Social problems of contemporary Nigerian society: The theatre to the rescue

Abstract

This examines some of the social problems confronting the Nigerian society presently. These social problems include among others, drug addiction, computer or internet fraud, kidnapping, cultism, examination malpractices, armed robbery as well as politicoeconomic problems. The Nigerian theatre has tried at all times to create plays in which these problems are dissected so as to bring about awareness to these problems. Atimes, the theatre even  proffers solutions to these problems. But, the problems still persist. Who are we then to blame? The theatre or the society? Our methodology shall be the  descriptive and deductive methods. We want to be able to describe fully the problems and engage in an analysis of the plays in which these problems  were espoused. Our theoretical framework is Jean Duvignaud’s theory: “Society in the theatre the theatre in society” (cited in Shevtsona 198). We want to  examine how the populace has fared in the society and how the society itself has forced the populace to adapt to the problems under diagnosis. Our  findings revealed that the Nigerian society have failed to leave up to standard when compared with the same society of two or three decades ago. The  society itself has not been helpful because of the politico-economic problems that it witnessed. The technological developments that came into the  nation had also been bastardised by the populace. We conclude that for us to have a change, there is a need for the government to mount a campaign  on societal development and empowerment. The government should also establish more theatre buildings in order to create more employment for the  populace. We hereby recommend that, it is when these problems are attacked from several spheres of life that we can begin to experience the change we  are talking about among our people. This change we hope will bring about a vibrant and intellectually stable society that this nation needs.