ABSTRACT
Cartoon is a visual art that complements news media in artistic form. It has not been given much attention in the Nigerian newspapers. Probably because people do not seem to understand the messages the cartoonists try to pass across to the public. Many of the reading public just laugh over the caricatures that contain mostly distorted, exaggerated and funny figures of characters displayed, without contemplating the content. Since the reading public do not seem to understand the messages of cartoons, the study attempts to describe, analyse and interpret the works of two selected cartoonists, Mooyiwa Adetula of The Nation and Akila Jibrin of Daily Trust newspapers. The work of these cartoonists have not received scholarly attention, hence the need to study and document their work on socio-political issues in Nigeria from 2007 to 2014 for academic and historical purpose. The study adopted conceptual and theoretical framework. Conceptual framework was adopted from Sander in Jari (2007) who posits that, researches that are historical in nature should adopt qualitative method, especially if the analysis of the data collected would feature descriptive discussion and interpretation. This concept provides an analytical base for describing and interpreting the two cartoonists? works. MacHovec in Sani et al (2012) explains various theoretical perspectives of humour and its functions. These are Superiority, Relief and Incongruity theories. Superiority theory is adopted and is mainly concerned with self assertion. The relationship explains how things appear funny naturally. People laugh at others when they feel superior in one way or the other. This is why cartoonists use laughter from this perspective to satirise and ridicule politicians. The two studies reviewed on conceptual framework confirm the choice of qualitative method of research on which this study relied. Chapter two deals with reviews of related literature taking into consideration concept of cartoons, historical development of cartoons, satire and humour, impact of cartoons on political leaders and cartooning as a form of visual art expression. Low?s (2006) article on William Hogarth (1697-1764), Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1828) and George Kruishank (1792-1878) discovered that their cartoons focused on wickedness and man?s inhumanity to man. Onakpa (2014) and Onoja (2015) explain the value of cartoons as satirical in nature by using wit and criticism to checkmate wrong doings. Various other writers based their review on socio-political and economic nuances in their countries. Chapter three is on methodology. The qualitative research design with historical, descriptive and interpretative bias was adopted. Face-to-face interview structure was used to collect information from the cartoonists. Chapter four describes, analyses and interprets seventy two selected cartoons produced by the two cartoonists and the following are the findings made: (a) Mooyiwa and Akila are naturally talented in the field of art which they developed from childhood up to higher level of education. (b) Their cartoons recorded episodes and documented historical issues and events in Nigeria. (c) They used cartoons as visual weapons to criticise government. (d) Their works graphically portray endemic corruption that thrives in Nigeria. (e) Their subject-matter focuses on socio-political issues such as poverty, inflation, unemployment, stealing, robbery, corruption, political crisis, political deceit, political vendetta and insecurity. (f) In terms of style, technique and medium, both artists use black and white and colour rendition to produce their works. Conclusively, cartoons viii complement the news media to educate people graphically, especially in Nigerian newspapers. Through cartoons, Akila Jibrin (Briskan) and Mooyiwa Adetula have exposed corruption and its negative effect in Nigeria. The effect of corruption, according to them, leads to societal decay and stifling of development. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made: (a) Establishment of cartoon as a subject of specialization in the school curriculum. (b) Government should tackle insecurity and criminality headlong and at the same time create job opportunity for the teeming unemployed youth and (c) There should be political reform in order to sanitise politicians and polity for Nigerian democracy to survive.
