Change management in Nigeria: The theatre and media paradigm

Abstract

The bane of most political leaders in the developing nations including Nigeria is lack of political will to render good governance to the people. Instead,  most of them have been pre-occupied with corruption, propaganda, tribalism, favouritism, marginalisation, lopsided appointments and recruitments to  public offices, and embezzlement among others. It is against this background that the study seeks to x-ray these maladies and recommends that Theatre  and the media as two inseparable, indispensable and critical concepts in communicating socio-economic, socio-political, socio-cultural, and even socio-  religious issues in the contemporary society will act as catalysts to stem the tide. The fusion of the duo will propel and engineer the arduous tasks of  mirroring, reviewing, analysing, reconstructing the political, economic, social, intellectual, emotional, instinctive, traditional, and moral values in the  society. The reason being that, they possess both communicative and didactic qualities that influence people’s consciousness and attitudes. Like  sociology, theatre and the media are social phenomena that deal with the social problems in the society as well as offering solutions to them. This  demonstrates that theatre and the media are agents of social change and watch dogs against human vices and immorality. They are, indeed, media for  behavioural change in the society. It is, therefore, against the backdrop of their transformational and behavioural attributes that this study seeks to  investigate. The study also revealed that lack of good governance had unequivocally led to injustices, abuse of human rights, widening of the gulf  between the leaders and the led, rich and the poor, the metropoles and the peripherals as well as inducing the much taunted hate speeches that is  daring the Nigerian nation at present.