Museum of Dreams (2020, Kraftgriots Ibadan) is a Four-Act play written by Olatunde Ojerinde, a graduate of Literature in English.
In the opening scene of the play, the CEO of Ole Airlines is in conversation with Zeug, a worker with the airline. He has an assignment for Zeug, but he begins by asking Zeug about his vision for himself and the company. CEO informs Zeug that the great future he envisages may be impossible if the company crumbles in a few years, owing chiefly to the fact that Ole Airlines has been surviving solely on patronage of strong people in government. And that is about to end. The airline has been helping the political class to preserve their loot, and a change in government is imminent, and their patrons would not be able to sustain the flow of cash out of power. Zeug’s next assignment is to go into the civil service, from where he will be working for the interest of the airline.
In the play, we also witness the meeting of the association of the Lord’s Army Professionals as they discuss how to salvage a nation and bequeath goodness to the young ones. But they descend into the very hypocrisy they condemn in the people of their nation. They claim to be religiously purer than the rest. They claim to be better and transcend religious and ethnic biases. But they lapse into deeper ethno-religious biases.
They discuss a vacancy that needs to be filled in a department but they want it to go to someone of their religion, even though there is someone who is eminently qualified. However, one of them, Dr xymoron seems to not be pleased that intellectual prowess is to be sacrificed on the ground of religious consideration.
In this work set in a country called Igeria, we have before us, groups of people playing out the ethno-religious cards, always wanting for themselves and their groups, a bigger slice of national appointments and resources. The elite in the play also struggle for the sustainability of their class at the expense of the masses.
We also encounter the Northern Elders Forum as they strategise on how to get more of the national cake to their own side of the nation.
They lament the disproportionate sharing of national appointments at their own expense and in favour of the south despite their size and population.
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In the play, Museum of Dreams, protesters besiege the secretariat of the Central Civil Service Commission to protest imbalance in geographical spread of appointments in the country Igeria. In a rather nonchalant manner, the Director of the Commission confesses to Udu that he has tampered with the list of appointees.
Violence breaks out, property and vehicles are destroyed and the Director is unmoved. He says the protesters are only destroying government property, and not his things, and that they will be replaced by the government. He even gleefully announces to Udu that this protest and destruction of property is an opportunity for him to get his old official car replaced.
The police arrive to quell the violence, shots are fired, and some protesters are arrested. A press conference is organised, and a series of lies are presented by the Director and the Police Inspector. After the Conference, “white envelopes” are distributed to the journalists. Of course, later in the play, someone refers to the white envelopes as “symbol of peace in return for lofty headlines”.
In this play, Museum of Dreams, the playwright employs the title as a metaphor for a nation whose citizens perpetually dream of values and greatness, but where these ideals are confined to a show glass, only to be spoken about but not apprehended. This is seen in the life of a first class graduate, Simi, who even with a first class and lofty dreams can only secure a volunteer-internship status in a government ministry. But an unqualified person would get a job simply on the basis of associations, and ethnic or religious considerations.
In this play, the playwright plays on the imagery of victimhood of citizens. In the work we read about the reflection of Zeug in his conversation with Simi. They strike a conversation and both lament the scourge of injustice, and how the system victimises those who speak the truth. Still in this play, Museum of Dreams, everyone laments the sorry state of the nation, everyone complains about the corrupt and skewed system, and nobody accepts that they have played some part in making it so. Ultimately, everyone talks, but nobody acts to right the wrongs.
The climax of the play is the point at which the young ones realize that their country needs redirection. They realise that there must be a departure from ethnic and tribal leanings, among others.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and email [email protected].
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