Review –Caine Prize 2019 Shortlisted Stories

On May 20th, the Caine Prize for African Writing released the shortlist of the twentieth edition of the prize. The stories have a sophistication that leaves the ready stunned. They embrace a medley of themes: refugee matters, lesbianism, human trafficking, social stigma and scamming. One sees that women are dominating the contest, with four female authors shortlisted as was the previous year. Nigerian author, Lesley Nneka Arimah, has continued to make waves at the Caine Prize, having been shortlisted twice in the past.  This year, she is shortlisted for her story, Skinned. The other stories are Wall by Heron Hadero (Ethiopia), All Our Lives by Tochukwu Okafor (Nigeria), It Takes a Village Some Say by Cameroons Ngwah Mbo Nana Nkweti, Sew My Mouth by Kenyan Cherry Kandle.

Skinned is the story of a woman who couldn’t find a husband in a community where unmarried women walk the streets uncovered (nude). You are covered by your parents until you reach a critical age at which your father begins to pay tax if you must stay covered. For wealthy parents, paying taxes to save their daughters isn’t their problem. Sadly, poor parents often don’t have a choice. The main character of the story, Ejem, is forsaken by her poor parents and becomes a subject of stigma, making it unfeasible to keep a job.  In the end, she runs into one of the wealthiest women in the world, Odinaka, who, though unclaimed (unmarried), remains covered; her wealth enables her to stay above the law. Under Odinaka’s umbrella, Ejem finds the protection, as well.

Wall is the story of a refugee kid who finds himself in The US, unable to speak English. His inability to speak English makes him a fish out of water, unable to have friends. Prior to coming to the US, he and his parents had sojourned in Germany, long enough for him to learn German. Eventually, he finds a German scholar who, though understands English, is desperate to keep his German alive. They find fluency in German isn’t the only thing they have in common; the professor had been a refugee during WW1. From the story, one gets the feeling the author is broad in exposure and thought. However, the African feel is missing in the story, other than the fact that the character comes from Ethiopia.

All Our Lives is a story set in Nigeria and is written in the third person (plural).  It is about boys who leave their villages hoping to make it in the city. They end up as fraudsters who use bogus IDs to deceive unsuspecting folks they come across on dating sites. Except for the slow momentum build-up, the story is so well written that one is left wondering if the author isn’t an ex-con man.

Ngwah Mbo Nana Nkweti's, It Takes A Village Some Say, is one about a girl trafficked from poor parents in Cameroon to a family of diplomats in the US, who couldn’t have children. The trafficked woman fills the void so the family is total.  But, with time, the couple faces financial difficulties. The prospect of going to college is ruined. The girl takes money from a news journal to give a bogus story of her abuse by her American parents and finds a financial breakthrough. She solidifies her income through whoring with white kids, eventually growing in fiscal strength to liberate other trafficked kids across America.  The author exudes depth and an understanding of diverse cultures.

Cherry Kandle comes with the story, Sew My Mouth. The story wields the unmistakable vibe of Kenyan stories and is about a woman in her twenties who lives a stealthy lesbian life with another woman. Her partner is under pressure, suspected by her mother and a man who wishes to marry her. When it becomes obvious her boyfriend is aware of her unconventional lifestyle, she attempts suicide. The main character is left devastated.

I am a Nigerian but I think the contest is between Ethiopia, Kenya, and Cameroon. When one considers that Heron Hadero’s story, though profound, is lacking in African groove, it leaves the contest between Cameroon and Kenya. I’m afraid that, for Kenya, it is going to be back-to-back –the distinction in the elements that make a story extraordinary in critical, but the ability to exude sobriety in how these elements are used helps a story to stand out the most.

My Opinion about Bet9ja’s Possible Closure

Bet9ja is a gambling company, with signboards seen everywhere across Nigeria. Its ubiquity is an indication to how much money the company makes from the country.  I just read, this afternoon, that the Nigerian Senate intends to close it for its refusal to pay taxes to the Nigerian Government. 

When I saw the news link on Facebook, I posted a comment in which I supported the closure. But seconds later, I realized I was very hasty in reaching that conclusion. I hinged my conclusion on my experience with the company. One of the company’s staffers by the name of Patricia Machado, did send me an email, proposing to advertise Bet9ja on my websites. She requested for the Google Analytics (GA) for my website. After sending it, she claimed the traffic coming to my website was low, but agreed to give me the advert if I had another website, in addition to the first one. To cut a long story short, we eventually came to an understanding. So, I followed the complicated guide to obtaining the code and adding it to the websites.  

Since they pay in advance, I requested her to pay, having added the code. She started by giving excuses and eventually stopped responding to my emails. Eventually, when she answered my email, she claimed the campaign cannot go on because the traffic is low. I was surprised; she had requested the GA, which I sent her. I tried all ways to get her to pay to no avail. I sent an email to her superiors explaining the situation, but got no respond. 

I saw the way I was treated as insulting and was done because I am in a developing country. I thought about website owners who must have had their turns before me and those that will have theirs after me. The sad experience was the reason why I promptly commentated in support of the closure of the company, when I saw the news link on Facebook. 

However, I think that my respond was propelled by anger and wasn’t based on fair judgement. Bet9ja has generated thousands of jobs to previously unemployed Nigerians. There is, thus, the need to exercise caution when the topic of closure of the company comes up. However, generating jobs for thousands of Nigerians shouldn’t be the reason why the company should act insultingly by refusing to pay taxes. There is no place in the world were a company, be it foreign or local, doesn’t pay tax, except in a situation where the government of a country decides to grant tax reliefs to a company, for one reason or the other. 

Thus, my rational observation is that, if the Senate deems it fit to close the company because it has violated certain laws that makes it unqualified to continue operating in the country, so be it. If there is any violation of contract agreement, then the deal cannot go on. The company is ubiquitous in Nigerian, trawling millions of dollars from the country. If the country isn’t getting any tax returns from the company, then the company is unqualified to continue operating in the country and should be made to close.

CAN AMERICANS NAME AN AFRICAN COUNTRY? ��USA

2018-2019 WAEC GCE TIME TABLE

If you have waited impatiently for the 2018/2019 West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations to commence, you can now heave a sigh of relief -the time table has been released, meaning the examinations are now in sight. We share the time-table on News Tower. Download: 2018-2019 WAEC/GCE TIME TABLE

A University for Aquatic Studies

Is Nigeria ripe for that?

Aquatic studies. Picture source

Currently, there is a bill in the Nigerian Senate that aims to establish a university for aquatic studies. 

I do not buy the idea. It is not because marine education is not desired in Nigeria. We have a long coastal line, inhabited by millions of Nigerians after all. It is just that it seems reckless to jump to the idea of setting up a university once the idea flashes in our minds one way or another. There are other considerations.  

So, why is it reckless? A university is not a playground. One has to look at the financial import of establishing and running a university. One also has to look at the performance of existing federal universities: whether or not they are getting the right attention to warrant the creation of more. 

The problem in Nigeria has always been to establish schools and leave them without the necessary resources in terms of adequate manpower and funding. Most times, the universities are established merely for political gains, after which they are left in the cold. In the end, rather than become sources of pride, they become sources of scandal, since they are established based on our own standards, rather than an international standards. In the end, the graduates fail to measure up to international ratings.

An intellectual institution ought to be backed by an intellectual force, rather than a political force. Sadly, since the universities of the 1970s, university establishments have been driven largely by political motives. Personally, I feel the bill, sponsored by Stella Odua, is a desperation that is common among senators who want to have something to tell voters when the election cycle comes round. At the moment, we do not have any pressures for professionals in the area of aquatic education and many Nigerian universities already have faculties offering such courses. 

The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, while it lasted, felt that every state in Nigerian must have a federal university. It went on to establish universities to states that never had federal universities. You do not say, “Let every state have a federal university.” You ask, “Do we have the discipline to run many universities efficiently, especially if we have granted licenses to private bodies to help in this regard?” In addition to granting private bodies the liberty to establish universities, the states have their own universities that should cater for the educational needs of their citizens. Hence, more federal universities are wasteful for a developing country like Nigeria. 

For the past couple of decades, Nigerian universities made names for their volatility rather than for their academic distinction. The instability has stampeded hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to foreign universities, something that is gradually becoming a status symbol. The instability has also become a reason why foreign students are rare in Nigerian universities, something that takes away the international element that is a characteristic of a standard university. 

To conclude this, I will want to say that there is no need jumping to the idea of establishing a university for aquatic studies when we can empower relevant faculties in existing universities to accommodate such needs whenever they arise. It reflects vile decisions and profligacy that insult our reputation.

Stefanous Foundation's Report on the Barkin Ladi Attacks

We were lucky to come across the report of the attacks on Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. The report is circulated on Whatsapp, but in case you didn't get it, you can download it here.

The Economic Enslavement Many Nigerians Don’t See

Substandard electronic imports to Nigeria

I live in Bukuru town, in Jos-South of Plateau State. Through the centre of Bukuru, a major road passes. It is the Jos-Bukuru Road. This very road is the hub of economic activities in the town.  Somewhere along this road, there is the town’s branch of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. It is where I bank. Going to and from the bank each time, I see an eyesore, the inferior imports of, mostly, electronic devices that include computer mice, mobile phone chargers, USB cables, headphones, shortwave radio receivers, torchlights, mp3 players, dry cells, etc.

What makes them an eyesore? It is the fact that they are substandard –you buy today, they fail tomorrow. So, you go again to purchase the same item, ensuring the enslavement continues. 

As long as this continues, we will remain a poor nation. It is a strategy that ensures we continue to work for nations from where these imports often come. These nations, mostly in Asia, become the vampires, sucking us slowly and leaving us malnourished. Eventually, they will leave us dead. This is what strikes me, each time I walk along this road. 

Many times, I have bought computer mice that I come home to realize aren’t functioning at all. Why would someone want to manufacture and sell an item that isn’t functional? It is, clearly, to suck you and grow fat in the process. 

It is not happening only in Jos. It is happening simultaneously in Bauchi, Kano, Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, and everywhere across the country. This is how one is able to weigh the grave dimension of the problem, i.e when seen at the national scale. 

The obvious kink is, no doubt, the unending demand for the dollar that it causes. It leads to the dollar scarcity (when it gets worse) and the subsequent devaluation of the naira, something that is inevitable when the supply of the dollar fail to meet demand. 

When the government of President Buhari came, it was confronted with the fall in the prices of oil. As a result, there weren’t enough dollars coming into the country (oil is the major source of foreign currency to the country.)  Consequently, the value of the naira crashed, from about  N197 to over N400 a dollar.  Then, painstakingly, it rose and stabilized at the current rate: N365 to a dollar. 

The government had promised, during its political campaign, that it was going to create jobs. One way was to ban the importation of agricultural products that we can produce. In view of this, the government of Buhari banned the importation of rice. It served two purposes: the creation of jobs in the agricultural division, but also helping to reduce the demand for dollars meant for the importation.  But obviously, there are “obscure” imports that are badly hurting the economy in severe degrees. They are these inferior electronic devices. 

We are told that Nigerian importers are often shown classes of goods, based on their qualities. It is said that they often opt for inferior ones, because Nigerians prefer to buy those ones, in view of their “affordability.” 

Sometimes a government needs to compel citizens to do things it is aware will benefit the citizens in the long run, despite how painful it would be to the citizens. 

The Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) is charged with the duty of ensuring such goods don’t come into the country. Clearly now, what this tells us it that SON is not serving the purpose for which it was created. It also means that there wouldn’t have been any difference if SON was non-existent. EFCC must look in their direction.