Anthony Adele Orlu’s The Vultures’ Assembly: A Reflection on Niger Delta Concerns

Anthony Adele Orlu’s The Vultures’ Assembly: A Reflection on Niger Delta Concerns

Anthony Adele Orlu is a Professor of Environmental Literature. His play, The Vultures’ Assembly is a poignant exploration of the socio-political and environmental realities of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The play is structured into four movements, with each movement addressing critical themes pertinent to the region. This play is critically analyzed in this paper, with consideration on how the play reflects or engages with key themes, cultural elements, historical contexts and environmental concerns of this region. Niger Delta literature often highlights social, political and ecological issues specific to the area, particularly the impacts of oil exploitation, environmental degradation and the struggles of local communities.

1. Historical and Socio-Political Context

Niger Delta Struggles: The Niger Delta is known for its rich oil reserves and the resulting socio-political conflicts due to oil exploration. Orlu skillfully addresses these issues in the play utilizing characters, symbolism, settings and other specific dramatic techniques like aside and monologue. Characters in Niger Delta plays are often symbolic of larger societal issues. These characters often represent local communities, government officials, foreign oil companies, or militant groups. Each of the character employed in the realization of the play, represents a specific concept, place and real state actor. For instance, the Journalist and Photographer as characters in the play all represent or symbolize political sycophants or praise singers of the wicked politicians, which is a common thing in Nigeria political space.

These characters are professionally meant to be pressmen who ought to disseminate true facts and stay neutral from politics while representing the masses; however, they end up becoming stooges to the corrupt leaders who dictate to them what to say to the masses and how to present them (the corrupt leaders) as good representatives of the people. Here they lose their will to be independent in thought and expression as they now carry out the biddings of the corrupt leaders as a result of the heavy bribes they have received. In the play, they are tagged the vulture’s messengers or forerunners of a vulture in the land (8).

The characters of the Legislators

These characters spell out the struggles of the region, particularly the argument between First Legislator and Third Legislator as regards the Oil Exploration, Allocation and Revenue Sharing Formula Bill, where the First Legislator proposes a 50% revenue be allocated to the region or a total control of their crude oil. The Third Legislator who happens to be representing the far north objected to this, while proposing 17% of the revenue to be allocated to the south, while 60% to be allocated to his far northern region that contributes nothing to the economy (43). This amplifies the Niger Delta resource control struggles that have been in existence for long now.

The play further comments on government corruption, oil companies or local resistance movements like Militancy and Activism. Literature from this region often explores the rise of militant groups in response to the neglect and exploitation of the people. The play ends in anarchy as different armed groups have resulted to have their way. This way, the playwright addresses the consequences of the neglect, power tussle and exploitation of the region resulting into militancy, activism and struggle for resource control.

2. Environmental Concerns

Environmental Degradation: A significant aspect of Niger Delta literature is the environmental devastation caused by oil spills, gas flaring, and pollution. This is central to the narrative, with characters discussing the severe impacts of oil spills and pollution. Orlu highlights the disparity between the wealth generated by the oil and the environmental destruction that ensues, encapsulating the conflict between economic gain and ecological preservation. For instance, the First Legislature raises these concerns at the assembly while pushing for the development of this region (43).

3. Themes of Exploitation and Marginalization

Economic Exploitation: A common theme in Niger Delta literature is the exploitation of natural resources at the expense of local communities. Orlu explores the economic disparity, poverty and the uneven distribution of oil wealth using the character of the Third Legislator to echo this theme as he represent the unproductive region that tag themselves as “born to rule”, and only lives on the product from the Niger Delta region, while still exploiting them (44).

Identity and Marginalization: The play addresses the identity of the people of the Niger Delta, while exploring the marginalization of ethnic minorities or local cultures in national and global discourses.

4. Cultural Representation

Language Use: The language used in the play is simple and clear, reflecting Orlu’s commitment to authenticity and cultural representation. He employs the use of a blend of proverbs and riddle to adequately accommodate the African cultural expression and representation, while connecting traditional wisdom to contemporary issues. For instance, the following lines illustrate the use of proverbs and riddles:

1) “When a mother goat plans what to do to Okro fruit, Okro also plans what to do to the mother goat” (9). This emanates from a dialogue between the characters Motorcyclist and Second Citizen. It suggests a plan by the citizens to one day resist the oppressive regime.

2) “A child that does not want the mother to sleep shall not sleep as well” (10). This emanates from the Cobbler’s as a response to the Second Citizen. It connotes an inevitable resistance coming from the masses against the oppressive government.

3) “The time has come when the tree that does not bear good fruits must be cut off” (10).

4) “If you must watch the masquerade performance, you must go wherever it goes” (11). This comes from the dialogue between Journalist and Photographer that have both been bought over by the politicians and now do their biddings.

5) “If a child washes his hands clean, he dines with Kings” (32). This connotes a rally for more hands to join in the ongoing corruption trend in Eliojoland.

5. Literary Techniques and Structure

Dramatic Structure: The play is divided into four movements. These movement are quite short as they have few scenes. However, these movements all represents a particular theme or idea respectively.

Use of Satire or Irony: Many Niger Delta playwrights use satire to critique government corruption or foreign exploitation. Orlu also employs satire in this play. He critiques the legislative body and its systemic corruption by likening them to Vultures, creatures often associated with corruption and decay. The speaker also acknowledges that members of the Assembly are tagged or nicknamed “the Vultures.” The Speaker goes on to add beauty to the vulture – “they fail to realize that the vulture is a beautiful bird with no problems” (14). Other members of the Assembly like the First and Second Legislator also support the speaker on this, while ascribing themselves as peculiar breed and a privileged class (this is also sarcastic, suggesting a self-deprecating humour in the play). Their flippant acceptance of “the vultures” label emphasizes the pervasive nature of their moral decay (15).

Furthermore, in the play, the character of the Speaker boldly asserts that they are above the law they make (14). This is satirical, because in an ideal world, no one is above the law, not even the president; however, the playwright satirizes the country as no one is held accountable for his or her actions, thereby suggesting that some persons are actually above the law that governs the state.

The use of Sarcasm:

The play is widely characterized by the use of Sarcasm. Characters in the play utilize sarcasm particularly during heated conversations in the Assembly. For instance, “the inability to do what is right is branded as Elijoland’s  brand of democracy” (39).

Orlu also employs paradoxical figures to convey his message. For instance, “Our election victory at the polls is an act of God because nobody, I mean nobody actually voted us in” (19). In as much as this sounds too good to be true, there are actually some elements of truth in it, as truly these corrupt politicians do whatever they can to get power. Some may kill their opponents, bribe electoral officers, buy votes or even rig elections to get power. These actually prove that they put themselves in office and not by the real elections. The reference to God is actually just to set a comic effect.

Overall, this play serves as a fundamental commentary on the socio-political and environmental crises in the Niger Delta, using characters and cultural elements to engage with several themes that are particular to the region. Orlu’s work stands as a fundamental contribution to Niger Delta literature, exposing the struggles of the region.