ARE THE 'HUSBANDS' GOING MAD AGAIN???!!!

...Sometime in 1984, the University of Lagos Students’ Union week was fast approaching. I was approached by the Social Secretary, to write and present a play for the Week. The Student Union President at that time, was Niyi Akinsiji.


About a year earlier, in concert with three of my friends, we had formed The Theatre 15, and invited some of our other friends who included former Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Jonas Agwu, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,…to join us as we performed plays(including Ola Rotimi’s OUR HUSBAND HAS GONE MAD AGAIN!) in the University of Lagos as well as three other universities in the south west of Nigeria; the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and the University of Ado-Ekiti.

I chose to write and produce a pantomime, portraying the trials of civilians through military decrees and Tribunals, under the Generals Buhari and Idiagbon regime, which someone had termed ‘kangaroo courts’. The title of that play is Fragile Fury.

I have not reproduced that play here because it is in another book, CAMP BODINGA: NOT A WASTED GENERATION, my recollection of my National Youth Service Corp experiences in Sokoto State between 1985 and 1986.

As we were rehearsing the play, I noticed that the players started to disappear one by one, up to the point that it became impossible to continue with the rehearsals.

I got to find out that my friends had heard rumours that State Security Service operatives were trailing us as we rehearsed, and so they were apprehensive of being arrested, and getting Theatre 15 banned.

I had to look for other players outside of Theatre 15, and we went ahead to rehearse and produce the play during the Week, albeit hush-hush.

There were no arrests.

We were not confronting individuals, but an unacceptable system of justice, which could cause social unrest, and then stunt development, which actually did happen.

A few years later under the General Babangida regime, Mr. Fred Agbeyegbe a Lawyer, started Ajo Productions, a theatre company and through a hugely successful Ajofest in 1986, that brought people like Richard Mofe-Damijo, Anter Laniyan, Tunji Sotimirin, Jide Ogugbade, Ben Tomoloju… to the limelight, produced among other plays, BUDISO which portrayed among other issues of our national life at that time, some of the issues in Fragile Fury.

I followed the performances as I reviewed them for my contribution in the arts and entertainment section of a Lagos Newspaper then, as a freelance.

There were also rumours that State Security Service operatives also trailed that production, as it was believed that the title BUDISO represented names of some personalities in the previous regime.

And Ajo productions some how stopped producing plays, which was really sad.

Why was it sad? Apart from the employment opportunities for theatre practitioners that Ajo Productions provided at that time, their productions offered us opportunities for us to laugh at ourselves and get rid of some of the anger and disappointments, which is one very big problem area of our national life. We do not know how to laugh at ourselves.

This has also hindered creative works around the issue areas of our national life. The revolution for the performing arts and allied professions that happened with what has come to be known as Nollywood only a few years ago, would have happened much earlier and we would not have been only bombarded mainly with themes of rituals and the occult as is the case now.

One more win-win opportunity for Nigeria lost...

----BIAFRA:LEST WE FORGET!