The novel: “Juju Eyes (published in 2025 by Sunshot Associate),” is a 51-chapter work set in cities across Nigeria, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The book is written by Sam Omatseye. Sam is one of Nigeria’s finest journalists with lots of awards and honours to his name. He has authored many works, including In Touch, Mandela’s Bones and Other Poems, Dear Baby Ramatu; My Name is Okoro, Scented Offal, among others. He is currently Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Nation, a popular newspaper.
Our protagonist is Oluseyi Ekanem (mostly known as Shay in the work). She escapes from being the companion of a goddess to become the goddess herself.
In this work, we are introduced to Uncle Idongesit. Shay’s Uncle ID as he is fondly called elects to take care of Shay and her mother after her husband, his brother’s death. But he cannot keep his eyes off Shay until he has his way with her. She has now lost her innocence and chastity. But she yet does not know the implications of this act for her own life.
After winning a beauty pageant, Shay begins to get all the attention a beauty queen attracts, and much more. Her beauty is irresistible and her frame is equated to that of a goddess. An invitation to a banquet with the Governor puts her on the global map, and a generous cash gift from the governor turns on her light, scattering her brightness everywhere.
But popularity and celebrity status comes with a huge price. Shay soon gets into the highway of life. She moves quickly through the ranks of men, both the high and mighty, amassing some handsome amounts of cash in foreign currency in the process. And it is now difficult to stop. She hops into bed with assorted men of means and might. She also becomes a dealer, helping to pimp ladies for friends of her own male friends.
The work, Juju Eyes is replete with sumptuous tales of Shay’s escapades with all the choice men of society, but she has refused to settle down with any.
Osa, Shay’s boyfriend also casts the image of your regular political hanger-on, always showing up around politicians and hoping that he will be handed the party’s ticket someday somehow. With the story of Osa, the author exposes the intriguing whiles of the political class and some of the dirty things that they do in order to remain in reckoning.
In the book the author discusses the tragedy of a dead father or mother and its consequent toll on the lives of children left behind. The consequence is that of abuse and rape or incest or loss of bearing. Shay and Osa happen to carry with them shreds of some of the consequences.
The work, Juju Eyes also seems to question some socio-cultural practices that appear out of sync with modern reality. One of such is the experience of Osa and his Luka adventure. Luka is a community where if a man puts a lady in a family way outside wedlock and she dies, he will have to perform marriage rites with her corpse before a burial ceremony can be carried out for her. This rite includes a mock-marriage with a placeholder for the deceased, who is in turn stripped of her own feminine essence with a violated body in tow.
In the novel, Juju Eyes, Sam Omatseye chronicles the atrocities of merchants who pose as altruistic orphanage owners, but underneath are dirty merchandise of children for rituals, including other illegal activities.
The work also digs into the hypocrisy of the people in the practice of religion. We read in the book about the chameleon lifestyle of religious people and their false attribution of miracles to God when in fact the miracles are fraudulently procured. We are apprised of the pervasive pharisaic veils with which people like Shay, Madam Lola, and others garb themselves in their affairs. Their lifestyles present a paradox of angelic void.
Shay decides to end her relationship with Osa. But soon after, Nigel Phillips appears on the scene, and topples Shay’s world. Nigel is a British wealthy oil magnate with business ties and a family historical trauma with Nigeria. He is swept off his feet by Shay’s mysterious allure. And he stalks her until she agrees to marry him. But somewhere in the heart of the Niger-Delta, Nigel is kidnapped. The story takes on another twist. And the author then takes the reader on a floating adventure into the Niger-Delta creeks where the militants hold the ace.
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The author has plenty of characters whom he throws into the plot here and there. Chief Lambe the political godfather to whom many politicians or people looking for favours defer. Akin, the chameleon is torn between keeping a wife because of her father’s largesse, and stalking Shay. You also have Nigel, popularly called Mista Naija, and the perception that he is a double-faced person only after Nigeria’s black gold and black beauty. And Ese, Shay’s boyfriend at the university is the good guy who loses out eventually despite his love for Shay. And many others spread across the work’s 350 pages and 51 chapters of sweet swift storytelling. Essentially, all these characters, especially Shay, are metaphors of Nigeria in different shades and contexts.
As a lover of great narration and good storytelling, I would have given the work a perfect 100 percent score, but for a few instances of grammar and syntax breaches and typographical errors. But these do not in any way water down the suspense laden, punchy narration and poetic essence of the work. Aesthetically, the work is finely set with pages well laid out and font large enough to make reading smooth. The cover page is colourfully designed and attractively set too.
In the novel Juju Eyes, the author’s mastery of the English nuances comes to play. His deployment of short, punchy sentences helps to elevate the racy narration for maximum effect. This increases the ease of readability too, as the reader is not burdened by long winding compound-complex sentences. I have read Sam Omatseye’s My Name is Okoro (prose about the Nigerian Civil War) and Scented Offal (collection of poems), and I thought they were great. But Juju Eyes is a master-piece in which Sam shows that he is both a master of prose and poetry. In fact, Juju Eyes can be fittingly described as poetry in longhand or prosaic poetry. It is a book for all lovers of art!
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and email molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com.
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