NIGERIAN ONLINE (YOUTUBE) POLITICAL COMEDIES: THE CONTEXT OF YOUTH SKITS

Abstract

This study appraises the social consciousness of the Nigerian YouTube comic artistes to ascertain the feasibility of their hypotheses on rebuilding Nigeria. The paper is qualitative in mode. Videos were purposively selected to ensure fact sustainability. The social satirists lampoon the bane of Nigeria’s social regression. The bane include inordinate search for political power, voting on ethnic alignment, lack of strong institutions, empty government promises, the double-standard of the leaders, brutality by government, economic mismanagement and incompetent civil service. The comic artistes employed strategic tools as creativity devices to advance their intentions. The artistes also adopted YouTube as the appropriate virtual platform as a strategy for more penetrative impact of their protest and to avert personality-collision in a hostile society following the #EndSARS fatal shooting. However, the yearning for political power for Machiavellian intentions and the monetization of electoral process are some of the inhibitions to the aspiration of the comic artistes. These can be redressed by government through intensive civil sensitization advocacy with the assistance of global development partners.