Politics and Leadership Challenges in Helon Habila’s Waiting For An Angel

Abstract

Literature mirrors the society that produced it. It is about man and the happenings around him as well as his inner conflicts. The writer draws his material from his observations and experiences. This paper entitled “Politics and Leadership Challenges in Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel”, aims at exploring the sufferings, pains, disappointments, deprivations, corruption, tyranny, and oppression that characterizes the society in the novel as a result of leadership patterns, which is the outcomes of politics of calumny by the ruling class. The leadership class is somehow estranged from the people because of the despotic nature of military leadership in most African countries. The novel also portrays the disillusionment of the people, the apathy of the rulers, and the attendant consequences of the dejection, poverty, and miserable conditions of the people. The novelist also exposes the political activism, which unfortunately claims many lives. The data for this research was mainly from primary and secondary sources, while journals, books, and internet sources formed the secondary sources. The theoretical framework is Marxism. The novelist exposes the issues that undermine the lives and well-being of the masses and advocates honesty and good governance.