Priscilla’s Principles … The underhand in governance

Priscilla’s principles and other plays is a collection of three appealing plays, whose themes are not only thrilling and revealing, but showcase how Nigerians and by extension other Africans and their leaders through greedy and egotism are destroying their natural resources and country. It also evokes the pains and sorrows our nationalists passed through in the hands of the foreign oppressor, particularly Britain, to make Nigeria an independence country.

Written by Reginald Chiedu Ofodile, the Warehouse Theatre International Playwriting award winner, the collection, published by Justice Watch features Rapture And Rupture, Priscilla’s Principles and Music Of The Night.

Rapture And Rapture takes readers back to the days of British naval power. It tells of the great roles the British Government play on the First World War and how such roles had a devastating impact on Africa and Nigeria, as a nation-state, in the forms of colonialism and nationalism.

The play is a two-man cast, Vaughan Huttingdon-Grey, a Senior Crown Counsel (SCC), appointed by the British government to overlook the affairs of the Nigerian Empire; and Akitoye, who gives up his law practice to fight for the liberation of his country, Nigeria. The two never give up at supporting the parties they differently represent.

While the SCC never sees the need for any African nation being granted independence, especially as he describes most of the people as lacking the culture of leadership and civilization. He, instead, wishes England could spend several hundreds of years to colonise Africans the more, so that the people would be groomed to be standard human beings in thought and acts.

This idea infuriates Akitoye, who tells the representative of the Crown that many years before British incursion into the affairs and governance Africa that Africans have been ruling themselves in an orderly manner. Citing different empires from North Africa to South, West and East, he elucidates that the technological feats achieve by these empires during their existence were legendry, unsurpassed and products of men of great intellectual abilities. He stresses that the steady growth of this technology feat was abruptly truncated by colonialism.

Though, the British tries to use Akitoye to work for them, against his people, having been trained in England, he refuses. He stands for the liberation and freedom of his people.

Going through the play, though a playlet, one mirrors the evil of the society, particular the cunning way foreign government intervene in African issues in the name of finding solutions to their problems. It also reveals how doggedness to a purpose could see us through our problems.

The second play, Priscilla’s Principles, from where the book got its title showcases a twist of event. It starts from how some African British apologists want Nigerian and Africans to assimilate the British culture and make us see everything African as not standard and worthy to be used. They even want the African ladies to pattern their speech, dress sense, carriage to that of the British.

However, some educated Nigerians in the likes of Bassey, begin to challenge the status quo, calling for self-rule. With Bassey’s education and exposure, the powers that be, those in government make him handicap; put him behind the scene and he dies in obscurity. While Bassey and his likes lick their wounds and look ahead for a promising country; lowlifes, such as Bengo, because of their closeness to corrupt politicians grow fat on the nations resources.

The third, Music Of The Night, is about a disgruntle, Chieji Nigeria youth, who enters England without proper document. Though, he finds love in Lucy, who promises to marry him to secure his stay. The police stop the dream from coming true. Chieji was arrested the night that precedes his going to the registry with his love and deported to Nigeria, where he lives like a beggar. The story exposes the inclement conditions some Nigerians living abroad work to send home money.

Taking a good look of the collection and its themes, which including immigration issues, poverty, profligacy, nation-building and others, the playwright succinctly tells the happenings in Nigeria and most African nations. His arrangement and scenes descriptions are vivid, which make the plays easy to relate with. Of particular attention is the use of street language, such as stud, bottom power, dole and others, which also gives the impression that he is telling the stories from a personal experience.

This makes it much easier for the readers to believe. Furthermore, from the packaging and arrangement, any of the plays could be performed with minimal fund in any given space.

However, like some playwright would push the blame of African shortcomings to slave trade or other misgivings, Ofodile avoids this lamentation game, instead he projects how the locals have by their own doing debased their economies. The messages are topical and for all generation.