THE REPRESENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN ISIDORE OKPEWHO'S TIDES

Abstract

Environmental degradation is one of the foremost cankerworms plaguing the Niger-Delta region of the country, Nigeria. The discovery of oil region has become a curse instead of a blessing to the people there. The activities of the oil companies and with the trait support of the Federal Government has become a source of sorrow and nightmare to the inhabitants whose local environment has been destroyed. So in this study, "Environmental Degradation in Isidore Okpewho's Tides, " the researchers set out to portray how the writer criticised the events in his society, and how the story serves as a reflection of the problems of the masses and the downtrodden in our society. The novelist made use of the literary medium to satirise the leaders in Africa and their styles of exercising reins of power which, instead of ameliorating the problems of the people and bringing in even development, only succeed in creating more suffering, pain and disappointment. Therefore, the theory that anchors this study is Ecocriticism which emphasis on the symbiotic relationship between literature and the environment. Isidore Okpewho shows the humiliation, oppression, insensitivity, waste of lives, exploitation, cruelty of the ruling class, especially the military, on the citizens, as a result of greed and capitalist tendencies, which impoverish the citizens due to oil exploitation and mismanagement. The researchers used both primary and secondary sources in the analysis of data. The findings showed that the citizens of the Niger-Delta experience betrayal, oppression, deprivation, and environmental degradation as a result of oil exploration. Hence, the research seeks to solve the problems of Niger-Delta and its environment treated in Isidore Okpewho's Tides.