By PELU AWOFESO

(Femi Osofisan wrote this play especially for the 3rd Garden City Literary Festival which took place in Port Harcourt in December. The play was performed by the Theatre Arts Students of the University of Port Harcourt and Directed by Dr Emmanuel Emasealu, immediate past Head of Dept. of Theatre Arts at Uniport)

A scene from the play

POLITICS is in the air. Everywhere you look, anywhere you turn, you’re likely to catch Nigerians talking about the electoral process – voters’ registration, INEC or the political parties and the various aspirants. The political temperature is so very high that is it near boiling point already. It has even managed to kick our shared passion for football, the one strong bond we all share, to the background. There’s no doubt about it: this time around, Nigerians want to vote and, quite determinedly, they are battle-ready to see their votes count in April.

But politics and politicians have hardly made us happy; not once in recent times. Anyone looking for laughter would be better off going to watch any of the growing army of local comedians perform. To add to our misery, the newspapers, magazines, radio and television are chock full of news about crises of democracy. “People have stopped believing in the sincerity of politicians,” one character says.

Garden City Literary Festival

Perhaps all these were going through Professor Femi Osofisian’s mind while he was adapting Shakespeare Merchant of Venice for Koko Kalango’s Rainbow Book Club. His play was staged during the third Garden City Literary Festival (GCLF) last December. In Osofisan’s comical take on the drama (titled Love’s Unlike Lading), 16th century Italy becomes 21st century Niger Delta, drenched in the now familiar misery of kidnapping and ransom-taking.

Very early in Love’s Unlike Lading, the audience could easily tell in whose corner the darts are being thrown. “Blame the politicians,” cries Sheri, vexed by the never-ending kidnapping orgy in the region. “The boys (read militant) see them every day in reckless affluence, driving the latest cars, buying the choicest land, erecting mansions in fabulous estates, while they go about the streets looking for jobs that are not there.”

Nothing, Sheri continues, could ever justify that “dastardly crime, whatever the motive”, and goes on to lay the blame on the right doorstep: “All of us are guilty for the mess our country has become.” All of this soul searching and fault finding is going on in the middle of long drawn emotional drama. In the original story, Shakespeare tells of a man who wishes to marry off his only daughter in the most unnatural way; rather than allow events to take their own course, he stages a grand contest for all interested suitors from across the world. On arrival, the bride chasers come face to face with three caskets (labelled Gold, Silver and Bronze)which contain different items. Whoever chooses the one with the lady’s image and necklace wins the bride.

And it is along this particular story line, that Osofisan delivers his funny but thought provoking lines. First in the door is Tamuno, a tall, light-skinned and valiant Ijaw prince who brags on and on about his physical and manly attributes. Tosan (the bride) would be better off marrying a man of his pedigree, he argues, and not a weakling or a moron. He fails the test. Next comes an extroverted Yoruba man of affluence; he dazzles and impresses the pretty lady with the allure of his singing voice. In the end, he picks the wrong casket and goes away cursing and kicking furiously. The prize goes to the most unlikely of persons – Bashiru, a man of little weight in society but who nonetheless is quite brilliant.

But elsewhere in another household, two lovers who have found and fallen in love with each other would not be allowed to tie the knot, because their wealthy fathers are sworn enemies. “With Love’s Unlike Lading, Osofisan cautions against the adoption of atavistic cultural practices that repudiate the rights of women while also condemning vengeance and disunity,” the event brochure states. “In a parallel vein, Osofisan calls for the enthronement of purposeful leadership and the pursuit of patriotic and noble acts in the overall interest of uniting people.”

Tosan speaks for millions of Nigerians when she says: “Sometimes I am so scared of what this country has become and what it will be tomorrow.”

In less than two hours, Osofisan manages to squeeze into the adaptation all that is amiss in contemporary Nigeria. Love’s Unlike Lading is a play of big egos and misplaced pride; of a rascally society and self centred business people and policy makers; of high expectations and dashed hopes; of corrupt enrichment and a tradition in danger of dying. But as any frequent theatregoers will already know, this is not the first play to highlight the persistent problems in our country; but will it be the first to cause true change? That may very well happen if the political elite will just listen for once.