ECOLITERATURE AND LEADERSHIP DISCOURSE IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF TANURE OJAIDE’S THE ACTIVIST AND HELON HABILA’S OIL ON WATER

Abstract

In Nigeria the effects of the destruction of the natural environment, resulting from the destructive extraction of resources have been seriously felt. This reality has been worsened by the compradoria stance of the national leadership class. The poor leadership of the country has influenced every strata of the society, particularly literary creativity. Adopting this reflectionist paradigm, this study examines the role of (mis)leadership in Nigeria, which has culminated in the seemingly intractable Niger Delta question in the creative works of select Nigerian authors. The paper argues that the leadership failures of the Nigerian state has  not only been given attention, especially with regards to the Niger Delta question by eco-literary writers but also, have proffered some (neglected) suggestions on how these challenges could be resolved. This study examines the literary texts  of  Helon Habila's Oil on Water and Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist as exemplars of eco-literary creativities that speak to our understanding of both the Niger Delta discourse as well as the leadership lacuna which often, at the behest of multinational oil corporations work against the collective aspiration of the people. These writers, in their texts, uncover the socioeconomic relations, leadership failure and degraded environment/ecology that endangered the lives of the people in Niger Delta refereed through (global) capitalism.