How I published over 60 plays – Yerima

Prolific dramatist and former Director-General of the National Theatre/National Troupe of Nigeria, Professor Ahmed Yerima, has revealed the secret behind his over 60 published plays.

The playwright disclosed this at the recent third Kaduna Book & Arts Festival (KABAFEST) where he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

He got it “in recognition of more than 30 years of contribution to academia, his relentless quest for theatrical advancement, his tireless service to the preservation of culture and a robust publishing record that has helped to shape our understanding of dramatic arts.”

Responding after the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe presented the award to him, Yerima disclosed that Nigeria is his inspiration.

“Nigeria is such a big country and what my teacher, Prof Soyinka, taught me at Ife was that you can’t sit down and write plays for play sake or arts for art’s sake. Nigeria provides a lot of challenges, and I think even by the time I die, there would be more plays that I haven’t written than the ones I’ve written because Nigeria constantly gives me materials. So, as I finish writing, something new comes up and my friends who push me in a very subtle manner,  say ‘Prof have you read what’s going on? Try and write something about it’. I remember going for an interview for an ECOWAS job, and the man said, ‘Prof, what have you written now? We just swore in President Buhari. I think you should write The Swearing since you are very topical,'” he said amidst laughter from the audience.

The playwright added: “I also write multicultural plays, that’s the truth about writing 60 plays. What I try to do is look for commonalities of themes, and I find that the problems with the Igbo in ‘Odenigbo’ or ‘Idemili’, all those problems exist within the Yoruba society also, it’s just the names. I also took people because I found that all the proverbs that exist in Yorubaland, also exist in Igboland and Hausaland. Only the symbols, motifs and the imageries change.”

Yerima, who thanked the organisers of KABAFEST for the honour, dedicated the award to his wife and family.

He began, “I want to dedicate this to my wife, Bridget Yerima. I’ve eaten almost all her chicken. All. We’ve quarrelled over chicken because when I write at night; I  write between 2 am, and 5am, she makes sure that there’s chicken and one apple in the fridge so that when I’m hungry, I don’t disturb her. So, the last thing she tells me every night is there is chicken and apple in the fridge. Good night. I disturb her too with the plot. And it’s the plots of these plays that I’ve used to know how my children have developed because when I tell them, especially the youngest. I’ll tell him I’m writing a new play and he’ll say what are you writing about? I tell him someone is going to die. He says Daddy let him die very well. That was when he was in primary school. When he got to secondary school, he started to ask why is he going to die? When he got to university, and he’s reading law, he’ll tell me what are the circumstances? Tell me the equity and the jurisprudence?”

Yerima, currently Head, Theatre Arts Department, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, is among Nigeria’s most prolific playwrights alongside the eminent Professor Femi Osofisan.

Some of his plays include ‘The Trials of Ovonramwen’, ‘Attahiru’, ‘Yemoja’, ‘The Wives’, ‘The Sisters’, ‘Abobaku’, ‘Odenigbo’, ‘Lottery Ticket’, ‘Idemili’ and ‘Lanpapa’. His play, ‘Hard Ground’ won both the NLNG-sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature and ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark Drama Prize in 2006.

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