The Drug War in Nigerian Fiction: Emeka Ukwuaba’s Hypnotising Minefield and the Literature of Criminalisation

Nigeria's legal and institutional response to drug trafficking has historically been characterised by draconian legislation, public executions, and a punitive logic that prioritises spectacle over justice, generating a rich if underexplored vein of literary commentary. This study situates Emeka Ukwuaba's Hypnotising Minefield (2025) within the emerging literature of criminalisation in Nigerian fiction, examining how the novel critiques the state's anti-drug apparatus through the story of Bright Kabula and the community of characters whose lives intersect with his condemnation. The study is anchored on critical criminology and its application in literary studies, particularly the strand that examines how fiction represents and challenges dominant ideologies of crime and punishment. A qualitative textual analysis methodology is employed, supplemented by recent scholarship on drug policy, human rights, and Nigerian criminal justice published within the last five years. Findings demonstrate that Ukwuaba's novel constitutes a sustained humanistic argument against the dehumanisation of persons accused of drug offences, constructing Bright Kabula as a fully realised human being whose condemnation implicates an entire web of social relationships. The novel further exposes the role of authoritarian legislation in transforming ordinary citizens into criminals through retroactive legal manoeuvring. The study concludes that Hypnotising Minefield makes an important contribution to the global literature of criminalisation and recommends its inclusion in interdisciplinary human rights and literary studies programmes.

Keywords: Drug war, Criminalisation, Emeka Ukwuaba, Critical criminology, Nigerian fiction