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There has long been a history of ideological contention between the ‘Core’ and the ‘Periphery’ on development framework and practice. The Core represents the highly industrialized nations of the North while the Periphery stands for the poor dependent nations of the South. Indeed, several scholars have argued that what seems to be a state of underdevelopment today in the Third World countries is firstly the consequence of unequal ideological relations and secondly the emulation of development models prescribed by the industrialized nations of the North to the detriment of the South's fertile reserve of traditional wisdom, cultural nuances, creativity and enterprise. The West, specifically the US provided a development framework to be emulated by the rest of the world. The potency of this western prescription has crumbled in the face of apparent contradictions and catastrophic economic and social results it produced for the Southern nations especially Nigeria. Consequently, there have been several frantic struggles and efforts to retrace steps and locate an alternative pathway to development since the 1970s. In view of this, using the lens of theories as an analytical tool, this paper therefore contends that development is a historically produced discourse traceable to the consolidation of the US hegemony in the period 1945-1967. This was occasioned by the need to expand the market for the US produced goods and the need to find new sites for investment of US surplus capital. The paper also unveils the implications of what this mistaken emulation of western models have caused Nigeria and suggests what can be done to avoid a national baleful and lurid destiny in future.Key words: History, Theories, Development, Ideology. Implications, Periphery

Since the departure of the colonialists from the Nigerian shores, the elite have been in control of political powers in Nigeria. The corrupt tendencies of this select few, which come in various forms, have in no small measure, primarily been the key factors hampering national development and creating a gloomy atmosphere of insecurity and despair. African writers generally, according to Ngugi wa Thiong’o in Oha (2008), are “sensitive needles” that record the tensions and conflicts in their ever changing societies. Many African dramatists especially those that wrote after colonialism, have recorded the existence of different acts of corruption among the educated elite in positions of authority. Many Nigerians thought that independence would bring a state of transformation but the reverse was the case as the situation has grown perennially worse. It is in view of the above that this article examines the cankerworm as it is captured in Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has Gone Mad Again (1997) with its attendant implications for national security and development. The paper exposes how the issue of corruption, among other things, is treated with humour and disdain in the text and subsequently explicates how corruption has generally been the bane of Africa’s underdevelopment. It submits that as the nation undergoes another transition period, there is need for caution on the part of the populace about the crop of people they elect as leaders because every citizen has a role to play in the crusade against corruption in Nigeria, if national security is to be guaranteedKeywords: Drama, Corruption, Power, Politics, National development