Drama and the Politics of Climate Change in Nigeria: A Critical Appraisal of Greg Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone
By Norbert Oyibo Eze, University Of Nigeria, Nsukka
Abstract
Johnny Igbonekwu observes that ‘an
obvious primal instinctive human quest” is to “conquer the world” but he
equally notes that man has not been able to achieve this goal, in spite
of his “formidable intellectual assaults on the multifarious stupendous
mysteries of the world” (Talk About Man 1). The quest for all
manner of domination-economic, political, territorial, and spatial, etc,
has driven man into invention and mindless application of technology
which in choking nature, cause it to frequently retaliate through global
warming, tsunami, landslide, erosion, and flooding of different
dimensions. The constant decimation of human lives, businesses,
buildings, and municipal services as well as the emergence of perturbing
diseases owing to these palpable effects of natural disaster, force the
issue of climate change to occupy a significant place in the world of
environmental studies and research. This paper seeks to explain the
place of drama in tackling the problem of climate change through a
detailed analysis and interpretation of Greg Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone considered to be a giant impact assessment study and provocative wake-up call.
[Keywords: Johnny Igbonekwu, Wake Up Everyone, politics, climate change, environmental studies, technology]
Introduction
Wake Up Everyone is a dramatic
tour de force on the subject of climate change. It articulates its
causes, dramatizes its effects, and politics and demonstrates how the
latter makes the idea of its mitigation in the country a tragic one.
However, the playwright sees climate change as a result of man’s
ruthlessness against nature and posits that the menance can be redressed
by humanity through pragmatic efforts. The dramatization of the play in
its abridged form at the Princess Alexandria’s Auditorium of the
University of Nigeria Nsukka, in 2011, convinces the elated audience
that drama can make any familiar human condition” “alive and immediate”
(Edman 26), thereby debunking Butler’s view that “climate change is a
difficult issue for dramatists”. Indeed, what Mbajiorgu’s play shows is
that climate change requires inter-disciplinary approach and that drama
is a crucial tool for exploring its intricacies and communicating its
messages in a produced and urgent way than any other means of
communication.
Synopsis
Wake Up Everyone is a play in
three Acts, set in Ndoli, a fictitious oil–rich community. It depicts
how the politics of oil revenue prevents the leaders of the community
from tackling the environmental problems of the land and to ignore the
warning to take proactive step to avert impending flood. As a matter of
fact, the play brings the people, the intelligentsia, and the
politicians together in a climate changing scene in order to show how
conservatism, lack of unity of purpose, and self–aggrandizement thwart
genuine efforts at climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Analysis
In the first place, the playwright sees
climate change as an aspect of “the contradiction of the world’s
capitalism”, a direct result of a mad rush “to share in the spoils of
the new global economy” (Natural Causes xvi). In other words, he
argues that climate change is not something externally imposed on man by
an angry God as a punishment for the fall of man, but a consequence of
“man’s mindless activities on earth” (Act One, Scene one). According to
Professor Aladinma who represents the image of the intelligentsia in the
play:
The soil and the rivers have become
unproductive because of the chemicals and oil we pour on them. The flood
and erosion we experience are caused by our senseless attempts to
reclaim wet lands and our blockages of original water channels and
drainages. What about carbon monoxide from power generators and all
kinds of vehicles, or the unfriendly substances flared up into the air
by oil companies on daily basis. The problems of our world are created
by man (Act One, Scene One)
Above is an eloquent statement that the
history of climate change is the history of man and his quest for
development. It shows that climate change is an effervescence of man’s
economic activities and the politics that goes with them. In fact, the
reasons posited as the causes of climate change in the text suggest that
man is at war with nature. James O’ Connor in his book, Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism states that nature is both “tap” and “sink”. According to him:
Nature is a tap in the sense that the
means and objects of production and reproduction (i.e., all human
material products) are appropriated in various forms from the earth.
Nature is a sink in that ultimately all human products, including
unwanted byproducts of the immediate process of production, are returned
in different forms to the earth (xi).
The implication is that there must be a
constant balance between the function of nature as both tap and sink and
that any imbalance between the two (which is mostly the case) spells
doom for humanity. The play suggests that the ecosystem is severely
under human pressure. It demonstrates that mindless exploitation of oil
puts unbearable burden on nature leading to unabated “loss in
biodiversity, rapid deterioration of land cover and depletion of water
availability through destruction of catchments and aquifers” (Global Warming 54). Antonia Darder in her preface to Kahn’s Critical Pedagogy states that:
In its consuming frenzy to gobble up the
natural resources of the planet earth for its own hyperbolic quest for
material domination, the exploitative nature of capitalism and its
bourgeoning technocracy has dangerously deepened the structures of
social exclusion through the destruction of the very biodiversity that
has been the key to our global survival for millennia (xii).
In a play-within-the-play anchored in
Act two, Scene three, the playwright carefully dramatizes the awful
effects of climate change on the lives of the people. Adaora laments the
draught in the north which is attributed to “global warming” arising
from “stripping nature the fundamental resources that sustain life”. It
is here argued that “Humanity’s brutal and outrageous quest for wealth
and development has nothing but the promise of doom and poverty for the
children’s generation”. Thus, in a dream-like-world, Ekene, one of the
characters in the play, is frightened by tornadoes and earthquakes
tumbling down buildings and other efforts of the so-called civilized
man. But the fiction of the imaginary world is reinforced by the shards
of experiences arising from the Calabar flood in which the character
lost everything and everyone dear to her. In her words:
I lost every soul and everything
I cherished to that flood… and for
months I had no means of livelihood. The angry water turned me into a
hopeless wanderer for months (Act Two, Scene one).
This actual loss becomes a distressing
nightmare and a thorn in the flesh for Adaora, constantly harassing her
and even inducing in her a death-wish.
The hullabaloo between Mazi Chinedum and
his wife Ugodiya in Act Three, scene two over lack of fish for soup
preparation illustrates the impact of climate change on the family. The
absence of fish in the river which breeds the quarrel between husband
and wife, clearly demonstrates that as N.J. Bello states, “the aquatic
ecosystems are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate
fluctuations and change” (20). Oil spillage which is the major cause of
the loss of biodiversity is also a principal factor that leads to poor
agricultural yield. In the same Act and scene of the play poor harvest
is attributed to the barrenness of the earth and intolerable rainfall.
Furthermore, a fundamental issue analyzed in Wake Up Everyone is
government’s insensitivity to climate change mitigation, and
adaptation, and this borders on poor leadership, which Chinua Achebe
sees as the trouble with Nigeria. Professor Aladinma who is posited in
the play as a symbol of hope and salvation and who has been educating
the rural farmers on the new modalities of planting in a changing
environment, alerts, the local government Chairman on the impending doom
arising from anticipated flooding. He tells him that The United Nations
Development Programme has made provisions for projects like the
construction of dykes that will fortify our river banks so that our land
doesn’t become vulnerable to flood in future (Act One Scene one), but
the Chairman apparently not interested in the plights of the people,
considers the project a white-elephant affair and is unwilling to
mobilize effort to generate counterpart fund. Rejecting the suggestion
to contact oil firms working in the area for help, the Chairman tells
Professor Aladinma unreservedly:
Listen, this local government
headquarters was recently refurbished by Zodiac Oils, the
three-eighteen-seater buses and two Toyota Hilux trucks out there were
donated by Continental Petroleum, my official Prado Jeep came three
weeks ago as a birthday gift from the Managing Director of Diamond Oil,
and all of these oil companies came together to raise me a loan with
which I ran the election for this position. I have not even begun to
think of how to pay back the money and you are asking me to go back to
them, plate in hand like Oliver Twist, asking for more?
The Chairman’s statement above makes
certain facts about the idea of governance in the play’s environment
obvious. Here government is seen as a means of self – aggrandizement.
Every element which money is spent on in Chairman’s speech, is a token
of status symbol and ego massage, a means of showcasing and entrenching
the self. Not a single item there serves the interest of the people. The
Chairman’s opinion represents government’s apathy to the problems of
the people. He merely asks the Professor to go and package a proposal to
be presented to the council, as a way of respectfully pushing the
octogenarian out of his office, for immediately the Professor leaves, he
begins to fume about his demand:
Stupid old man. What does he think he
is? I Edwin Onyechonkeya, the crocodile of the creeks, the unsterilized
knife that cuts the thick balls of Oyibo, release money for such useless
project? Nonsense, Nonsense! (Act One, Scene one).
The personality of the local government
Chairman, indeed, paints a tragic picture of the disturbing social
relations in Nigeria. One aligns with the people in search of power and
soon dumps them immediately the dream is actualized. The Chairman was
formerly a member of a militant group that fought oil companies for
desecrating their land through oil spillage. His discussion with Jango
below illustrates how he secured power:
Jango: So tell me, how did it happen?
Chairman: Jango my brother, it
was a fierce battle, one that I’m glad I won. You know, with the
government clamp down and subsequent amnesty for militants, it was no
longer good business remaining in the creeks. Some of our leaders
negotiated their ways into high positions in government while others who
had no better alternatives for surviving, resorted to kidnapping and
other illegal practices. I was at the verge of forming my own kidnapping
gang when the massive oil spillage which almost damaged the entire
agricultural land in Ndele village occurred.
Jango: Yes, I heard about the spillage, man that was a terrible one.
Chairman: It was. The most painful side of it is that it claimed my father’s life.
Jango: Oh, my God! Your father is late?
Chairman: Yes, my brother, but I made those blood suckers pay for it.
Jango: Very good! How many of their staff did you waste?
Chairman: No, no, no, no, my
brother. I am too wise to do that. All of the lives we wasted in the
creeks, what have they benefited us? Was it not the bomb you exploded at
the local police station that made you to escape to U.S.? (they laugh
mischievously)
Jango: So how did you smoke them?
Chairman: I saw in the oil
spillage incident a grand opportunity to get back at the multinational
oil companies. When the event occurred, I got a fiery lawyer that has
been at the vanguard of environmental issues to initiate a legal action
against the oil companies. When they perceived the legal consequences
and the attendant damages, they resolved to invite me, as the plaintiff,
for alternative dispute resolution.
Jango: Wao! I can’t believe this. So, what finally happened?
Chairman: Through my lawyer, of course, we agreed that they pay three hundred million naira.
Jango: Three hundred million naira!
Chairman: Yes, three hundred
million naira cash, and in addition, they agreed to bankroll my
political bid to be the Chairman of Ndoli local government area, on the
condition that I don’t make any further case on behalf of the other
affected farmers (Act One, Scene One).
The discussion between the Chairman and
his friend Jango is quoted elaborately in order to highlight the
intricacies inherent in power acquisition and climate change politics in
the country. The discussion reveals clearly how the incessant oil
spillages in the Delta region of the country has become a springboard
and handsome means for the fittest to become rich and powerful. Also,
the revelation of the Chairman shows the negative effect of global
finance and how international agencies control governments of local
nation-states. The play demonstrates that certain people in authority
are installed by the oil companies and this makes it utterly impossible
for them to genuinely deal with the problem of environmental degradation
occasioned by oil exploitation in the region. In his inaugural lecture,
Okechukwu Ibeanu argues that “politics is about managing or reconciling
affluence and affliction, principally though not exclusively through
the instrumentality of states power” (9). He maintains that a genuine
politician or office-holder aspires to “establish inverse relation
between affluence and affliction such that there is a steady increase in
the numbers experiencing affluence and decrease in the numbers
experiencing affliction” (9). However, the Chairman’s notion of politics
and his attitude towards climate change mitigation merely agree with
Ibeanu’s opinion that “political science in Nigeria is oriented towards
the affluent and pays lip service to the afflicted” (10).
The Chairman’s utterances and behaviour
indicate that, in the context of the play, “politics is about creating
affluence for a few, not about eliminating affliction for the many”
(10). In fact, Ndoli local government is posited by the playwright as a
microcosm of Nigeria. What happens in the world of the text is,
according to Ibeanu, “emblematic of all that is wrong with political
science in Nigeria” (15). The envisaged flood which finally occurred at
the end of the play is part of the conflagration occurring in the
country and which showcases government’s indifference to the plight of
the masses.
Barely, one year after its publication,
the flood anticipated in the text and which eventually took place at the
end of the play, occurred in all the regions of Nigeria. And this shows
that climate change is not a fiction but a fact that must be taken
seriously. By juxtaposing different segments of our society in the play –
the people, the intelligentsia, and the politicians, Mbajiorgu appears
to be saying that the issue of climate change adaptation and mitigation
is a collective responsibility. Elaborating this, Damian Opata states in
the blurb of the play that:
The reality and seriousness of the
issues dramatized in this play call for sustained concern by political
and community leaders at whatever level of governance. Indeed, the play
suggests that sustaining a balanced and productive environment is an
insistent social obligation for all of humanity.
Wake Up Everyone is a provocation
call for us to “defend ecological values and sensibilities” (O’connor
xv). It argues that playing politics with our environment amounts to
gambling with our lives and world. It suggests that there should be a
new view of our world and that there should be urgent and meaningful
solutions to the problematic of climate change, “solutions unfettered by
the dehumanized thought we have tragically allowed to develop through
(Fill, 30), the years. In the “Wake up! Wake up!” song, Mbajiorgu who
feels that it is not yet Armageddon, outlines practical steps that must
be taken to ameliorate the extremities of climate change as follows:
Wake up! Wake up! Everyone, X2
To build our world anew
No burning down our bushes
No polluting our rivers
No more deforestation.
To guarantee our future
No greenhouse gas emission
No heating up our planet…
Let’s stop oil pollution
No more flaring of gases
No cutting down our forests
Wake up!
For new green world agenda
Let’s plant some trees today
Let’s save wild life from dying
Wake up!
The above theme song of the play
encapsulates the playwright’s position that the thought of conquering
nature ought to be turned into thought of friendly relationship with
nature. It is a known fact that aggressive reduction in vegetation cover
has opened many parts of the country to dangerous action of both rain
and wind erosion. In the northern part of the country excessive
temperature leads “to dry conditions which underlie accelerated wind
erosion” (Eheazu 55), while excessive rainfall in the south occasions
catastrophic rain – induced erosion. This is the reason the idea of
avoiding deforestation is salient. Similarly, emission of carbon
monoxide, gas flaring, and pollution of land and rivers through oil
spillage are known to have caused loss in biodiversity, deterioration of
land and increase in sea level. Erection of construction sites and
buildings indiscriminately have continued to cause blockages to natural
waterways thus exposing the country to constant flooding. It is in the
light of all this that the playwright’s strategies for climate change
mitigation and adaptation in the play must be taken seriously.
Conclusion
Wake Up Everyone, the first
African play on the subject of climate change, demonstrates vividly that
climate change is a palpable human experience in Nigeria. It shows that
the causes of climate change such as deforestation, emission of
greenhouse gases, blockage of natural water ways, and constant oil
spillage arising from aggressive global competition for oil, all occur
in the country. The text equally dramatizes the disturbing effects of
climate change on the Nigerian environment and human lives. The vexing
issue is not that the climate is rapidly changing in the country but,
according to the play, government’s indifference and lip-service
approach to the issue of climate change adaptation and mitigation. What
is painful is that the Chairman of Ndoli local government area in the
play initially posed as an environmental activist before an oil spillage
that killed his father gave him advantage to hobnob with oil companies
that eventually sponsored him to win election. Now in rapturous embrace
with the power that be, “Hon. Edwin Onyechonkeya” blocks the building of
defences… and “resilience against the effects of climate change in
rural Nigeria” (“Nigerian theatre mixes oil” 1). In the personality of
this “single character, the play conveys the immediate, turbulent,
deceptive forces underlying oil production in Nigeria” (1).
However, the playwright through the
character, Madukwe Aladinma, insists that there is still hope.
Aladinma’s role in educating the rural farmers on the modalities of
coping with their changing world is a significant effort in the
direction of climate change adaptation and mediation, but the playwright
equally feels that the intelligentsia and the rural people’s effort
must be strongly supported by government if the environment must be
saved from utter destruction. The flood which occurred at the end of the
play is an eloquent testimony of “the danger of ignoring the warnings
of the natural world, especially when coupled with egregious
governmental neglect of impoverished people” (Critical Pedagogy
xi). Greg Mbajiorgu’s play seeks to move us beyond capitalist
consumerism, beyond the rhetoric of environmentalism masked by
neoliberal politics, to that concrete and pragmatic context where urgent
and meaningful steps must be taken to redeem our world from the
ravaging effects of technology.
Works Cited
Bello, N.J. “Climate Change: Implications for Food Production and Security in Nigeria”. Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: Development Issues. Akure: Nigerian Meteorological Society, 2010.
Butler, Richard. “The Drama of Climate Change”. http://Ashdenizen. blogspot.com
Darder, Antonia. “Preface” to Richard Kahn’s Critical Pedagogy: Ecoliteracy and Planetary Crisis. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.
Edman, Irwin. Art and the Man: An Introduction to Aesthetics. New York: Mentor Books, 1939.
Eheazu, Global Warming and Climate Change: A Sustainability Alert To Ndigbo. Owerri: Lamonde, 2011.
Ibeanu, Okechukwu. Affluence and Affliction: The Niger Delta as a Critique of Political Science in Nigeria. Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press, 2008.
Igbonekwu, Johnny. Talk About Man Talk About Genius. Enugu: Snaap Press, 2011.
Mbajiorgu, Greg. Wake Up Everyone. Ibadan: Kraftgriots, 2011.
“Nigerian theatre mixes oil and climate on the ground. http://ashderizen blogspot.com.
O’Connor, Natural Causes. Essays in Ecological Marxism. New York: The Guilford Press, 1998.
Opata, Damian. “Blurb” to Greg Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone. Ibadan: Kraftgoits, 2011.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN 0975—2935), Vol. V, No. 1, 2013. Ed. Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay. URL of the Issue: http://rupkatha.com/v5n1.php .URL of the article: http://rupkatha.com/V5/n1/07_Greg_Mbajiorgu_Wake_Up_Everyone.pdf . Kolkata, India. © www.rupkatha.com
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