Apart from serving the functions of enlightenment and entertainment, the theatre is also useful in several other ways. For instance, it is a source of employment, cultural preservation, presentation, and projection. It also serves therapeutic functions and as social control mechanism in a society. It is a mirror of life, reflecting and highlighting the moral codes and the ills of society and castigating social evil and its doers. Beyond all of these, the theatre could also serve as an agent of civilization, community mobilisation, and youth development and emancipation. This paper discusses how the potentials of the youth in a country such as Nigeria, could be harnessed and deployed for the purposes of national orientation, development, and integration, using culture, drama, and theatre as the defining tools for this evolvement.
　　Keywords: youth empowerment, national orientation, development, drama and theatre
　　 Introduction
　　The Websters New World Dictionary (Guralink, 2004) described youth as “the state or quality of being young, especially of being vigorous and lively” (p. 1650). It also described youth as “a period of life coming between Childhood and maturity”. It is sometimes also regarded as the period when someone is a teenager, but we will all agree that the society’s concept of youth transcends this confinement to teenage years. A youth could therefore be a young adult or even someone who has matured in age, but feels young at heart. By this concept, it becomes difficult to place an age limit on the youth. At least, we are very familiar with the slogans“Life begins at forty” and “A fool at forty is a fool forever”. Firstly, if someone were to “begin” life at age 40, at what age would the person be deemed to be old or not to be youthful? Secondly, age 40 seems to be the age that society expects everyone to have attained full maturity and therefore act with total responsibility and infallible judgment.
　　In spite of the foregoing argument, however, we find that, in every human situation and society, three basic categories of age groups could be delineated. These are: (1) those who have matured in age, usually between 50 and 70 and above. These could be described as Elders; (2) those who are between the ages of 25 and 45. These could be described as Young Adults; and (3) those who are between the ages of 15 and 25. These could be described as Young and Youthful.
　　The “Youth” phase is one that is characterized by physical, emotional, intellectual, mental, and social change and development. These changes are also accompanied by feelings of growing up, with all the assumptions of growing up. There are notions of or desire for individuality and freedom. The youth, at this stage, want to establish their identities and personalities. They want to, or think they should, break away from various constraints and restrictions—from parents and the society at large. As a result of physiological development, youth are generally more energetic and active—full of life, as it were. They usually think they can, and want to, do many things which they may not have been able to do before. They are also more adventurous—wanting to try out new things and ideas. These attributes of youth have implications for their attitude and behavior—whether positive or negative. Another characteristic of youth, which could have positive or negative consequences is their innocent—“youthful innocence”. The youth can be seen as vulnerable in this regard: vulnerable to abuse, misdirection, and exploitation.
　　Our reference of the word “Youth” will be captured within the last two categories. These two groups are essentially, the leaders of tomorrow, the workforce of the state, and the wealth of the future. To be all these and more, the youth, who are basically the human resources of the future, must have their potentials harnessed and developed to maximum advantage for the benefit of their society and its development.
　　 What Is Development?
　　Generally speaking, development is the process of gradually becoming bigger, better, stronger, or more advanced. Development has remained an elusive concept especially in the context of African nations. Even when defined in its most simplified form as the increase in Gross National Product, most African economies have been unable to make significant impact in that direction. And this is because, far beyond the economic index, many African nations are characterized by declining per capita incomes, diminishing healthcare services, sliding literacy rates, and rising impoverishment of large populations and skyrocketing unemployment. In addition, they also suffer from massive deficits, inflation, capital flight, crumbling infrastructure, and severe brain drain—all of which are antithetical to development.
　　Therefore, in view of the controversies surrounding “development” as a concept, Hettne (2008, p. 8) informed us that there is a need to reconsider purpose, content, agency, and context in the reconstituted field of development studies. The relevant theoretical schools, since the 1940s, include Modernisation, Structuralism, and Dependency. But according to Hettne (2008), “The reconstruction of War-torn Europe provided the model for state-directed modernisation of the ‘new nations’” (p. 8). In this model, development was largely sociological, economic, and political in nature, and underdevelopment was defined in terms of differences between rich and poor nations. Development, therefore, implied the bridging of the gap by means of an imitative process, in which the less developed countries gradually assumed the qualities of the developed.
　　Development, according to Potter (2008, p. 67), involves three things—theories, strategies, and ideologies. Development Theories refer to logical propositions which aim to explain how development has occurred in the past and or how it should occur in the future. Development strategies can be described as the practical paths to development in effort to stimulate change within particular nations, regions, or continents and ideologies are contained in the different development agendas which reflect the different goals and objectives such as social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, moral, and even religious influences. For instance, Potter (2008) said that both in theory and practice… “early perspectives on development were almost exclusively concerned with promoting economic growth. Subsequently, however, the predominate ideology with the academic literature changed to emphasize political, social, ethical, cultural, ecological and other dimensions of the wider process of development and change” (p. 68).
　　This paper shall concentrate on the dimensions of Culture and the Arts, within the context of the Youth, Theatre Arts, and National development. In other words, what is the relationship between Youth development and creative arts? How can the Youths be culturally aware and artistically engaged such that it will impact not only on their personal development but also on the development of the Nation?
　　Youth empowerment by definition is a process in which the youths are engaged in activities and programmes that seek to meet their basic personal, social, and economic needs in a way they will feel cared for, feel valued, useful, and be spiritually grounded. Also the process helps to build skills and competencies that allow them to function and contribute to society. The challenge is to develop capacities, promote values, and plan quality experiences with young people. This process, quoting Pitman from http://www.cyd.aed.org, involves all the people around a youth; family and community such as teachers, youth workers, employers, health providers, and peers.
　　Young person will not be able to build essential skills and competencies unless their families and communities provide them with the support and opportunities they need along the way. Support can be motivational and it can be strategic. It can take many different forms, but it must be affirming, respectful, and ongoing. Opportunities are chances that provided for young people to learn how to act in the world around them in order to explore, express, belong, and influence. Opportunities give young people chance to test ideas and experiment with different roles. Pitman (2000) submitted that, “Youths who are properly guided and motivated, exhibit certain characteristics sometimes defined as ‘outcomes’ or ‘assets’ of youth and development” (p. 2).
　　These include but not restricted to: (1) high self-worth and self-esteem; (2) sense of belonging and membership; (3) perception of responsibility and autonomy; (4) constructive use of time; (5) commitment to learning; (6) positive identity and values; (7) feeling of mastery and future; (8) civic and social involvement;(9) employability; (10) mental, physical, and intellectual health; and (11) a sense of self awareness and spirituality, etc.
　　 Drama and Theatre in Education
　　At this juncture, we would like to examine the connection or relationship of all the foregoing to the theatre. In other words, what role can the theatre play in youth education and development? Or what roles do the youth have to play with the development of the theatre?
　　Drama and the theatre by their very nature, purpose, and functions are development-oriented. By nature, drama is a group activity. Self (1975, p. 12) in his book, A Practical Guide to Drama in the Secondary School, informed us that dramatic activity allows the individual involved in it to come to terms with his experience and to explore his environment, mind, and imagination. Affirming that drama is primarily a group activity, he stated that the aim is: “… to develop confidence and self assurance, to explore and come to terms with emotions and experiences which the child has discovered in himself and observed in others”.
　　It is pertinent to mention that one of the potent tools of engaging in creative dramatics is “improvisation”, which Hodgson and Ernest (1974, p. 4) also described as a vital means of exploring the dramatic and human situation or a way of group activity. Also, looking at the use of drama and theatre in education for young people, which is referred to as Drama in Education, Hodgson and Richards (1974) informed us that:
　　In teaching young people, there is need for some practical means of exploring reality, a need to co-ordinate specialist skills and investigations, a point of focus where the individual and the group can find expression and can experience the relationship between the various activities throughout the timetable. (p. 5)
　　Unfortunately, some educationists still see drama as merely “extra-curricular activity”. Whereas, it is more than that, a subject that can be used to teach other subjects, a discipline which is now being studied in tertiary institutions up to Doctorate level, and a course that creates professionals who are employable and can employ others can surely not just be described as extra-curricular.
　　Examining the connection between education and drama, Umukoro (2002, p. 10) wrote that every youth is endowed with certain natural gifts, lying latent, and inactive awaiting the magic touch of education, like the stigma of a flower waiting to receive the pollen from the pollinating bee. Umukoro (2002) regretted that:
　　All too often we are quick to write off a particular child who displays absolute lack of competence in a specific discipline when he or she is a genius waiting to be discovered in another. The process of exploration which is best carried out through Drama and Theatre must always continue unabated to discover all such hidden talents and nurture them to the fullest extent possible. (p. 10)
　　Apart from functioning as a means of developing skills and competences, the theatre can also be a source of employment for our youth. Okoh (2005) quoting Lord Goodman, claimed thus: “Young people lack values, lack certainties, lack guidance and they need something to turn to, and need it more desperately” (p. 414).
　　In her view, if young people are captured for the arts, they are redeemed from many of the dangers which occupy their attention in a completely unprofitable and destructive fashion.
　　In his essay titled “Theatre in the Academe and the Question of National Development”, Osofisan (2001, p. 110) reflected on the benefits and skills that theatre students acquire as they undergo training in drama schools. He (2001) noted, “Essentially, drama students are prepared for full citizenship, and raised to be responsible, thinking adults in the community” (p. 110).
　　Continuing, he explained that theatre students are taught to have a deep sense of community which does not at the same time obviate their sense of selfhood; they are taught to develop capacity for compassion, candour, and integrity; they are taught how the world is around them, with all its contradictions, its cracks, felicities, and pathos; they are taught how the world can change, perhaps just a little bit, if we refuse to shut our eyes to evil and do not allow ourselves to be cowed either by pain or intimidation or discouraged by treachery and calumny; they are taught that individuals matter and that all our actions, however small, matter in the struggle against evil and the conquest of happiness. All these “humanizing ideals of pedagogy”, Osofisan averred, make those in theatre arts contribute their best to the nation’s process of becoming.
　　In his words:
　　One of the problems of our nation today is the acute mistrust that prevails between people of differing ethic groups or religious or other affiliations. This mistrust is often the great obstacle to the forging of a national identity and the source of the frequent frustration of National goals. But one of the very first principles in our work in Theatre Arts is that of collaboration. (2001, p. 111)
　　 Drama and Theatre as Social Development Tool
　　Many Nigerian artistes who have excelled in their acts over the years have been invited and honoured with awards in the United States and all over Europe. The video film industry christened “Nollywood”, has been a major image builder for Nigeria (though it has its problems). In the same vein, the music industry and the stand-up comedy sectors have also provided gainful employments not only for the main acts themselves, but for several support staff such as the technical personnel, managers, promoters, and personal aids in their thousands. It is necessary to note that all these efforts are in spite of the negligible support from the government.
　　Since the artist is a student of society, it is a fact that literary writers and performing artistes across climes have always used their works to contribute to their countries’ process of development by making social comments and articulating issues needing urgent political attention before they degenerate into national crisis. In Nigeria, Musicians such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sunny Ade, late Sunny Okosun, late Christy Essien Igbokwe and lately, Tuface Idiba, D Banj, Darey Art-Alade, Sunny Nneji, etc., have used their songs to mobilize the citizenry towards social reawakening at different times. For instance, veteran singer, Onyeka Onwenu once preached unity with her song “One Love” (1993). In the same vein, King Sunny Ade brought together over 20 artistes in a collaboration to advocate for the patriotic spirit from every citizen, to lift Nigeria up and keep it one, in the popular song “Nigeria yi ti gbogbo wa ni” (“Nigeria Belongs to Us All”, 2003).
　　In the theatrical arena, dramatists like Ogunde, Soyinka, Clark, Rotimi, etc., have also used their plays to react to different societal inconsistencies within the polity, in a bid to re-direct the course of the nation. Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forest (1963) and Madman and Specialists (1972) and J. P. Clark’s The Raft (1974) exemplify this claim.
　　In addition, younger generations of writers who later emerged and embraced the Marxist theory of revolutionary approach as the solution to the political and economic rape of the people in the country, have also lent their voices to this struggle. According to Obafemi (2001, p. 168), these set of idealogically committed writers such as Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, Kole Omotoso, late Bode Osanyin, Tess Onwueme, etc., use their works to discuss contemporary social problems with the aim of raising mass awareness of a positive revolutionary alternative to the prevailing decadence in the country. In order words, these dramatists simply employ the potential of the theatrical medium as a weapon for generating social change in the country. As Obafemi (2001) put it: “They create art that is not just sheer propaganda, but art that is both politically correct and artistically powerful” (p. 168).
　　Generally, the theatre gives new experiences, helps to develop awareness and teaches awareness of others. Drama helps the participants, both the artist and the audience to appreciate and evaluate new situations and come to terms with the social environment. For the participant, drama helps to develop self-expression, skill, and evaluation; it helps to increase confidence and self assurance. It gives the participant an understanding of his/her emotions and fears and so on. If we look at these values critically, we come to realize that they are similar to the “outcomes” and “assets” of youth development earlier discussed. What this means is that dramatic or theatrical activities, have the potentials in bringing out these values in the youth.
　　We cannot afford to pay lip service to these urgent needs anymore. As anyone knows, it is the arts that cause changes in attitudes, customs, and beliefs all over the world. It is the arts that improve spirituality. Indeed, as Amuka (2005) argued:
　　To retard the development of the arts (and theatre) is to retard the development of the nation and of science and technology. It is to delay the re-humanization of the (African) polity, whose bestiality, in the form of corruption, injustice, ethnic and religious intolerance, now devours with relish, all indices of development within its reach. (p. 273)
　　He admonished that we must turn to the history of Egypt, Benin, Ife, Greece, Rome, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, France, and the United States of America to learn, that all past and present great civilizations and world powers paid great attention to their arts, almost, a pre-requisite to national development. All the nations of Africa must take a cue from this and believe that developing the theatre, means developing the youths which translates to developing the nation.
　　 Theatre for Development (TfD)
　　A more direct engagement and connectedness of drama and theatre to the community is a programme called “Theatre for Development” (TfD). The methodology involves youths or student artists going to rural or sub-urban communities to tackle specific problems. They live with the people in the community for a while, interact with them through interrogation and observation and in the process discover the communities’ most pressing problems. And using the medium of the theatre, they dramatise these problems, alongside the people in the community. The aim of this programe is to create awareness and possibly a paradigm change. Osofisan(2001) confirmed: “… The TfD always, proves to be a most splendid means of building, and enhancing, not only community relations’, but also, national cohesion” (p. 114).
　　The TfD is variously referred to as “community theatre”, “popular theatre”, “alternative theatre”,“campaign theatre”, or “Liberation theatre”. Odhiambo (2008, p. 19) reported that TfD was actually, coined as a phrase in Botswana in 1973, to describe an approach to reconcile Freirian concepts to a development project that used theatre as a stimulus. It emerged with the distinctive purpose of using the theatre as a vehicle and a code of raising consciousness. In the words of Odhiambo (2008):
　　… Theatre for Development is characterized by active participation of the community in which it is taking place, during which they identify their problems, reflect on how and why the problems affect them and, with the insights gained through an engagement with theatre performance, explore possible solutions… The goal of Theatre for Development is to stimulate community consciousness and reflection towards social transformation. (p. 19)
　　Examples of successful TfD projects in Nigeria are Wasan Manoma (plays for farmers) (1977); and Wasan Maska (dealing with themes of Hygiene) (1979) organisaed by ABU Collective, Department of English and Drama, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Also, at the Department of Theatre Arts and Music, Lagos State University, TfD projects have been successfully mounted at Ganyingbo in Badagry, Eredo in Epe, and in Ikorodu local government areas where problems such as ethnic suspicion, infrastructural negligence, and water pollution have been addressed. One experience of the Theatre Arts Unit, Lagos State University that is worthy of brief mention is that of Eredo Local Government Area of Lagos State.
　　The TfD project was embarked upon as a result of the face-off between the government of the then Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the federal government headed by Olusegun Obasanjo. It would be recalled that the Lagos State government had created additional local government areas in“contravention” of the constitution of the country. The parties had sought legal interpretations of the constitution to support their positions. The impasse had led to the federal government withholding allocation meant for the state pending when it would revert to the status quo. However, the state government had maintained its position. The financial hardship encountered by the state and which had direct effect on the masses was pivotal to the theme of the workshop titled “Federal-State Relations and Resource Control: Impact on Local Government Administration in Lagos State”.
　　The workshop which held from 29th April to 8th May, 2005 addressed various issues pertaining to funding, resource control, and the role of the local people on who governs them. The workshop attracted people in government both at the state and local government levels, traditional leaders, civil society groups, members of the community, and the media. Through various sketches derived from the data collected by the participants, pointed ways out of the quagmire. The impact of these sketches remained in the consciousness of the people, long after the participants and their facilitators had gone. This is one out of the many roles of the theatre in social engineering. We must note that two lecturers—who were themselves youths—worked with the students on this project using other youths to discuss issues that are germane to their existence as a collective in order to bring change.
　　 Conclusions
　　In conclusion, we believe that a lot more can be achieved through the activities of TfD to tackle some of the socio-political problems in the country, such as the Niger Delta militancy, the Boko Haram, and other forms of terrorism and social evils like kidnapping, Ritual killing, internet scam, corruption, and even religious conflicts. To achieve maximum benefits of national orientation through these creative arts programmes, government might need to play a major role. For instance, there might be an urgent need to re-visit the issue of public funding for the arts in Nigeria.
　　The NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) should be established and well funded to provide financial assistance to artistes and groups. It is noteworthy and perhaps, praiseworthy that President Goodluck Jonathan during a dinner organized in his honour with players in the entertainment industry in attendance on Friday 25th February, 2011, announced on STV (Silverbird Television), the approval of a special fund to the tune of 200 million Naira to support the growth of the cultural and entertainment industry. A few months later, it was reported that the money had been deposited in CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) through the BOI (Bank of Industry). Many months after, even as at the time of writing this paper, nothing has been heard of the money and if care is not taken, the purpose of its award may eventually be defeated and never met.
　　Most often, even when government has good intentions, it is either ill-advised or misguided towards wrong implementation of policies. Using the American, and most European Countries’ model, as example, monies allocated to the arts are managed though endowment agencies, arts Councils or regional boards and not banks.
　　In addition to legislating the establishment of the endowment fund for the arts, government should also encourage the establishment of community theatres and performing centres in all local government and council headquarters to serve the purpose of youth activities and development-oriented programmes especially in the arts. Also, theatre, music, and cultural festivals should be held regularly for the preservation and promotion of our heritage, apart from engaging the participants gainfully. Cinemas and film infrastructures should be built throughout the Country to further enable and encourage the growth of the Video Film Industries. And finally, apart from formal school training in the arts, occasional workshops, seminars, and capacity building programmes in drama and theatre should be organized regularly to discover talents, develop skills, and empower more youths for sustainable national orientation and development.
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