger Sebastian
Obaje,41
notes that the American Corporation Halliburton paid the sum of $2.4 million bribe to the
Nigerian government and the case is still under investigation. Similarly, a House of
Representative Member, William Jefferson of Louisiana is being investigated by the FBI
for allegedly accepting bribe from Nigeria‘s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar in
exchange for some lucrative business in Africa. Jefferson is said to deny the allegation
even when FBI found $90,000 in his freezer. A startling revelation by Junger concerning
Nigeria‘s oil wealth has it that since independence in 1960, it is estimated that between
$300 and $400 billion of oil revenue has been stolen or misspent by corrupt government
officials and this according to World Bank gets siphoned off by one per cent of the population
(Junger 6).
From the foregoing, it is obvious that the Niger Delta movements are a struggle
for self-determination and social justice, but the way and manner of execution is what
matters. The crisis is first of all hinged on the economy, which is the base of any development.
The government protectionist machinery involving the police and military and the oil companies‘
near total neglect of their social responsibility to the people is responsible for the offshoot
of militancy in the Niger Delta. The ubiquitous conflicts in Africa and Nigeria in particular
is a symptom of bad governance, breakdown of the economy, physical infrastructure and
sectors such as education, water, health, energy and moral decadence. All these lead to
further misunderstanding and mistrust, poverty, joblessness, illiteracy, incessant and insecurity
of life and property and these pile up the bomb of stress in the polity waiting to be ignited.
What then is the way out of the present predicament? The issue of good governance as
is evident in some of the first world countries is a sine qua non. There must be
transparency in all transactions at the local, state and federal levels. Most importantly, the path of
Obaje,42
dialogue and respect for human lives must be taken uppermost in order address the urgent
developmental needs of the area. The unemployment rate must be addressed by providing
the idle youths with entrepreneurial opportunities to keep them engaged and away from
crisis. The Amnesty Program by President Musa Yar‘adua is a step in the right direction but will
the policy live to stand the test of time in curbing the excesses of youth militancy in the
Niger Delta? Or will it end the way the previous programs ended? This depends on
implementation.
Recommendations
The application of theatre and drama as well the film industry as a means to an end in
the Niger Delta problems should be encouraged because of the healing power of the
art form in peace building. Such drama and film presentations would be in English and
vernacular languages of the people and using art forms that they are familiar within
addressing the current upheavals. The whole essence is to achieve the lofty goals of lasting
peace in the region and Nigeria as whole. The take home message in these plays is as envisioned
by J.P.Clark and Ahmed Yerima where they see them as plays ―for our present times of crisis
after crisis and for all who really care that this volatile resource is responsibly and
properly managed for peace and prosperity to prevail. The research is therefore bold to say that
the Niger Delta crisis goes beyond issues of oil exploration and government neglect or
insensitivity of the multinational oil companies to other areas like internal wrangling among
the local communities as well as gender inequality and personal enrichment by political,
opinion and traditional leaders.
Gains of natural resources should be equitably distributed among persons and
groups. Godly utilisation of natural resources would entail equitable distribution of its gains
Obaje,43
to everyone, so that some do not wallow in lack while others gloat in abundance. This is
precisely the problem in the Niger Delta setting of the novels where the local inhabitants lose
their lands and waters to oil exploration. With the loss of their agrarian resources, they lose the
basic necessities of life. The hidden natural wealth (crude oil) upon which their nation is
founded, is arrogantly carted away by wielders of political and military powers who issue
licenses to foreign owners of technological tools to exploit resources as they deem fit. The
impoverished people, especially youths, are left with nothing but to fight with all the
natural might they can muster, and the result is further degradation, squalor, maiming and
killing.
Nations with technologies for the exploitation of natural resources must understand the
need to act with responsibility and care. It would not augur well for them to act in a
condescending manner towards local inhabitants whose cultures are displaced by
technological ways of living. The needs – psychological, economic and societal of these people
must be taken into consideration and satisfied, if cordiality among all parties in a place is to be
achieved. The volatile nature of the Niger Delta setting owes much to irresponsible practices by
oil explorers and their licensing government agents.
Obaje,44
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