Double-faced patriotism in the face of terrorism, by Michael Olatunbosun  |

“Merchants of Trouble (2018, Debbie Publishers)” is a play written by Olatunbosun Taofeek, an award winning poet, playwright and academic. He teaches at Mountain Top University, Ogun State. 

The play, set in a country called Nigara, discusses terrorism and religious persecution. In Act 1 of this Three-Act play, our first encounter is with Sheikh Mahmud, a terror financier, and Major Dogo, a military officer working for Mahmud as an insider. In the opening scene of Act 1, Dogo meets Mahmud and gives a report of a successful terror attack in the North East of Nigara, with vivid description of the operation. They are both thankful, and they strategise how to penetrate the other parts of the country. Mahmud, boasting that his “only contribution to humanity” is to fund insurgency against people who hate his religion, pledges to do more to “defeat that long time problem sitting everywhere in the world”.

Their dialogue throws up their perception of the country and its different peoples in the different geopolitical regions. For instance, Major Dogo explains the ease with which people of the North cooperate with insurgents. He laments that the people of the South West are difficult because “they believe too much in books – the Western books”. And of the people in the South South and South East, he says that “all they need is money”, and they will agree to convert to another religion. 

In this play, the ethno-racial divisions of the country are played up by Major Dogo and Sheikh Mahmud. The critical peculiarities of the religious beliefs of the people are used as a basis to further divide the people for the selfish, parochial and divisive profits of the terrorists in the country. Unfortunately, the people sheepishly fall for the bait.

Major Dogo is an intelligence officer in charge of terrorist data in the Nigara military. He is in touch with a terrorism financier outside the country, and their plan is to use him as an insider to compromise the war against terrorism in his country. 

In his conversation with Mahmud, he indicts the military and the politicians of making merchandise with the war on insurgency. 

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The play, Merchants of Trouble, is a critical commentary on the Nigerian war against insurgency. The play mimics the half-hearted campaign against Boko Haram and other strands of radical-induced insurgents making incursions on the different regions of Nigeria, which the playwright parodies as Nigara in the play. 

A major suggestion in this play is Major Dogo, a military officer who doubles as a terrorist sympathiser and religious and ethnic bigot. He plays on the political tilt to the war on terror rears its head. Major Dogo, during military drills with soldiers, instructs them that the fight against insurgents is not a war in which sophisticated weapons are used. He says this in response to the complaint of Sargent Lasisi that their rifles are incapable of fighting terrorists. Dogo says: “Ours is just to calm the situation. There are many civilians out there. We can’t afford to kill them because we are looking for terrorists.” In addition to this, he warned them not to speak to journalists regarding the situation. 

Act 2 presents us with a different scenario with IP Wahala instructing his fellow police corporals on appropriate conduct like avoiding bribery and doing all they can professionally to secure the country. He also takes a swipe at politicians as being in bed with corruption and eating from insurgency and banditry in the country.

The play glaringly shows the corruption that has taken the front seat in the affairs of the police, especially at checkpoints where criminals are allowed to escape justice just by bribing their way out of trouble. Corporal Moso encounters a young man at a checkpoint. The man is carrying lethal weapons in his car, but he is let go after surrendering a sum of N100,000 to the officer. And the recursive argument is that welfare and working conditions are poor, while the politicians and some military commanders are feeding fat from the insurgency. Eventually as it turns out, every corrupt person labels every other person corrupt. 

At last, all conflicts are resolved as Major Dogo’s corrupt essence is uncovered and Sheikh Mahmud is cornered. And the play ends on a cautionary note to citizens on the corrosive and destructive power of religion and its use to derail a nation and its people. 

In this play, Taofeek uses deep, revealing dialogues to establish the inner conflicts of his characters, and shed light on his theme. Through his creative deployment of dialogue, the reader is able to see through the double-faced nature some characters like Major Dogo, IP Wahala, among others.

The play is a commentary on how misapplication of religion affects society, especially with relation to fanning terrorism. The play also discusses destructive tendencies of religious fundamentalist ideology in a fragile country. The play also shows vividly the misplaced perception that security agencies have of journalists and the journalism profession.

It is a play that all peace-loving, well meaning citizens must read to attain clarity about their nation. 

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and [email protected].

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