The book for today is a perfect commentary on the state of security in Nigeria. It is titled: “Pushed to the wall,” a novel written by Architect Dayo Odeyemi. It was published in 2011 by TAA Printing and Publishing, Ibadan.
In this novel, Architect Odeyemi, an award-winning writer, introduces to the reader the family of Jolamade Bello and his wife, Laide.
We learn that they reside in Kokolala Estate, a neighbourhood that has persistently been tormented by armed robbers. Thus, Jola and other residents of the estate live in perpetual fear.
One day, after another siege on the estate by robbers, a meeting of households of Kokolala estate is called to deliberate on what the community should do about the menace. While each resident of the estate recounts his experience with robbers, Jolamade’s house has never been attacked. However, he recalls an experience that has formed his utter fear of armed robbers at this meeting. Jola recalls that at the age of seven, armed robbers attacked his village, Apena somewhere in the Southwest of Nigeria, along the Ibadan-Ife Expressway. He recalls that the robbers killed his mother, and his father also died as a result of that.
In the book, we read that at the households meeting of Kokolala estate residents, people take turns to recount their chilling encounters with armed robbers. Some of the stories include cases of non-response by security agencies to save-our-soul calls.
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The work, though published in 2011, still catalogues the self-same indictments that hang round the neck of the police, like an albatross. So you here the residents say things like, “Oh, we called the police station but the telephone was not answered even though it rang repeatedly”, or “someone answered when we called, but he said there was no vehicle available, and besides, there were only three men at the station and none of them could leave”. Another of the residents recalls: “But they managed to come about ten minutes after the robbers left, to ask foolish questions”. And the reader is most certain to come across these indictments and more scattered throughout the novel.
However, the households’ meeting decides on the need to have a committee to oversee the security of the estate. And Jolamade Bello is chosen to be the chairman. Jola does not like this, because he thinks his nagging fear of robbers will stand in his way. He also thinks this would draw attention to him and his family. This bothers him. But soon after Jola grudgingly becomes the chairman, his house is attacked by robbers, and in his somnambulant drunken state, Jola holds a stammering conversation with the robbers who cart away all valuables from his house. This experience and more strengthens Jola’s fear of robbers to the extent that he sees and encounters them everywhere, including in his dreams. However, he receives a life-changing moment of his life when Pa Solaru, his wife’s father pays them a visit. The old man admonishes him to take up the challenge by facing his fear and not retreating. His father-in-law tells him to never let any situation reduce him to a broken, frightened wretch.
All of a sudden, Jola gains the unusual courage to face his monsters. He gains his freedom by reflecting on his father-in-law’s lecture. Behind the mask is a human being. So on his way back home, he is accosted by a familiar robber. He battles this robber and demobilises him of his gun. In the course of this battle, he gets to discover to his shock, that a fellow resident Chief Badmos is the godfather of the robbers tormenting the estate and other neighbourhoods.
The events that follow reveal the true identity of the criminals and their accomplices, even from among the ranks of the security agency. But the conflicts in the novel are all resolved.
The protagonist in the work, Jolamade, provides a long thesis on what all critical stakeholders in society must do to help mitigate the menace of crimes and criminality.
The 225-page novel is a beautifully crafted work of art, and the author, though an architect is a master of the art, indeed. Right from the first to the 26th chapter, every page carries a heavy load of images conjured up by the artistry of potent, precise descriptive powers of the author. The reader is intricately lured from page to page by the full dose of suspense that the work itself is. And the author has done well to write in clear, precise and simple English for every reader’s delight. But alongside the absolute artistry of the author, the reader is allowed to glimpse the strong motifs of the work. The work, Pushed to the Wall, strongly throws up the fact that human beings are far more capable of doing more than they think. And that they only need to be confronted by challenges that push them to the wall, to unmask their abilities and capabilities. The work also powerfully shows that any society can overcome its challenges only if its members work together and are determined to surmount them.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He is reachable via molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com and +234-802-351-7565 (SMS only).
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