I ask myself this each time a new Sani Abacha loot is released by a country in the West: Is it a bottomless pit? The recent Abacha loot released to Nigeria, 24 years after his death, reminded me of a trip to Kano ten years after his death. I had freshly joined The Nation as a Senior Correspondent.

I remember discovering that Gidado Road, Kano, where his family house is, is not just any kind of street. It is a street that has snatched for itself a chapter in the history books. Adorned by very beautiful but few structures, with trees lining both sides of the road, this street on an ordinary day is as quiet as the graveyard.

When I visited, birds hopped from one tree to the other and chirped in tones incomprehensible to the human mind. When I visited, only security aides were seen outside holding noiseless courts. Intermittently, domestic hands too strayed out for one purpose or the other. Motorcyclists too zoomed by from time to time.

The day I visited marked the tenth anniversary of his death. His remains were interred in the house after he died in circumstances that are still shrouded in mystery and controversy.

The family was organising a prayer in his honour. I remember Hajiya Maryam Abacha, his widow, saying members of the family are missing him.

The prayers were seen by the family as part of continuous supplications to God by family members, friends, associates and admirers of the late ruler for the repose of his soul.

Preparations for the day started not less than one month earlier. For weeks, friends and well-wishers of the family had been up and doing to make the day a memorable one.

From Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, where his two eldest children, Mohammed and Zainab lived with their families, Lagos and even outside the shores of Nigeria, the guests were expected to troop in. Some even returned home from their sojourn abroad some days earlier to be part of what an aide called D-day.

“If you come here on Sunday, the whole place will be jam-packed. That is why the car park is being prepared to ease congestion of the road. Guests are expected to use the car park,” said the aide.

When I visited the street, the house was glowing in light brown colour. The high wall, which shields the building from prying eyes, were being re-painted white, with dark brown tints here and there.

The car park opposite the building was also undergoing major repairs. Interlocking blocks were being fixed on the floor of the gigantic car park, where the friends and well-wishers of the former Head of State were going to park their state-of-the-art automobiles.

The many trees on the road, and on adjoining streets, also wore new green, white, green colour. Even some electric poles had green, white, green painted on them, symbolising the Nigerian flag. The wall of the car park, which was painted green, white, green, had also been renewed.

Before Abacha’s death, Gidado Road was a heavily-militarised street. That is no more. Now, even okada riders could drop a visitor in front of the house. Only a handful of soldiers still watched over the house in deference to his status as a former Head of State when I visited. The Arabic school on the street named Modarasatul Mohammed Sani Abacha also wore new look, all in preparation for the prayers for the repose of the soul of the late Head of State who, despite the negative opinion many had and still have about him, many in Kano still had his image in the form of stickers pasted on their motorcycles or cars. One of such stickers was on a white Honda Accord car parked on 17, France Road, near the Kano office of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). This particular sticker still recognised him as ‘Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces’, ten years after death took that title from him.

The stadium named after him and the road also so named still give the impression that the man is still alive. But, as the guests gathered, with some of them wearing t-shirts and fez caps with his image on them, his place in history was still a question many still talked about.

This probably informed his wife’s outburst during that week that her husband did not steal money as being alleged. She told a press conference she called on the event marking the tenth anniversary that the allegations against her husband were not true. She also said the family continued to enjoy good relationships with many Nigerians and thanked the people for their support.

As if puncturing her claim, Mr. Fabio Baiardi, the Charge D’Affaires at the Embassy of Switzerland in Nigeria, said the country had returned $505 million the late Head of State stashed away in Swiss banks. He gave a breakdown of the returned monies; a first installment of $290 million transferred on September 1, 2005; a second installment of $168 million transferred on December 19, 2005, and $40 million transferred at the end of January 2006.

He said $7 million was transferred into a ‘blocked account’ in Nigeria, as the Swiss government could not identify its origin, adding that the money was still in the blocked account.

At the time, data released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the World Bank, under a new initiative called the Stolen Asset Recovery (STAR), also confirmed that $505.5 million had been returned by the Swiss authorities being money stolen and stashed away by the late Abacha. 14 years after, more is still being released.

For Alhaji Sule Hamman, who worked closely with the late Head of State in different capacities during his life time, the late Head of State was just largely misunderstood. Hamman told me during my visit that he personally felt bad when bad deeds were attributed to his former boss. “I believe people who say that do not know him. Certain acts of misdemeanour were carried out in his name and like every leader he is blamed for it. I believe 85 percent of the things he is said to have done are not true,” Hamman said.

According to Hamman, who was the late Head of State’s Political Adviser, Abacha exhibited tremendous desire for unity and development of the Nigerian nation. He described his former boss as a simple man with great humility. He was a man with human feeling, a man who enjoyed jokes with people he had confidence in and, as a leader, he was very concerned about those working with him and their welfare.

He narrated an experience when the late Head of State came to visit him one evening after he had an operation on his thigh. “When he was told I had an operation on my thigh, he came to my house around 5.30pm and spoke with me and my family.”

In the view of a former chairman of the Kano Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Abdulkadir Daiyabu, it is not true that Gen. Abacha is misunderstood. Daiyabu, who was the president of the Movement for Justice in Nigeria, told me that “our leaders are our greatest enemies.”

According to him, Abacha, through the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) was able to do a lot in education, health, and job creation and so on; but that unfortunately former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s probe led to the discovery of the much-talked about Abacha loot. Asked to comment on the legacy of the late Abacha, Daiyabu said that ‘he left a very bad legacy for us in the North and especially for those of us from Kano who are now seen as looters, not minding that we also suffered under his regime. People still talk about Abacha loot and indirectly they are talking to us.”

My final take: Will there ever be an end to the Abacha cash being released to Nigeria? Are their accomplices who are still alive? And will we ever get details about how the cash was stashed abroad?

By Olukorede Yishau

Christmas is in the air. In America, exteriors of homes are being lit in litany of colours. Trees, white and green, are beginning to find space in sitting rooms. But make no mistakes about it, there is another holiday Americans glamorise. It is called Thanksgiving Day. The truth, however, is that it is more like Thanksgiving Week. It started on Monday and is ending this weekend. Turkey is the preferred protein to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Schools and some offices close for Thanksgiving and many people travel away from home to enjoy the season.

Even convicts in prisons across America enjoy the season one way or the other. Being confined didn’t deny them the privilege of eating turkey.

One convict who, perhaps, didn’t find the turkey tantalising enough is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, alias Hushpuppi. He was the toast of many musicians and celebrities. He was arrested with 11 others in six simultaneous raids carried out by the Dubai Police, and extradited to the United States for conspiracy to launder millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams. He has now been found guilty and jailed in America. It is his first Thanksgiving as a convict.

Hushpuppi’s story is akin to that of a man who shot an arrow in the air and covered himself with a mortar to escape being hit. He told us he was a social media influencer and displayed opulence in such a way that Africa’s richest Aliko Dangote has not. The one who described himself as the billionaire Gucci master had 2.3 million followers as of June 2020.

Hushpuppi forgot the rule that “if you cannot do the time, don’t do the crime”. He is not the only one who has given or is giving Nigeria a bad name. He is not the only one who has made our green passport a suspicious document and an object of ridicule. We have many others I have chosen to address as puppies, who are rubbishing the country and its people home and abroad. Unfortunately, they are in the minority, but sadly grab the headlines.

Some years back the United States released a list of 77 Nigerians involved in scams. Before then, it arrested a popular Nigerian youth, Invictus Obi, over a number of scams. Many of the indicted 77 have been nabbed in the U.S. and some have been picked up in Nigeria with the assistance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Like Hushpuppi, they might be extradited to the U.S. to face the music.

When Hushpuppi and his partners in crime were nabbed, the police seized from them 13 luxury cars worth N2.640 billion. The gang, before meeting the waterloo, had made over 1.9 million people cry by duping them of about N169 billion. Also found on them were 21 laptops and 47 smartphones, among others. They were geniuses in hacking into the computers of their targets and move money from one account to the other across the globe.

Read Also: Hushpuppi and the irony of philanthropy

The saddest part of these puppies’ tales is that the proceeds of their fraud always end up on expensive properties, designer clothes, expensive watches, luxury cars, and charter jets. They also waste money on wine and women. They live like tomorrow will never come. To them, there is no sense in the Biblical saying: What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

The fate of Hushpuppi and other puppies like Invictus will not make others in their trade learn. The allures of having garages beaming with Rolls Royce, Cadillac, Limousine, Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes-Benz Maybach 62, and armoured Range Rovers are irresistible for these bad eggs. They will continue to fill their wardrobes with hundreds of pairs of shoes, designer wears and never repeat a piece of clothing or footwear. They just want to enjoy life as much as possible before their hearts stop beating.

Conmen, for me, are not only these puppies who reap where they do not sow. They certainly go beyond men who ask for plenty of cash to buy chemicals to wash supposed black currencies into crispy dollars and Pound Sterling.

There are conmen on the pulpits who call themselves men of God but they are really men of god; their god is small and his only motivation is cash obtained by deceit. What do you call a ‘man of God’ who, during a church service, brings out his mobile phone and dials God? The confused man proceeds to ask ‘Is that heaven?’ He then begins to say all manners of nonsense and his excited congregants are in awe of him. They are excited that, finally, their woes are over. He then adds a clincher: “I will soon release God’s phone number.”

There is also another puppy on the pulpit who once engaged a demon in a shouting match. The demon he employed for his deceit looked like one of those actors in a badly-scripted Nollywood home video. As expected, he defeated the boasting demon and declared the devil a liar, when he is actually the liar and devil in human form.

What about another conman on the pulpit who practically strangled a woman with a stiff neck. How on earth can someone with a stiff neck be delivered by squeezing the life out of the ailing neck? She collapsed and after a few seconds the ‘pastor’ performed some abracadabra and the old woman jumped up shouting Hallelujah. She was healed. Just like that!

The likes of Hushpuppi blame the conmen in power for pauperising the people. This, to a large extent, cannot be faulted. But, that is not a justification for breaking into the account of people overseas, and at the end of the day, all you do with it is buy cars, wine, houses and squander so much on women. Why do we squander money enough to give us hospitals of world-class standard and universities that can rival Harvard on frivolities? Is this life really worth having in our vaults currencies running into billions?

Amid all these evils wrought by the puppies of this clime, it is heart-warming that for every Hushpuppi there are ten Ikenna Nweke who will return a missing wallet with foreign currency even when no one is watching them. Nweke, a doctorate student in a Japanese university, returned a lost wallet and turned down the offer of compensation. He projected honesty, integrity, and contentment, which the bulk of Nigerians represent.

Hushpuppi and other puppies cannot erase the records of Wole Soyinka, the late Chinua Achebe, Segun Odegbami and millions of others.

There is no justification for defrauding either white or black people. No fraudulent person will go without paying the price. It is even worse when the victims are Americans. The FBI and Interpol will go to any extent to get you and, when they do, it will be too late for had-I-known.

My final take: Fraudsters give the impression that the streets are paved with free cash and they are just picking and spending. But, the reality is: You have to sweat it out to make ends meet. You have to earn every single kobo and if you engage in illegal activities or break the law, even if innocently, you will face the music.

There is an interesting legal tussle unfolding in Nigeria. The plaintiffs are members of the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN). The defendant is the National Assembly. The crux of the matter is the incessant invitations and summon of its members, and investigations of the activities of private business concerns. The OPSN comprises the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the National Association of Small-Scale Industrialist (NASSI), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA). These bodies consider these actions of the National Assembly worrisome. So, they are asking the court to determine the constitutionality, scope and extent of Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution on businesses in the private sector.

“The crux of the matter is the determination of the extent of legislative investigatory powers as contained in Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, especially how it applies to businesses in the private sector. The case also challenged the grounds relied upon by the committees to invite companies in the private sector.

“We had written severally to the committees informing them that their action is not only a distraction to organised businesses, but also a usurpation of the powers and responsibilities of the executive arm of government.

“Our understanding of the powers conferred on lawmakers by Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution is for the exercise of oversight functions on public sector agencies. We, honestly, cannot find any support in the aforementioned sections for investigations of private companies.

“In our view, the legislature cannot make law and supervise its execution. We strongly believe that the intended investigation falls within the prerogative of the executive arm of the federal government. This is based on the doctrine of separation of powers in Nigeria.

“If the National Assembly’s committees have issues with the way and manner the executive arm is carrying out its responsibilities of ensuring compliance to various laws and regulations, their focus of investigation should be directed at the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government rather than the private sector,” they said.

I have always wondered if the National Assembly has the kind of power to carry out investigations on private businesses, and issue them directives and ultimatum. So, this is a case I will closely monitor.

I have also been bothered that in a country faced with gargantuan challenges, its lawmakers feel what they should prioritise are issues such as a private company’s decision to hike its tariff at a time the cost of running businesses has hit the roof. It seems lost on the lawmakers that with our economy contracting so badly, we must keep it in mind that the global market for foreign direct investment is highly competitive and, to tap into it, we must position ourselves strategically, and avoid conducts that project us as unreasonable and wedded to the long-discredited idea of communism.

From time to time, the National Assembly, through its committees, probes private businesses and issues directives, such as asking them to pay compensation to a community or individual, and so on. This has always made me wonder if the lawmakers have become law courts which look into disputes between host communities and firms operating in them.

Recently, the Senate directed the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited to pay N18.4 billion to 73 communities and 200 families in Bonny, Rivers State, within two months, for acquiring their land for pipelines’ Right of Way. It followed the adoption of the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions that investigated a petition from the communities.

We have seen courts determine cases between oil giants and host communities. It is strange to me to see the National Assembly playing this role. It will be good to see how the court rules in this case instituted by the private sector operators.

Among others, there is a private company our lawmakers are unable to hide their fixation with. Any time it makes an announcement that it is raising tariffs on its platforms, citing grim economic factors that are in plain sight, one arm or the other of the National Assembly has frothed with anger, with members eager to wear the toga of the defender of the universe. In 2016, under Dr Bukola Saraki, there was an attempt to dictate how much the private company should charge for its services. The House of Representatives toed the same line last year.

In one instance, the Senate, in a statement ordered the return to the old prices, claiming it acted “in tandem with the prevailing reality of the economic situation in Nigeria” as well as the adoption of the pay-per-view billing model. This gives the impression that the firm is immune to the “prevailing reality of the economic situation in Nigeria”.

Also observed is similar insouciance about how private businesses will remain afloat if tariffs charged are not economic reality-reflective. Does it matter if obeying the orders of the lawmakers could send the businesses out of business? Does the National Assembly have the power to legislate what a private business should do? Are private businesses shielded from the economic factors that drive up operational costs and, ultimately, everything else?

This is not a time to allow unnecessary squabble kill the few thriving investments we have. For me, the moves of the lawmakers are at variance with the much-talked-about ease of doing business mantra of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Coming at a time when the economy is in trouble and we need FDI, we might end up making potential investors stay far away from our shores. Actions taken without giving a fair hearing to the parties involved can send wrong signals to potential investors, which we need badly to save our economy and move millions out of poverty.

What should occupy the attention of the National Assembly now is how to secure the country, how to arrest conditions that drive up prices of goods and services, how to get the Executive branch of government accountable and responsible, how to stop terrorists in different parts of the country, and how to legislate for the people and the people alone. The Senate also needs to be worried about these facts: How can the majority of the citizens of a country so rich in natural resources live in hardship and poverty? How can access to electricity, which is critical for development, be an issue? How can our people be perpetually afraid of kidnappers, terrorists and vagabonds in power? How can we be losing over 95 per cent of oil production to thieves? How can the Bonny Terminal, which should be receiving over 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily, be receiving less than 3,000 barrels? These are the questions United Bank for Africa (UBA) chair Tony Elumelu raised recently in a series of tweets. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye also raised issues around security and others some days back.

My final take: The private sector operators have acted well by asking the court to determine whether or not the National Assembly has the powers to incessantly invite them, probe their activities and order them to make one payment or the other. This is a case that should be seen to logical conclusion. If need be, it should go up to the Supreme Court so that it can be settled once and for all.

My beloved country, Nigeria, is preparing for the 2023 elections at a time America, a nation many across the world consider a beacon of democracy, is set for its midterm elections—a sort of referendum on President Joe Biden who is still unpopular, but has improved in the last few months, with his job approval rating rising to about 40 percent. The rise is attributable to his students’ loan forgiveness plan. I have not come across a poll showing how he has been helped by his soft stand on Marijuana.

How much Biden will get done in the remainder of his administration rests on November 8, the election day, when seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives will either be retained or lost. Like every American election, millions have already voted. All thanks to their law which allows early voting. Voting by mailing in is the choice of millions who, for one reason or the other, won’t be in the areas where they are registered as voters on election day.

President Biden and other Democrats are hoping to retain control of the House of Representatives and consolidate in the Senate where, on January 20 last year, Vice President Kamala Harris swore in three members to give the party a narrow grip on both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade. Harris’ vote gave the Democrats the tie-breaking vote to establish a majority in the Senate, with Charles Schumer becoming the majority leader and Mitch McConnell the minority leader. So, the midterm elections are make-or-mar for both Democrats and Republicans, and they are leaving no stone unturned to control the legislature.

There are 36 states electing governors, all 435 House seats are up for grabs, and 35 Senate seats are being contested in the U.S. Senate. During midterms in time past, the party in power always lost seats in the House of Representatives during the first term of a new president. Democrats are hoping to change the trend by banking on a number of ‘welfarist’ moves such as student loan forgiveness and the Supreme Court decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to an abortion.

In the run-up to this important moment, I have watched campaigns by American politicians; I have been part of briefings on the elections, and I have seen experts expound on polls in God’s own country, and I have noticed that the madness associated with elections in Nigeria is missing. I have not seen politicians discussing personalities instead of issues. I have not seen party supporters breaking bottles on one another’s heads. I have not seen candidates dancing at campaign rallies instead of speaking about the issues affecting the people. I am yet to see a semblance of political assassination. It is all too quiet around here. Madness-wise!

But there are issues making many wonder if it was not time America looked at what countries like the United Kingdom have done to reform their electoral system. To every man, his headache is a truism that even almighty America has been unable to avoid. There are concerns about the elections in which the battleground states are Georgia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, and Utah. A key concern is electoral administration quality, which, according to Dr. Pippa Norris, the world’s second-most-cited political scientist, is going down. Norris, a comparative politics lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is concerned about putting partisan officials in charge of administering elections instead of professional, independent public servants. The presence of these partisan officials introduces some form of weakness. Norris fears electoral disputes will increase with such a situation. “And it’s what keeps me up at night.  It’s what really makes me concerned,” she says. She argues that it feels like “we’re like the Titanic heading toward the iceberg. We can all see this iceberg. We know what’s going to happen and we can’t turn it around”. Reform, she believes, is something America must embrace.

It was sad to learn from Norris that non-partisan electoral officials are being threatened and forced to leave the job “because why would you be a public servant if you’re going to get threats to yourself and to your family and to your home”.  Last year, many election workers faced unprecedented threats and intimidation for doing their jobs.

In Texas, the concern is about voter suppression. Recently, a law known as Senate Bill 1 was passed by both houses of the Texas Legislature. The law makes it harder for voters with language barriers or disabilities to cast their ballots. The law was signed by Governor Greg Abbott, who, according to a poll, is leading Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke by 7 points in a state that is traditionally Republican. The law also bans 24-hour and drive-thru voting. It makes compensating people who help voters with limited English proficiency, disabilities, or limited literacy criminal.

It is also a crime for election officials to encourage eligible voters to apply to vote by mail. And poll workers who try to stop partisan poll watchers from harassing or intimidating voters risk criminal prosecution. There are fears of voter suppression and those pushing this position point to the fact that nearly 23,000 mail ballots by Texans voted in party primaries were rejected by election officials. This is seen as an aftershock of the new state law.

The Brennan Center for Justice, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Harris County Attorney’s Office, and the law firms of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in Dallas and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York have filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas in federal district court. They are demanding that the law be stopped because it violates the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, Section 2 and Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Black and Latino communities, voters with disabilities, or language limitations are worst hit by this law.

My final take: America’s greatness is not in doubt, but there are stains on its claim to being the beacon of democracy. Partisan officials should have nothing to do with election management. Non-partisan officials should be protected and those guilty of threatening them and their families and their homes should face the harshest side of the law.

Look around you, we are left

alone with the mud of creation

and maybe that is all there is to life,

the creating of a new way of living

– Romeo Oriogun (Cotonou).

I was searching for a way to start this letter. Then these lines in your poem, ‘Cotonou’, seem to speak to why I am writing you. Usually, the first thing is to ask how you are doing, but the answer is almost obvious given the event of October 14. But first, how is Iowa, that American state with a university renowned for its legacy of training and hosting many of the world’s greatest literary voices? Iowa has been your home for some time and my wish is that you will get the best it has to offer. And if you choose to leave, I trust you will continue to be in good health.

Though you have poetically glowed in the interestingly named Story County in Ames city, I have no intention of boring you with stories. All I want to point out is that you have given history no choice but to remember you.

As I write this, I still see the image of you cupping your face as Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo announced you the 2022 winner of Africa’s biggest literary prize, the $100,000-worth Nigeria Prize for Literature. There was a palpable relief on your face as the marathon that prizes of this magnitude are ended on an exciting note. From the shortlist of 11 to the shortlist of three, it sure was momentous.

Having been a nominee in the last edition, I know how heart-pumping the waiting game can be.

The shortlist of 11 included Prof. Remi Raji-Oyelade and other older poets. By the time the list was reduced to the last three, only a new generation of poets was left. It was the first time poets of your generation edged out older poets from the shortlist. The pendulum eventually swung in your favour, and graceful is how you have carried this crown, which has once graced the heads of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Jude Idada and many more.

The judges, who include Toyin Adewale-Gabriel (poet) and phenomenal Dike Chukwumerije (also a poet), were blown away by the fact that the 67 poems in your collection, ‘Nomad’, ‘were held together by a travel motif, marshaled in each poem with equal intensity and linked to the African past, including the Middle Passage, and the African future’.

I write you today to congratulate you, not just for winning the prize, but for winning the honour, the honour of staying through to a gentleman’s agreement, an agreement made when neither you nor the other two contenders knew who the cap would fit.

Hours before you got the poet laureate crown, there was a tweet by culture activist and writer Kola Tubosun about sharing the prize money between all the three finalists. He tweeted: “$33k is 23,925,000 naira, which is what each poet on the @NGRLitPrize will get if they have a gentleman’s agreement to share the money among themselves instead of having one person take all the $100k.”

One of those who replied is Jumoke Verissimo, the brilliant writer of ‘A Small Silence’. She said: “I hope whosoever wins among the 3 poets will be willing to share the prize money. It’d make the “brotherhood” deeply meaningful. @SonOfOlokun @SaddiqDzukogi @Sueddieagema.”

There was also a reply to this call for socialism in poetry prizes by award-winning writer Kukogho Iruesiri Samson, who tweeted: “Honestly, I would be glad if this happened. Very, very glad actually. I have had this conversation with one of the three and he shared the same sentiment.”

Not a few have sought an end to the winner-takes-all approach of the prize.

As I scrolled through the discussion, I saw your tweet: “There’s already an arrangement in place.”

Read Also: Romeo Oriogun’s Nomad wins $100,000 NLNG literature prize

Your reaction that you and the two other finalists (Saddiq Dzukogi and Su’eddie Agema) had agreed on a sharing formula excited me like it did Jumoke who replied: “Yay!”

But somehow I was apprehensive about this brother code. I wondered if the winner would not renege. When you were announced the winner, it ascended a new meaning to me that the one who revealed the arrangement is the one the onus has fallen on to implement it. My joy knew heavenly bound when you announced on your Instagram handle that you would send $10,000 each to Saddiq and Sueddie, your ‘brother’ who you happily asked to pick up the prize on your behalf.

Like Paressia Publishers co-founder Azafi Ogosi-Omoluabi noted on Facebook, you have set a record. This is unprecedented. What this has done for Saddiq and S’ueddie cannot be overemphasised. Having been nominated for the prize before, I know what it feels like coming close to Jerusalem and being turned back at the entry point with no monetary reward to show for it when the winner gets a whopping $100,000.

Romeo, I believe that for a book to make the first 11 or the first three is no mean feat and each writer deserves a slice of the cake.

Organisers of literary prizes where the winner takes all need to change the model. If the Nigeria LNG Limited decides to reform the prize and let the runner ups get cash prizes too, the literary community has you to thank. Yes, you and the others agreed, but it takes the winner to seal the agreement, and that you have done with grace, and grace upon grace will follow you everywhere, anywhere and nowhere.

As I end this letter, my plea to the Nigeria LNG Limited is that the winner takes all regime of the Nigeria Prize for Literature has to end. The runners up must get cash prizes too and copies of the books of the first eleven must be acquired and made available to students all over the country free of charge.

Once again, Romeo, congratulations. I hope to meet you one day and pump fists with you for being a man of honour. Thank God, I am just two hours, fifteen minutes by air from you.

Always remember this: Posterity will never forget you, not just for winning the prize, not just for the generational statement that your win represents, but for the gracious spirit of giving out $20,000 that you have the sole right to. Like the lines in ‘Cotonou’, you have created something new with your gesture and you have told us that “all there is to life” is

“the creating of a new way of living”.

Stay blessed and continue to live because the time to leave is far, far away.

Jonah dies. He dies in the presence of Feyi, his young wife. Five years speed by and Feyi can’t get Jonah and the circumstances of his death out of her mind. She sees him often in her dreams and she sees him in her mind. She just sees him everywhere and believes it is impossible to move on. The will to move on eludes her until the journey to healing starts on a day she decides to throw caution in the wind and have casual s3x with a stranger named Milan in a toilet at a rooftop party.

It is just s3x, no commitment, no nothing. She ends it after more rounds of nothing but hot s3x. Milan’s friend, Nasir, later takes interest in her and not even her s3xcapades will deter him. First he seeks friendship. With time they share a kiss and do other make out stuff but no s3x. It looks like it is a matter of time before they will have s3x and live happily ever after. Time, however, has other not-so-funny plans.

Nasir decides to take her to the beautiful Caribbean Island where he grew up, where his father still lives and where his only sister, Lorraine, also lives. She is to be part of a major art exhibition where greats are to be showcased. It is an offer she finds irresistible and will mark a shift in her life. Nasir keeps some details of the trip to himself and he reveals them bit by bit. Her first shock is discovering that Nasir’s father is Alim Blake, a renowned chef and a regular face on a major television cooking show.

Blake comes to pick them up at the airport and before the end of their first day on his mountain home, Feyi knows she is in trouble. When he breathes, she catches cold, when he sneezes, she freezes, when he coughs, her eyes water, when he talks, she melts and when he snores, she falls asleep. There is almost nothing he does that she doesn’t feel sweet discomforts in her heart. Her best friend warns her about the danger of her feelings but she is too far gone to think straight.

The exhibition goes well and there she gets a major commission for an art work and this means having to stay longer on the Island and having to stay more around Alim. Work soon takes Nasir away for some period and the stage seems set for a calamity of major proportions.

What you have just been served is the meat of the seventh book and the first romance novel by Akwaeke Emezi. Beautifully titled ‘You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty’, this novel packs a punch. The language is smooth, the style is enchanting and the plot twist is alluring. Suspense is a trick Emezi uses so well in this book that is crazily immersive. If you attempt to predict how a crisis will come, this author has a way of double crossing you and showing up in another way that leaves you with no choice but to salute her storytelling prowess.

The author writes about broken people so well. If you are looking for saints, this is not a book for you. Almost everyone in this book lives a duplicitous life. There is something they’re not proud to go public with. And the grace with which the novelist presents them is non-judgmental. It is up to the reader to decide what to make of each of them and their decisions.

The novel is about grief and how there is no manual to deal with it, and the mistakes human beings make while handling grief. Feyi deals with it in her own way. Alim deals with his his own way. His children deal with their mother’s passing in unique ways. Pooja’s loss of her daughter is also a study on how differently people deal with grief. And Milan’s loss of a child makes him understand Feyi and not judge her. But, as unique as the approaches they all adapt, something sticks out: There is no easy way to forget a loved one, especially one taken away in a violent manner like drowning in water and dying in a car crash, and being snatched by leukemia, the cancer that sees nothing else to attack than the blood.

Emezi tells of how grieving people in search of healing tend to bond in search of answers to the questions or posers death throws their way. And how, with time, they learn to mask the pains that come with unending grief. It tells of the brave choices love forces on human beings and their costs, and the sweetness at the end of the tunnel.

The novel is also a story of love; love in unusual places and unusual manners and with unusual people. It is also about queerness and the battle that comes with it.

New York, the city that perhaps holds the ace as a setting for most American-centric novels, is made to be silent. Emezi manages to downplay its sociology and focuses on the characters and their actions and inaction. The great city stays in the background for the characters to shine in all their glories and horrors. Even the beautiful Caribbean Island that is also a setting stays on the periphery. What shines all through are the characters and the plot.

Dialogues are a major strength of this work. They are so realistic and having them immersed within lyrical and groovy prose is a thing of joy.

Its last seven pages are intense, so intense you are likely to close it to catch your breath before trying to grasp what is going on. It is like saving the best for the last, it is like conflict at its best and it is like resolution at its solemnness, it is everything, everything good. It will make you shake, it can make you pant, it can make you cry and it can make you soar. It is difficult to predict all the emotions it can evoke.

Emezi has once more stamped her feet as a fantastic storyteller, a storyteller to always watch out for every tale she tells, a storyteller who knows the nitty-gritty of powerful and beautiful writing, a storyteller of no mean standing.