By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Paul Emema had a well-earned reputation as a pathfinder in Nigerian television drama until his death in his prime. Working behind the camera as writer, producer or director of such epochal programmes as Behind the Clouds and Supple Blues, the self-effacing Emema gave Nigerian television audiences immensely memorable and thoughtful drama series in the 1980s.

Emema upped the ante in the mid-1990s by marrying entertainment with education in his “enter-educate” offerings that blazed the trail in didactic “intended outcomes” television aimed at bringing about positive social change. This way, under the sponsorship of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Emema doubled as director and producer of the trendsetting I Need to Know television series that ran for all of eight seasons.

It is against this background of Emema’s groundbreaking oeuvre on television that one became instantly animated on seeing that a stage play, A Plague of Gadflies, had been published by Paul Emema.

Set in his native Niger Delta, A Plague of Gadflies is a gripping drama of simmering intensity that sends up the resource-rich but poverty-stricken realm of oily corruption. The play, remarkably dedicated “To the healing of Nigeria and all God’s wounded children in Africa”, satirises the strange doings in the land of Ovrode in the heart of the Niger Delta. The traditional ruler of Ovrode, Ovie Gideon Ogbighe Okumagba, who bears the alias “The Night Fox”, holds court with a special breed of potentates known as the Royal Blood. The corruption of the cosmos by the these controllers of economic and political power leads up to the choice of Isaiah Akpojaro as the next Odio ‘logbo, to wit, the noble Chief Adviser to His Majesty.

Samson Akpojaro, the half-brother of Isaiah, aided by the fiery Ochonogo, leads a handful of freedom fighters who alongside the entire populace initiate an uprising that dislodges the regime of corruption. It all comes to a head at the time of the spiritual and ritual festival of peace called Egba. Houses are burnt and the revolting freedom fighters take the offspring of the oppressive gang hostage such that members of the Royal Blood are left with only the clothes they are wearing at the time of the mayhem. The revelation dawns that due to filthy lucre, the bags of cowries and the parcels of land they collected from Isaiah Akpojaro, members of the Royal Blood never bothered to offer the requisite traditional sacrifice to the ancestors.

The 23 years that His Majesty Okumagba had been on the throne of Ovrode comes to such a pass that he pronounces banishment for the Royal Blood thus: “I, Gideon Ogbighe Okumagba – the Night Fox – as I live, and because my noble ancestors watch over my throne night and day, I pronounce your exile to Bini Kingdom until your deaths.” Even so, the Night Fox cannot bask in innocence because Edokpe with whom he had sworn to an oath of secrecy reveals that His Majesty also wallowed in corruption because of all the villagers’ farmlands he gave to “our foreigner friends” in exchange for the selfsame bags of cowry.

In the elegiac denouement of A Plague of Gadflies, the Night Fox laments: “Tears… Tears in the eyes of the strong… Yet not the tears of happiness in victory. In the name of leadership, I came and reigned over my people. But now… Ah, Bini, Kingdom you shall welcome a stranger from a long journey. I shall return to the roots that once held my forebear captive of his perceived sin; the roots that my descendant rebelled against and plotted his successful escape from the hands that once fed him. I must return, this time as a peacemaker to that same land… For twenty-three years I ruled my people with the wisdom of a god, bestowed on me by my noble ancestors. Meek is my middle name, patience is my staff of office. I shall leave for Bini Kingdom this day to bring peace upon my fatherland, that the tears of sorrow and the pool of blood that have flowed ceaselessly over my ancestral land this season shall become dry again.”

It is a measure of Emema’s art that the play does not end in despair but somewhat snatches hope from the progressive intercourse of the two wives, Esther and Awele, of the arch villain Isaiah Akpojaro. In the Prologue of A Plague of Gadflies, Esther tells the youngish Awele: “No joke will melt my heart with shame and humiliation. No joke will laugh at the heavy burden that I carry through life. No. I must marry you at once… For me!”

Esther unburdens her woe of barrenness, and at the very end of the Epilogue, Awele complains of morning sickness, dizziness, throwing up and sundry signs of early pregnancy. Esther’s words to Awele are laden with uninhibited happiness: “I am delighted, Awele; most delighted. Now I know that our ancestors are constantly awake. Who would have thought that just one night that he spent with you would produce my blood!” Esther takes her wild excitement to the village, making a passerby woman to tell the child on her back: “I told your father that I’m beginning to see too many mad women in our village, but he wouldn’t listen.” Call it the beautiful madness of regeneration!

Paul Emema has written a prophetic play that expands the Niger Delta set-piece of oil, blood and gore to encompass such happenings as the stepping-aside episode after the June 12, 1993 annulled election, the uprisings in North Africa and the Arab world etc. A Plague of Gadflies stages revolution on centre-stage by making use of traditional lore, oral performance and scribal assurance. This is redemptive art on show as opposed to preachment. One eagerly holds on with bated breath for the play to be put on live performance on stage.

Paul Emema’s courage should be saluted for giving us an epic-proportion play in this age of minimalist plays. As a big play, A Plague of Gadflies is reminiscent of the vast canvas of late Ola Rotimi in The Gods Are Not To Blame and Kurunmi. The art of Emema compels attention. His words are aptly deployed, and the proverbs are a joy to behold.

A Plague of Gadflies by Paul Emema deserves to travel far and wide.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a renowned poet, journalist and author.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.