Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Whistleblowing, which entails the reporting of another person’s unethical behaviour to a third party, has often and always constituted a conflict between competing moral concerns; although, it is also considered in some quarters to promote justice and fairness, even as it equally appears disloyal to others. In the Nigerian socio-political landscape that is suffused with grossly unethical behaviours, corruption at the highest level of government and in private lives, whistleblowing has become a veritable tool used by the present administration to fish out looters of state treasury and to warn others against such perpetration. Drama as a mirror of the society also addresses such socio-political occurrences. In this paper, and by employing Social Exchange Theory as a tool of analysis, I aim to examine in Lekan Balogun’s “Moremi” (2003) and Osita Ezenwanebe’s “Withered Thrust” (2007), the dramatic exploration of whistleblowing in both the ancient and contemporary Nigerian society that the two plays represent.