Abstract

The paper is a critical discourse on Femi Osofisan’s Once upon Four Robbers and Aringindin and the Nightwatchmen. The paper discusses the playwright’s view on the inefficacy of death penalty as a measure to curb the intractable menace of armed robbery in Nigeria. It also addresses the underlying stifling economic factors responsible for the prevalence of armed robbery in the society. Such factors include unemployment, hunger, poverty, inflation, greed, hoarding, graft, corruption, deprivation, injustice, and ridiculous salary structure. The paper notes the playwright’s delineation of the State as a terrorist, which lacks the moral capability to eradicate armed robbery through death penalty without first providing its citizens with the basic infrastructure. Finally, the article observes that Femi Osofisan deliberately uses the platform of drama to ridicule at the powerlessness of the death penalty decree, which will never be able to curb the pervasiveness of armed robbery in the society until the fundamental factors are addressed.

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