Social empowerment for ethnicities on the fringes through theatre for development: Gwandum experience in Gombe State, Nigeria

The design of the Nigeria states into thirty-six federating units (states) and Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have automatically meant that the over 500 ethnic groups in the country will have to be situated within these federating units and Abuja. While some states have fewer numbers of ethnic nationalities, others have so many to grapple with. This situation has led to so many states having dominant ethnic nationalities and ethnicities on the fringes. The challenge however is not in the different status which they possess, but how those within the dominant have continued to marginalize and oppress those at the fringes. The situation which those at the fringes found themselves has affected them in pursuing development agenda internally and externally. Therefore, the need to empower the ethnic nationalities at the fringes is the focus of my paper. This article provides an account of Theatre for Development (TfD) experience in Gwandum to relay how instrumental it is for the pursuit of development agenda for nationalities on the fringes. It specifically relays how the experience resuscitated hope for the pero ethnic group living in Gwandum district of Shongom Local Government Area (LGA) in Gombe State, Nigeria. The conclusion reached from the Gwandum experiment is that TfD can become a beacon of hope to begin a transformational change for bridging the gap and awakening the spirit of marginalized nationalities to surmount their oppressed andmarginalized statuses.