Living with scorpions

By Olayinka Oyegbile

To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one – Chinese Saying

Sometime last year or so, the novel An Abundance of Scorpions, a novel written by Hadiza Isma El-Rufai and published by Ouida Books in 2017, was brought to my notice by a friend. He waxed lyrical about the craft of the book and was surprised when I told him that I had, as of the time he mentioned it, never heard of the book or the publishing outfit. El-Rufai the governor and a former minister I know, but who is Hadiza Isma? Just another ‘first lady’, I told my friend. I promised him I would look out for the book anytime I visit a bookshop.

Somehow, because of my bias, I never remembered at any time I was in a bookshop. This was also aided by the fact that it was not on display in many of the bookshops I frequented. Most times it was after I had left the bookshop that I would remember and I always promised to remember next time. That never came. I never bothered to check online for it because I am a bit wary of buying any book or author I am unfamiliar with online. I had dismissed it as one of those vainglorious books written by those in power or those close to them just to massage their egos as intellectuals! But how wrong I was! It was only after Prof Biodun Jeyifo who writes for this paper did a short review of the book in his column and gave it a thumb up that I decided to take a serious notice and search for the book.

Now to the book: An Abundance of Scorpions is a book you read and ask yourself why it took you so long to discover it. It is a story of love, heartbreak, loss, human trafficking and compassion. Tambaya and Yakubu have been married for years with a little daughter Fatima. It is a happy family and with the usual Nigerian demand of trying to get more children, living a happy life and making ends meet. The family decided to go on a journey to visit Tambaya’s in-law. It ended in a tragedy that was to totally change the course of Tambaya’s life.

Faced with a life of loneliness and the need to pick up her life again as well as make sure she does not allow the memory of her lost loved ones to be hurt, she has to find a job to repay Yakubu’s indebtedness and save his parents the loss of their home from shylock money lenders.

Her brother, Aminu, who lives in Ghana, was the next option for her to go to since her bosom friend Esther and her husband were already at the verge of changing jobs and moving out of Abuja which could have been an alternative for her. The movement to Ghana was not as pleasant as expected. She meets a brick wall in her brother’s wife. A return home to pick up a job in an orphanage was next.

The road to getting the job is laced with intrigues and its own politics. It is here that the story dovetails into the politics of first ladies having pet projects which in actual fact are usually public relations stuff just to burnish their image. At the orphanage, Tambaya begins to see life from a different perspective as her duty and her ‘supervisor’, who is to ensure her getting a permanent appointment, is deeply involved in child trafficking and underhand deals. Fate would also later throw Tambaya into Miss Scholastica’s net making her to slow down from being a whistle blower on the underhand deals at the orphanage.

Hadiza El-Rufai has no doubt written a very powerful and engaging novel that exposes a lot of behind the scenes scandals that go on in most of the orphanages across the country. It is a rich and well nuanced novel with a tapestry of stories that makes the reader wants to get to the end of the book in order to know how it would end. The writer who is an architect and also has a Master’s degree in creative writing has written a very strong first novel. Her readers would surely read more from her if only her duties as the wife of a governor would allow her to write more. Her publisher also needs to give the book a better push and publicity.