Job Loss and National Security in Niyi Osundare’s Two Plays

Abstract

Literature is replete with devastating economic effects of job loss on people globally. This social malaise has been addressed in contemporary literature as a result of its lethal consequence on the cultural milieu. Indubitably, job loss remains one of the factors contributing to the high rate of penury, which masterminds insecurity in the nation. The whole universe is wrapped in ills as a result of economic stagnation. The foregoing forms the crux of Niyi Osundare’s Two Plays. This study, therefore, investigates socio-economic realities that have led to ruination of the people’s economy. The writer emphasizes the cataclysmic consequences of job loss, unemployment, corruption, and the negative effect of an extravagant lifestyle on national security. Furthermore, Osundare depicts how hunger gives birth to anger, which leads to suicidal thoughts. The dramatic representations of socio-political-cum-economic realities in the play show the writer’s commitment to righting the wrongs with which the Nigerian state is fraught.