Sowande’s Circus of Freedom Square and seeking of societal rejuvenation at Ajayi Crowther varsity

THE deteriorating condition of living in Nigeria, with the country becoming the poverty capital of the world through its having the highest number of people living under absolute poverty in the world, and recently also becoming the country with the highest number of people engaging in open defecation, should ordinarily be of concern to any and all patriotic Nigerians, what with persisting insecurity arising from the activities of terrorists,  bandits, kidnappers and sundry other criminals making life more difficult and unbearable for most Nigerians.

And the concern has been what to do to change the fortunes of Nigeria for the better, to rejuvenate the land and make it change its injurious ways and renew itself – to become a bastion of redemption from the evil ways that have dominated and continue to dominate its affairs to the detriment of its people.

Scholars and analysts have called attention to the critical importance of leadership to the Nigerian situation with the submission that no nation or society has ever developed or plotted its way out of poverty outside of the vision and hardwork and commitment of its leadership.

As Chinua Achebe puts: the trouble with Nigeria is its leadership and until the leadership comes into reckoning with its own shortcomings, accept its failures and turn a new leaf to become responsible,  committed, visionary and the foundation of a new life of real development for the people, it would be ‘only a circus, a real circus’ of meandering on the same spot of underdevelopment and misery for the country.

This is the same theme taken up in Bode Sowande’s play, Circus of Freedom Square, which was commissioned for production by the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, in 2010 as part of its Convocation Ceremonies for the year which coincided with the golden jubilee celebration of Nigeria’s independence.

The idea evidently was for the university to show its acknowledgement of and appreciation for the centrality of leadership to the question of development in Nigeria, seeking to underline its own particular preoccupation with helping in training and turning out graduates who not only would be conscious of the critical place of leadership in society, but must have imbibed the ethos of responsible leadership and would be ready to play their part in helping to rescue Nigeria from the dungeon of underdevelopment by offering committed and responsible leadership everywhere they would find themselves.

What would not be lost on the graduands, with the staging of the play would be the opportunity for the leadership to re-discover itself, acknowledge its mistakes and floundering steps, and be resolved to commit itself to a new order that would take the society on a positively different path of real growth and development.

This was a patently radical positive commitment coming from a then very young university, and the university authorities must have dutifully received the necessary commendation then.

Eleven years on, Nigeria is still at the crossroads. Or perhaps the country is even in deeper throes. And the Ajayi Crowther University is one to remind us that until we acknowledge where the rains started to beat us and make necessary amends attendant on such acknowledgement, we will continue to wander in the wilderness. As part of its 2021 combined 12th and 13th Convocation ceremonies last week Thursday, December 2, 2021, the university made a return to the staging of the play, Circus of Freedom Square, to tell us that the leadership question is still critical if we are desirous of rejuvenating the country and setting it on a new positive path of real growth and development.

The students of the university’s Department of Performing Arts and Music, under the Head and Production Director, Professor Bode Sowande, himself the Playwright, were on stage to send off their senior colleagues and graduates with a vivid and scintillating performance of the play. To be sure, the Ajayi Crowther University would not be returning to this play if not because the country has yet to learn the right lessons and draw appropriate remedial actions from the play’s portrayal of the quest for responsible leadership as the key to its positive turn around.

The authorities of the university are telling us through the play, yet again, that the voyage of Nigeria in the wilderness will continue and not have an abatement and the chance for a remarkable positive change until the leadership sees itself as being responsible for the present quagmire and takes steps to have a change of heart with the readiness to accept its blame and pledge to do better by adopting new workable  principles.

But it is one thing to read the play or identify with the sentiments of the authorities of the Ajayi Crowther University to use the play to sensitise us to the criticality of the leadership question, it is another to be at the University Auditorium last week soaking in the energies of the students of the Department of Performing Arts and Music as they brought the play to reality on the stage. Basking in the Yoruba rich theatrical and dramatic tradition of songs, drumming, dance, music, and dainty, but measured steps on stage to tell stories and convey emotions, the students were dexterous and resplendent in their various interpretations to make the play’s teachings stand out and confront us in the form we could not run away from or pretend that did not affect us.

With drama and theatre as the most compelling artistic platform of tellingly speaking truth to power, we all had the chance to see before us on stage the various manifestations of the leadership decadence bedeviling the country.

It was an exhilarating evening that was not just enjoyable for the high performance by the students, but also for the lessons we all learnt about the responsibility of leadership to accept the task and weight of setting the pace and tenor for real development through its own conduct.

This is one important lesson for us all as the country continues to grapple with the challenge of true leadership and development. And we have the authorities of the Ajayi Crowther University, Professor Sowande and his students at the university’s Department of Performing Arts and Music to thank for it all.

 

• Yakubu is with the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.