CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Chinua Achebe and Akan Essien are Nigerian literary writers; they portray Nigerian’s societal challenges in their creative works as corruption, lack of good leadership, poverty, unemployment and violence as an impediment to peace, stability and development of the Nigerian society. Moreover, they write how corruption has becomes a major cause of conflicts and insecurity which continue to pose a lots of societal challenge to the development of our Nigerian society.
Nigerian societal challenges in Chinua Achebe Girls at War and Akan Essien Dialogue of Angels
This evidence is seen in line with Achebe’s The Trouble with Nigeria where he says, the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmarks of true leadership (1).
He concluded that these problems were created as a result of widening gaps that has existed between ideals and reality in the realm of social injustice in the country. These problems have created a permanent scar of social, economic and political injustice between the rich and the poor and between the led and the leaders in the Nigerian society. This is why Hyginus concluded that “most Nigerians lives in abject poverty because of the injustices meted out on them by their fellow countrymen and women who stole or wasted their opportunities through corruption and leadership inefficiency.
No doubt, the masses today have witnesses the Nigeria’s growth without development’’ and lack of political aspiration to address the issue affecting the country.
It is on the above foregoing the background to this research aim at analysing the Nigerian’s societal challenges in Chinua Achebe’s Girls at War and Akan Essien’s Dialogue of Angels.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
It is very unfortunate, Nigeria from the inception of independence still lives under the object of challenges such as corruption, poverty and good leaders. Some of these societal challenges are seen in the two novels under study which include political corruption, class struggle, bribery, fraud and embezzlement.
These writers proposes the fact that the Nigerian societal challenges are as a result of corruption that have remained a major cause of under development in the country and it is therefore suggested that the Nigerian Government should find lasting solutions to the crises while giving top priority to eradication of corruption in its transformation agenda.
Nigerian societal challenges in Chinua Achebe Girls at War and Akan Essien Dialogue of Angels
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this research is to investigate the Nigerian’s societal challenges in Chinua Achebe’s Girls at War and Akan Essien’s Dialogue of Angels.
