COMMUNICATING DISEASE PREVENTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTIN TOSIN TUME'S CORONAPALAVA

摘要

The outbreak of Covid-19 in Nigeria was a global and national disaster that led to the decline of standard of living and grossly affected the socio-economic activities of the country. Several communication media including dramatic literature were deployed towards educating the masses on the preventive and curative measures against the epidemic. Nigerian Playwrights such as Bakare Ojo Rasaki's Rogbodiyan, Ahmed Yerima's The sick People, Yinka Magbagbeola's Rotten Pettals, and Tosin Tume's Corona Palava have produced creative works meant for communicating disease prevention and its attendant effects. This study therefore examines the efficacy of dramatic texts as a medium for communicating disease prevention and its implication to socio-economic development through the analysis of Tosin Tume's Corona Palava. The paper adopts a qualitative research approach and documentary observation as instrumentation for the dramatic-text analysis. At the end of the analysis, the study discovered that Tosin Tume through the use of humour, adequately deploys the art and craft of playwriting to critically communicateCovid-19 prevention and curative measures and its effects on the socio-economic development of Nigeria. However, the study recommends that Nigerian playwrights should devote more attention to crafting development drama that has the potency of enhancing behaviour change if adopted in similar situations. The paper therefore concludes that, the Tosin Tume is indeed a development communicator, consequent upon the myriads of development issues explored in her short but densely written play text.