In this piece, Patience Ivie Obhafuoso identifies lack of enlightenment, positive orientation, adequate mobilistion and national values as some of the factors that lead to the inherent challenges of social transformation in a heterogeneous nation like Nigeria.?
A large percentage of Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas, do not have access to information. Many Nigerian youths have been neglected in the areas of enlightenment, education and re-orientation. This ugly situation has promoted cultism and all manner of violence since many are left with the thought of marginalisation.??
Though previous governments devised several schemes to promote public enlightenment, social mobilization and value re-orientation such as the merging of the Directorate for Social Mobilisation, Self-Reliance and Economic Recovery (MAMSER) with The Public Enlightenment (PE), The War Against Indiscipline (WAI) and the National Orientation Movement (NOM) of the then Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
However, the existing schemes were rationalised by the government to form the National Orientation Agency in 1993 with the statutory mandate of enlightening Nigerians on government policies, programmes and activities, as well as mobilize public support for them.? It is also saddled with the responsibility to re-orientate the attitudes of Nigerians and provide a feedback to the government on the people’s feelings and reactions towards government policies, programmes and activities, thus expanding the space for public input in government decision- making process.
The rationale for the merger was to harmonise and consolidate efforts of government in the field of public enlightenment, social mobilisation and value re-orientation.
In spite of these numbers of social engineering institutions that have been initiated and implemented by successive governments, Nigeria is still a slowcoach in the comity of nations.
In an attempt to combat this problem, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has introduced community theatre as a tool for social transformation.? This came as a result of? a one-week community theatre train-the-trainers for its officers at the Theatre and Cultural Studies Department of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. The workshop had in attendance NOA officers from the 774 local governments in the country with reputable resource persons from the Amadu Bello University, Zaria.
The initiative is aimed at creating a space where ordinary people from the local communities can find a platform to discuss the social and political issues prevalent in society, while the officers are to serve as change agents for positive, social transformation by employing local drama, poetry and other artistic forms to convey messages of social change to local communities.
The Director General of NOA, Mr? Mike Omeri said community theatre deals with issues and problems affecting communities, especially the ordinary person within them. It uses the people’s own language, local drama, poetry and other artistic forms for expression.
According to Omeri, “It is a practice which leaves the means of artistic creation in the hands of the people and its ultimate aim is to empower people so that they can act to change their own disadvantaged position where they exist.
“NOA is intended to locate its operational base at the grass roots where a significant percentage of the Nigerian people reside. It is expected to provide the bridge between government and the people. In order to creditably discharge this mandate, we are convinced on the need to adopt multiple approaches, one of which is the tool of community theatres”, he said.
The vice-chancellor of the Nasarawa State University, Prof Shamsudeen Amale said he was convinced that NOA would succeed in its transformation mandate.? According to him, instilling discipline in the youths will better the future of the country, noting that universities and NOA can partner in this regard.
One of the resource persons at the workshop, Prof Ayedime Sam, of the Department for Theatre and Performing Arts, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said theatre art communicates easily with the people, especially those at the grassroots level as it translates complex issues to very simple and understandable language.
Also, Prof Jenkeri Okwori, Department of Theatre Arts, ABU, Zaria, said? the introduction of community theatre art as tool attitudinal change in the country is a good initiative, especially now that the NOA has moved the campaign from the urban to the rural areas because there are a lot of people in the rural areas who would? neither read nor write, but with the use of community theatre artists, at least, the message would be passed across through drama, dancing among other things.
According to a recent research, performing arts drama, poetry, dance and music have been used in many Third World countries as a means of reaching a vast, mainly illiterate audience for the purpose of communicating education and development.
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