An x-ray of the PIB and Ekanpou’s play: The Plot Against the People

By Asiayei Enaibo

The Plot Against the People, a play written by Ekanpou Enewaridideke, published in the year 2005, characteristically depicts the modern happenings in the Nigerian situation from the Federal, state, local and to the community level.This is characteristically more at the community level.The Plot Against the People is more conspicuous at the community level which later metamorphoses into the political climate of the country. Ethnicity, nepotism and conspiracy against brothers, deprivation and wealth control can be seen in the play. This is a must read play as it depicts the contemporary events in our society. Yes, writers are prophets that foretell the future.

The play is paradoxically written to tell the Niger Delta true picture of the conflict of denial as the thematic thrust builds around the play.The plot is to suffocate the progressive mind for defending and protecting their own resources.

PENARU:
Today marks the second conference we have are holding since my reign as the President of Taneria.
Structures must be erected to enslave the minorities.
We are gathered here to perfect this…

(Part two page 84)

This is exactly the second tenure of the current administration the plot against the people has come to play as depicted by the author.

Certainly the victory to come out triumphantly no matter the plot against those whose minds are genuine to create changes that will make our society a balanced place of the uncertainties of leadership failures and the underdevelopment and self-centered leadership, bigotry antagonistic mind set of people against the rising Stars is symbolically presented to direct the society for all inclusiveness and expressions of love than bottled up hatred against the people. This play is a direct porttait of our contemporary twist of the oil industry in the Niger Delta Region, political and communal twist against certain individuals they consider as a threat to their heinous activities.

Adakan: We have crude oil, we feed the whole country. We are the backbone of Taneria.

We are poverty-stricken.
Our areas appellated, difficult terrain, are not developed.

We have nothing to show for our crude oil wealth.
Our wealth is siphoned off to arid lands for development purpose.
We are left with nothing.
We are unemployed.
We are stymied by many
Debilitating Decrees, Acts and laws systematically made to weaken and enslave us…

(Part Two. Page 93)

Imprisonment of our voices, yes, the activist was arrested, as Mamkere thus,

Mamkere “When a tide goes out it will definitely come in.
We know why we are gathered here today.
In our new philosophy, we have vowed to give no breathing space to those who are bent on making our lives worthless…

(Part three. Page 97)

The obnoxious laws will only create more tensions in the region. Yes,the legislative walkout in the National Assembly has been predicted by the Playwright Ekanpou Enewaridideke in the year 2005 before the outcome PIB of today.

What makes the play more interesting is that at the end all the discordant voices that were part of the conspiracy, were resolved and overpowered by the people as a federal might and as an organised plot. Yes, those who plot without finding solutions, such will always see the danger of more revolutionaries to the unresolved problems for tomorrow.

The play is embellished figuratively in a country called Taneria, an oil rich country but there is nothing to show for the region that makes the country to flourish but Ironically, poverty, deprivation, subjugation and mental enslavement engulfed the people. These and many more made the youth leader confront them. Adakan the president of Odi Youth Movement labours to change the narrative…. This is a story told in a literary perspective that clearly depicts the Niger Delta situation of the oil rich region suffocated by poverty and underdevelopment.

The story depicted here is a replica of the PIB plot against the Niger Delta region from those at the helm of affairs to suffocate the people to do their dictate. These plots are everywhere in our communities where few leaders sit down with their premeditated decisions to undermine the young stars in their decisions, thereby creating conflicts where there is no conflict.

The playwright is a real representation of the reflection of a new literary Theorist in the scope of what is referred as Niger Delta Literature. Ekanpou Enewaridideke’s play is a clear dramatisation of the PIB plot and leadership failures of the new system of governance.

The leading character Adakan represents the protesting voice of the Niger Delta people in the recent PIB while the President Penaru of Taneria and his cabinet rejoice for overpowering Adakan the leader by signing the PIB into law as victory on there own side.

The play is an embodiment of the intellectual prowess of the author who tells the conflict of Odi bombardment saga by the Federal government. The play portrays the past and present situation and what is likely to happen in the future.

This play, THE PLOT AGAINST THE PEOPLE, is a play everybody must read to be updated on waiting plots engineered by people against people in the struggle for imaginary powers at the federal, state and community levels. Could this play be a coincidental portrait of the plot against the author as his recent posts point to?

Let this life be plot-free so that Ekanpou Enewaridideke will not be forced to write another The plot against the People.

CULLED FROM EKANPOU ENEWARIDIDEKE’S PLAY, THE PLOT AGAINST THE PEOPLE.