Femi Osofisan, Youth and Performance in Nigeria's Democracy: The Tranasformative Theatre Paradigm

Nigeria's history of political struggle cannot be written without the mention of the roles of the Nigerian youth. Even during worst military dictatorships the Nigerian youth made remarkable sacrifices, contributions to policies and decisions including protesting against insensitive government actions generally. Femi Osofisan and other dramaturges have recognised and demonstrated in their works the immense potential of young people to positively add value to the issues of social change, including leadership and governance in their immediate communities. Like Augusto Boal (1979), Osofisan recognises 'theatre as a weapon and also acknowledges that the people own the instrument'. However, this paper steps beyond the box of textual analysis to demonstrate in a pragmatic manner the views of Osofisan regarding the imperativeness of theatre for social change in a democratic setting. The persistent issues of social inequalities, deprivation, deliberate unemployment policies, corruption, which of course dehumanise mostly young people and women, authorise a change in strategy for the theatre. To achieve this, the paper examines the roles of young people in the 2007 general elections using the paradigm of transformative theatre as a voice for social action and mandate protection in some parts of North Central Nigeria.