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Tag: Elite collusion

  • Elite collusion, crisis of under-development and leadership failure in Adebayo Williams’ novels

    The lack of development noticed in Nigeria is felt everywhere in Africa. Nigeria’s potential for economic development has been disrupted and denied by the predatory and parasitic politics of its ruling elites who are seeking personal gain at the expense of the people. According to Meredith (2006:218), “in the first two decades of independence, there were some forty successful coups and counter-coups” in Africa. The military used the incompetence of the civilian rulers as an excuse to launch itself into power but its own pre-occupation like its civilian counterparts had been to hold power for the purpose of self-enrichment. Falola et al (1994) apparently piqued by the given situation say this of the Nigerian Military:

    The Nigerian military is not a fighting force, but a decadent political party; plagued by a lack of sincere leadership, divided by ethnicity and religion, and permanently committed to the destruction of the country. It has generated the most destabilizing crises for the country, destroyed the economy, undermined the democratic process, and promoted a large-scale use of violence (ix).

    In his attempt to mirror Nigeria and how it was hijacked by the military forces since 1966, the author of the Bulletin creates the Mulerian society (a corruption of Nigeria) with the Generals working themselves into frenzy and killing their best and by extension the Mularian state and society. There is no doubt that General Waja was a decent and patriotic gentleman officer but lacked the courage to distance himself from the rot that had taken over Muleria as demonstrated by the military leadership that he was part of. He got his comeuppance in a very humiliating manner. General Waja was derisively called “Arch-Bishop Makarios” by his colleagues because of his patriotic and anti-corruption stance hence his violent death in their hands. Babangida’s coup against Buhari’s regime was said to have occurred because Babangida was rumored to have been involved in activities inimical to the progress of the country. He was to be tried and cashiered off by the regime before he struck. He dribbled Nigerians for many years, promising to hand over first in 1990 but did not and was forced to hand over to an interim government in 1993 having scuttled his Transition–to-Civil-Rule Programme.

    The Nigerian Army was so messed up that a one- time Chief of Army Staff, General Salihu Ibrahim (Retd) in a fit of anger and disbelief described the institution as “the army of anything goes”. It is in the context of this reality that we can understand Papa Waja’s quip to his son when he was a Major: “If I had known that it is this kind of yeye army you were going to join, I would have worked harder to prevent it” (The Bulletin from the Land of the Living Ghosts, 143). Yeye, a Yoruba word means unserious, useless and irresponsible. The statement goes to show how low the Mulerian army has gone.

    Waja’s wife, Margaret Isabela is respected because of her consistency in the fight against the tyrannical military regime for twenty years after her husband’s death. Mrs Waja reminds us of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Nigeria’s business mogul, the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola who was murdered in cold blood by elements of the military junta under the late General Sanni Abacha. In Muleria, nothing has changed within the twenty-year period. The regime under which General Waja served as the Vice-Chairman was known as National Salvation Council (NSC).  The regime that took over, styled itself as the Law and Order Council (LOCO).

    The military president (dictator), General Emmanuel Danladi, aka the devil of Bakassi is always in dark shades.  He reminds the reader of General Abacha who was always in dark goggles during his dark days in Nigeria.  General Babangida, who created the opportunity for the emergence of Abacha had described himself as an evil genius. When the Buhari/Idiagbon regime took over power from the civilian government of Alhaji Aliyu Usman Shagari on December 31, 1983, the new government herded many politicians into the kirikiri Maximum prison for various offences bordering on corruption, money laundering, maladministration and other illicit activities. In the novel, after the coup led by General Waja with his colleagues, many politicians were put in kirikiri prison for various offences. The novel’s civilian leader overthrown by the Law and order council is known as Alhaji Usman Seriki, a fictional representation of Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

    The overthrow of the NSC and the brutal killing of the Head of state, General Bature and General Waja attracted the anger of the rebel musician, Bobo Kalakuta known for his criticisms of military dictatorship in Muleria. He terms this episode of fratricidal blood-letting into one of his most famous songs: “Overthrow Don overthrow overthrow” (The Bulletin from the Land of the Living Ghosts, 152). This musician was in real life, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Abami Eda, who was indeed a celebrated gadfly and scourge of military dictators in Nigeria. As in the novel, Nigeria (Muleria) has for many years been going through excruciating fuel shortages, the escalating conflict in the Niger Delta, the Boko Haram menace (and the current and senseless herdsmen killings) and various forms of corruption which have stymied its growth and development. The ‘coupists’ in the novel call themselves Revolutionary Redemption Council. General Babangida’s group called the highest law-making, decision-taking of their regime, Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC).

    As noted earlier, it should be remembered that the Nigerian military was fought by human rights and pro-democracy organisations.  The struggles against the military were intense in spite of the support given to the government by intellectuals and other forces. During the regime of Babangida, the Presidential Advisory Commission (PAC) was packed full with renowned Nigerian intellectuals like Ikenna Nzimiro, Tunji Aboyade, etc. In the novel, the consistent struggles of the Mothers of the Missing led by Margareth Waja led to the hurried abandonment of power by the military leaders to Angela Isabella. The support of degenerate apostates like Prof. Ignatius Alawiye who work for the military did not prevent the defeat of the regime. The people of Muleria are courageous and extra-ordinarily resilient in the way and manner that they confront their adversity. The humiliation of Joe in the hands of the authorities is a throw-back to the horrors encountered by Nigerian journalists during the era of the military in Nigeria especially during the regime of Abacha.

    Another parallel between Muleria and Nigeria can be seen in the strike jointly organized by the Mothers of the Missing and the National Workers Congress. The former leadership of the Congress had for thirty years collaborated with the military authorities. The leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress sold out in the heat of the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 elections but for the leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) under the leadership of Frank Kokori. The struggle for democracy was sustained until the intervention of international forces which resolved the crisis by eliminating General Abacha and Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the two contestants to the leadership of the country. Like Abacha, who was rarely seen in the public, the Chairman of the Law and Order Council is not seen in the public for several years. Newspapers and magazines are prohibited from circulation; foreign journalists like Mike Hubbard are deported while the local ones like Joe are arrested and detained in underground detention dungeons. In Nigeria, during the regime of Babangida, Patrick Wilmot a radical Sociology lecturer at Ahmadu Bello Uiversity (ABU) Nigeria, was deported by Babangida for his critical stance against the government.

    Bulletin from the Land of Living Ghosts is a deliberate fictional representation of the crisis of governance in Nigeria especially during the military era. The Bulletin in its resolution wastes the heroic struggles of the people as political power is hijacked by another member of the ruling class. The novel really allegorizes the Nigerian condition. Muleria, in the historico-fictional permutation of the writer is a socially, politically, culturally and economically diseased country which could be understood with the formula: Muleria + Nigeria = Malaria. Such a misgoverned country requires a battling collectivity with a strong and committed leadership, hence the emergence of the Mothers of the Missing. The Mothers of the Missing literarily anticipates the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign Group which is a group of Nigerians led by women fighting for the release of the Chibok Secondary School girls who were abducted by the Boko Haram Islamist group since April 2014 from their school in Borno state of Nigeria.

    Conclusion

    It is important to reiterate that these three novels are a testimony to the continuing efforts of Williams like other Nigerian writers to engage through narratives, the crises of underdevelopment, elite complicity and leadership failure Nigeria is confronted with. But it is worrisome to note that perhaps, in tandem with the author’s critical realist orientation, these three novels end up on the note of empowering the status quo at the expense of the marginalised and battling collectivity whose efforts to change the system come to naught as members of the decadent class continue to hold sway even when there is a regime change thereby making nonsense of the so-called “change”. The writer, in spite of his otherwise genuine creative efforts appears to be steeped in the allure of petti-bourgeois consciousness and its allied pettifogging tendencies. He needs to imbue the people with the strength and ideological clarity to sustain their struggles with a view to enthroning an irreversible change.

    Concluded

    Uwasomba is of Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.

  • Elite collusion, crises of under-development and leadership failure in Adebayo Williams’ novels (5)

    It is apt to note that in the epic struggle to challenge the Emperor by the lower classes, the elite of the society and other elements of the petit-bourgeois class were busy working for their criminal acquisitions as can be seen in the memory of the late doctor. It is worrisome and perhaps a product of the ideological disposition of the author of the novel that at the end of the novel the military takes over power thereby reaping the fruit of the struggles of the down-trodden of the society. In Nigeria, from the first coup of 1966 to the last one carried out by General Sanni Abacha in 1993, many sections of the Nigerian society welcomed these coups apparently because of their disillusionment with each regime. Many members of the Nigerian elite had on a number of occasions called for the intervention of the Military to right the wrongs of the system.

    Williams’ second novel, The Remains of the Last Emperor is an ingeniously told tale that mingles mythological fantasies with other supernatural capabilities and extremities. The writer’s enchantment with both form and matter is seen in the way he pursues the story of the Emperor to the point of repetition as the old man who knew it all and saw it all goes on telling the story of the Emperor to the young editor trying hard not to leave out any aspect. The name of the editor is not disclosed until page 157 of the novel, and that of the Emperor until page 97.

    There is an attempt to flash back at the history of the country being mirrored. It is obvious that twenty years before when the editor was a part one student, the country was in a deep crisis just as it is at this time that he has risen to become an editor of a publishing firm.  This means that the country is in a crisis that appears perpetual with no solution in view. This again suggests that the country needs redemption and that given the convoluted nature of the crisis spanning many years, it is imagined that the younger generation represented by the editor is expected to provide the solution. The opening paragraph of the novel captures the decadent nature of the country with rival begging groups fighting one another in the midst of huge mounds of human waste. The idea of human waste graphically captures the level of corruption and acute crises and contradictions bedeviling the country. In this pathological state of decay, the novel shares a common thread and concern with Armah’s The Beautiful Ones Are Not Born and Iyayi’s The Contract. In his perspicacious discussion on Armah’s novel, Nnolim has called our attention to the powerful image of the Ghanaian currency, the cedi. He notes that the smell of the cedi to the conductor (the cedi, the symbol of materialism and corruption), “was a very old smell, very strong, and so very rotten” (1979:208).

    Apparently to show his own concern and disapproval of the Emperors of our world, the writer allows the old man to take over the narration of the story from chapter four. By allowing the old man, Dandy Alaska to tell the original story of his society, the writer wants us to listen and hear from the horse’s mouth. He does not want any dilution of the story in any form and manner. The story will be more believable from one who saw it all when the society started decaying. The original state of things was not as bad as at the time Samusangudu, the Emperor came on the scene.

    The old man looks like a magician in all his displays. There is something mystical about him and no sensible person will treat him and his story with contempt. He pays so much attention and gives details about the Emperor when, how and where he was born and the circumstances surrounding his birth. The essence of these details is to arm the editor and by extension the reader with a lot of information so that a proper understanding of the Emperor and his devilish antics. The story, which the old man is retelling, no doubt, is full of scary animals and goblins and most things appear magical and fetish.

    As noted earlier, the real name of the Emperor is not disclosed until the reader is told of the encounter between the Emperor and the Arch-Bishop which led to the one of the most devastating put-downs of all time on the Emperor. We are told that the Emperor had gone to the Catholic Arch-Bishop asking that the edifice be renamed after him instead of Saint Aquinas.  The Arch-Bishop had told him: “Sir, you are not a saint, and you are never likely to be one” (162). The Emperor, two weeks later announced his conversion and that of his entire cabinet to traditional religion. The Emperor as the name suggests behaved as if he owned everybody and did whatever he liked without caring a hoot.

    The writer tries to reduce the gloom and negativities that characterize the entire setting of the novel by introducing the doctor who played enviable humanistic roles in the asylum and gave direction to the inmates. The doctor had extra-ordinary powers. But it is very ironical that the doctor who had done so much to further the cause of humanity, who had helped to restore the dignity of the injured land was considered to be an enemy of the nation and whisked away by the powers that be. According to the old man:

    That night, Jerry came back from his usual foray with the evening newspaper. The banner headlines proclaimed: DOCTOR ARRESTED FOR SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES. Tucked away inside was an article with the title: PROFILE OF A MAD HEALER. It was a mishmash of lies, falsehood and outright slander. Surprisingly enough, no mention of the arrest was made in the dailies (123).

    The Remains of the Last Emperor is a symbolic representation of African leaders who became very authoritarian and assumed more powerful status than the African states. These laggards and their heinous crimes in office attract revulsion from both citizens and the international community. Among African leaders of the past half a century, there are at least four documented cases of certified cannibals: Marcos Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Samuel Doe of Liberia, Jean-Baptiste Bokassa of Central African Republic and Idi Amin Dada of Uganda. It is a poignant irony that the snake fed by the Emperor with babies and other human beings ended up eating the Emperor:

    Then the snake began to swallow the late Emperor, head first, its tongue moistening and softening up the clouted cranium of the old man while it breathed heavy, monstrous breath. All the tricks it had learnt in the process of swallowing thousands of innocent souls were now put to devastating use of the master himself (213).

    As the old man is rounding off the story, the thunderous rubbles from the sky suddenly give way to a violent downpour with the old man and his younger companion thoroughly drenched. As the rain soaks the old man in his tattered clothes his wrinkled scale skin begins to peel off. The old man begins to resemble a toddler as his unblemished new skin glows in the lighting and thunder. At this stage, some of the old men in the crowd start shouting: “It is Sir Dandy! It is Dandy Alasika himself” (219). In a magical display, the snarled ancient disappears forever in a chariot of fire and the rain immediately stops as dramatically as it had begun. The manuscript from the old man remains untouched by the rain. The young editor, surrounded by a cheering and admiring crowd clutches the manuscript like a divine book of revelation. The title of the manuscript is The Remains of the Last Emperor. When published it becomes the bible by which a whole nation swears and the young editor becomes the prophet and one of the leading lights of the struggle for the redemption of the society. In this moment of epiphany it is expected that a new era has emerged and the story of the last Emperor and the other Emperors before him has become a thing of the past. The new era with the likes of the young editor will definitely not relapse to the years of the Emperor but will yield the best form of governance that offers development to the people.

    The Rot is Not Yet Over: Where are the State Builders?

    In The Bulletin from the Land of the Living Ghosts, which is the third novel of Adebayo Williams, he directs his creative lenses on the military establishment in Nigeria and bemoans the state of affairs. The military itself has become a problem to both the country and the military institution. The Nigerian military, under many excuses bordering on the survival of the country, took it upon itself, through many coups and counter-coups mis-governed Nigeria. Nigerians suffered all forms of repression and denial of rights in the relay race which military regimes had become. Militarism got to its apogee during the regime of the thieving General Sanni Abacha who Soyinka (1996:3) describes as the last despot in Nigerian history in his book, The Open Sore of a Continent.

    Bulletin from the Land of the Living Ghosts is a fictional attempt to capture the crisis of governance in Nigeria from independence until 1999 when civilian politics was restored. To show that the novel is a truly Nigerian one, the author by the setting, naming of the characters and many other activities in the universe of the novel offers the reader a potpourri of Nigerian history, personalities, events, places and mannerisms. At the start of the novel, the reader is made to realize that the period of the year in question is in February. Things are ill at ease and the country has been reduced to a banana republic. According to the narrator: “February was the unkindest of months” (13). This recalls T.S. Eliot’s first line in his poem “Waste Land”. The Mulerian State has become a waste land. The resources of the people have been stolen by the Military Generals and their agents. In spite of the fact that the Mulerian military has been in power for over two decades it has been fighting itself and killing some of its brightest and patriotic officers. It is with this background that the author introduces Mrs. Margareth Waja, the wife of the illustrious General Waja who had been killed by his colleagues in a counter-coup. Mrs. Waja becomes radicalized and engages the regime.

    *Uwasomba is of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.

  • Elite collusion, crises of under-development and leadership failure in Adebayo Williams’ novels (4)

    THE inmates were not treated like humans and therefore they decided to elect a leader. The leader worked so hard to make the asylum a commune. Through the notes left by the late doctor who had worked at the asylum, more information about the state of things and the character of the Emperor are revealed.  The doctor had been framed up as a subversive element and enemy of the state and eliminated. The doctor’s father had said of the Emperor:

    I think it is the power that went into his head, it was power that corrupted him, that turned him into a monster. I warned him that there was nothing more debasing to the human spirit, more dehumanizing than for anybody to have absolute power over others, but he told me that that is the only way one can bend a nation to one’s will… that was when I knew he was lost to the devil…(The Remains of the Last Emperor, 99).

    The inmates saw the Emperor as a demented fellow who threw anybody he considered as an opponent into jail. The media were clamped down. There were protests and long queues as long as six miles with “people spending three nights for a loaf of bread”. At the Majiyagbe shanty town the destitute stoned the Emperor’s motorcade leading to the killing and maiming of dozens of people.

    It was at this point that the beggars, abandoned children and all manner of people arrived in droves to the ward with the guards deserting. The commotion was such that the last of the nurses to leave the ward had to tell the inmates that they were free to leave since the whole world had gone mad: “the whole land was seeking asylum from hunger and want in an asylum” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 127). Instead of addressing the needs of the people, the Emperor decided to send an imperial hunger artist to commence a nation-wide tour to teach the citizens how to face hunger with bravery and mobility. There were rumors of coups and the Emperor began changing his army commanders every week and each one was made to go through the humiliating ritual of reaffirming his loyalty to the Ruthless one every morning at the beginning of transmission on National Rediffusion.

    It should be remembered that according to the old man, shortly after the Emperor had been elected into office as Prime-Minister, he outlawed the opposition and proclaimed a one-party state, claiming that western-type democracy was an unnecessary luxury. At the entrance to the imperial wing of the secretariat which had been rechristened The Citadel of Humble Clerks, there was a huge neon sign: Extremism in the service of the fatherland is no vice; Moderation in the defence of the nation is no virtue.

    It is interesting to note that in spite of the reign of terror unleashed by the Emperor, the leader of the inmates mobilized the people alongside the students of the University of Atlantic and the Oturu warriors and marched towards the Liberation Building.  In the ensuing protest, the old man lost a lot of his comrades, the leader and a host of others and little wonder by giving the editor this hidden information about their country, he is discharging the task of painful remembrance and reconstruction. The leader had told the old man when they marched to the Liberation Building that:

    Your journey commences… I need not tell you why you have been chosen for the mission. You are a musician and a man of truth. Your voice has been given back to you, so see to it that you give a true account. Just follow the rainbow. We will come for you where and when it stops permanently (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 187-188).

    In the story of the old man, it is interesting to note that the old man claimed that he moved in a surreal manner to the imperial palace and many magical things began to happen until finally the soldiers completely started shelling on the Imperial Palace thereby completing the countless strikes, ethnic rebellions, students’ uprisings, communal revolts and the collective anger of the marginalized and despoiled people. With the guide of the golden rainbow given to him by the leader, the old man continued in his surreal movement to the inner sanctum of the Emperor.  He saw in his last moments as the Boa-Constrictor rejected his sacrifices and went for him. After swallowing the remains of the Emperor, the snake which was about 300ft ascended the Emperor’s throne.

    Unknown to the high-ranking officers of the elite corps in the Imperial Palace the Emperor had been eaten by the Boa-Constrictor. In their conversation they gave a hint that they would ask the Emperor to abdicate his throne. They began to blame one another for not defending the nation but worked in cahoots with the Emperor. One of the officers said:

    The honour of the nation has been at stake for a long time, but instead of doing something we all collaborated with the tyrant and allowed him to decimate our ranks and murder our brightest colleagues.  Let us not hide our shame and guilt under some high-sounding trash (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 214).

    The people were prevented from coming near the palace by the fierce-looking soldiers who had declared the palace out of bounds to ordinary citizens in the interest of national security.  The soldiers proclaimed a military state and declared a work-free day as they were seen making a barbecue of the boa-constrictor.

    The old man ends the story by telling the young man that he had been carrying the burdens of this history in his breasts for more than two decades until he met him:

    And those are the sad burdens of our past history that I have had to carry in my breasts for more than four decades until I met you. I know my hour is at hand. I’m happy with my fate.  You will recall that I told you that my pursuit of truth is a full time career, and that those who opt for it, even though they suffer pains and persecution will live in the hearts of their fellow citizens.  But truth does not always guarantee happiness, indeed as I have told you, truth may often be more fatal than lies.., I have done my duty to the nation (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 219).

    By unburdening himself, the old man feels he has done a great service to his nation and it is expected that with the history in the hands of the young editor who represents a new generation, there is definitely going to be a change away from the only past which had crippled the nation. The place given to the younger generation in the novel is very interesting. The younger generation is seen as a revolutionary force different from the decadent reactionary class whose activities have stifled development over the years. In the society of the new generation, Emperors and their ways of life are not welcomed.

    In The Remains of the Last Emperor, William engages in the narration of the crises that have gripped the post-colonial African states. It is true that the events that we see unfolding in the novel can be replicated in many African countries, but the novel raises a lot of issues that point to the pitiable condition of Nigeria.  The reality of the African condition is that the leaders in most cases turned themselves into tyrants and oppressors of the people that they were meant to govern. As Adeoti (2006:68) has noted, attempts “at self-rule sooner receded into absolute rule from Togo to Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin Republic, Central African Republic and so on”.  The leaders engaged in all kinds of activities that undermined the people and behaved as despots who were not accountable to the people.  In fact, as can be seen from the novel, the Emperor saw himself as the state and engaged in a series of buffoonery until the same snake that he cherished above the people ate him up and mounted the throne that he valued so much. This is a poignant irony that shows the futility of power inebriation. The Emperor’s pet and talisman becomes his devourer. The government as indicated in the story that the old man takes time in a systematic manner to recount believed so much in lying to the people. The people were told that the mad men were communist insurgents who invaded the country and died in the process. In the government led by the Emperor, people lost their lands, their rights were violated, a tiny few who were close to the corridor of power stole the common wealth dry (like in the case of Ben Tojo), cretinism was the order of the day, institutions of the state were messed up, people disappeared at will (an example is the death of the patriotic and idealistic psychiatric doctor), lunatics in the Lugard’s asylum were not treated like human beings and denied their human and democratic rights.

    From the title of the novel, it is obvious that the society of the novel had experienced the over-lordship of many Emperors and Emperor Samusangadu is seen as “the last Emperor”.  The Emperor’s name was Samuel but having assumed absolute power, in his inebriation, he changed his name. As Ibitokun (2010:9) has noted, “a king is first and foremost a human being before he is ceremonially hoisted by the society. Even after the rite, he remains essentially a human being”.  But the Emperor saw himself differently and operated with guile and all his ministers were sulking and fawning before him.

    The Remains of the Last Emperors represents the tragedy of a nation that manifests symptoms of serious leadership failure. As Achebe (1983:1) has noted in his pamphlet, The Trouble with Nigeria:

    The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air. The problem is inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.

    Undoubtedly, the leadership deficit of the Emperor denies his country development as his activities in office became an embarrassment to his people and the civilized world. The Emperor used his fertile imagination for everything that was bad as “he was far more interested in devising devious plots after devious plots simply to perpetuate himself in power and to prolong the misery of the hapless souls who had fallen under his sway” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 171).

    The Emperor has many cognomens – the cunning one, the mad one, the great one, the mighty one, the mysterious one, the demented tyrant, the Ruthless one, etc. He had no wife, no child and no viable family. At the end of the story, the reader realizes that the old man had in his ‘heart the dark secrets of an entire nation and the shame of a whole generation’.

    *Dr. Uwasomba is of the English Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.

     

    To be concluded next Saturday

  • Elite collusion, crises of under-development and leadership failure in Adebayo Williams’ novels (3)

    He abandons his wife and engages in trysts with his student, committing suicide when he realised that the relationship is no longer a secret affair.

    The implication of the above observation is to the effect that these characters who constitute the elite of their society are suffering from the crisis of petit-bourgeois radicalism. A good number of them are opposed to the shenanigans going on in their society but lack the correct methodological and ideological template to address the problems of their society. Confronted with the impotence of the ruling and petit-bourgeois elites of their society, the corruption of the leaders at all levels of governance, ‘Dale and his colleagues and friends do not know what and where to turn to. In the novel, there are hints about the crises and contradictions that are part and parcel of an under-developed country. According to Dr. Jackson, those who have the guts for criminality have become the super-rich of the society: “No, no, no! I was only telling you that in an under-developed c

    ountry where everything has gone completely whacho you don’t need more than the guts of a burglar to be super-rich” (The Year, 162 – 163).

    ‘Dale, in his testament to Dr. Jackson before committing suicide also acknowledges the limitations and hypocrisies of their society: “The tragedy of this age is that the worst criminals become the arbiters of law. Frauds cry to heavens against frauds. Traitors point accusing fingers at traitors… We are faced with a grave situation” (The Year, 181). One would have thought that with the recognition of the grim situation confronting their society, these elites should have organised themselves for the needed change that their society requires. ‘Dale, the moral crusader thinks that he alone can fight and restore the health of his society. He distances himself from ideologues like Segun. In fact, he says that he hates ideologues like Segun, observing that Segun, a redoubtable Marxist scholar should go to Angola: “Let him go to Angola”, ‘Dale said in malicious disgust” (The Year, 28).

    The Year of the Locusts reminds us of Wole Soyinka’s Interpreters in which about half a dozen intellectuals who give dynamism to the novel engage in an interpretation of their country (Nigeria) by their various self-interpretations. We see not only their varying degrees and levels of agony, despair and disillusionment over the lot assailing them and, necessarily, their country, but also their impotence before this rot. It is not surprising that at the end of the day they remain incapable of delivering their society because of their aloof and self-interested interpretations. They represent in every material particular, Nietche’s superman. Such characters cannot bring a genuine change in their society. They are free radicals whose consciousness is characterized by a deep feeling of disillusionment.

    ‘Dale’s case is a practical demonstration of the failure that comes with individuals who see themselves as constituting an Island unto themselves. No man is an Island. Dale foolishly forgets the implications of the story of the strange man in the clan who was told of the approach of locusts and against all pleadings and entreaties; he went to drive them away single handed from the surrounding farms to his own peril. ‘Dale’s mother had told him this story when he was a child. But instead of taking it to heart and as an article of faith, he allows his effete individualism to direct his actions. As much as we identify or disassociate ourselves with ‘Dale and what he represents, it is clear that ‘Dale’s failings point to the failure of the elite in the society that is being portrayed in the novel. The novel tries to show that to understand the problems of a society and correct them, one must transcend individual daring and exuberant one-upmanship and work with the collective.

    The Year of the Locusts is full of cynicism; portraying the counter elite as irresponsible as those they are criticising and incapable of leading any change. Williams does not give hope for change as the leading characters as epitomised in ‘Dale are not change agents but noise makers. There is no doubt that The Year of the Locusts is influenced by the critical realist tradition with its petit-bourgeois consciousness and conservatism. The administrative wing of the university is seen as being corrupt and the academics and some of the students are not above board. Apart from Titi who ends up in a sexual relationship with ‘Dale, another student, Funmi Martins is notorious for her dalliances with men who are even older than her father. Colonel Wabi is said to be dating her.   The novel is awash with the crises and contradictions buffeting a neo-colonial country (Nigeria) but the characters lack the capacity of challenging the status quo with a view to changing it. Williams’ characters remind us of Soyinka’s interpreters who retreat into cynicism, individualism, or into empty moral appeals and even into committing suicide as ‘Dale engages in The Year of the Locusts

    The Endangered Nation and the Call to Duty

    The Remains of the Last Emperor, his second novel is the story of a bandit-turned ruler who saw himself as a tin-god and declared himself an emperor and unleashed mayhem on his people. The story of the novel is recounted by an old man, Sir Dandy who witnessed it all and decides to narrate the story to a young editor who is expected to do a proper documentation of the story for the attention of future generations. As is known by any reader who is familiar with Williams’ writings, The Remains of the Last Emperor is the writer’s continuing attempt to expose the ruling elite of his country and the inability of this class to rise to the demands of governance and civilized behaviour.  In his essay (1996:353) “Literature in the time of tyranny: African Writers and the Crisis of Governance”, he avers:

    In most African countries, internal colonialism had merely replaced external colonialism. Africans, in the words of some local wits, had only exchanged monkeys for baboons. What made the situation even more galling was the fact that in most cases, yesterday’s freedom fighter had become today’s remarkable tyrant.

    From the first paragraph of the novel, the image portrayed is that of a shitty, stinking environment with huge mounds of human waste everywhere along the winding lanes of the setting of the novel, coupled with a horrifying traffic snarl with the attendant chaos. There are beggars everywhere.  Earlier in the day, there had been a fierce skirmish between two rival begging syndicates.  Everything appears to be ill at ease. There is no doubting the fact that there is crisis in the land.

    It is under this state of affairs that an old man who looks like a mystic and philosopher sitting on the bridge in a Ghandi-like posture approaches a younger man who looks distraught.  The old man and the young man had had their first meeting four days earlier and the old man must have made some revelations to the young man.  The young man works at A.J. Wiseman as the principal editor. It should be recalled that the young man was in his first year at the university two decades earlier when a terrible calamity had befallen the country.  The economy had been pillaged beyond redemption. The leaders of the students’ union had issued a 48 – hour ultimatum asking the government to quit or face the wrath of naked undergraduates marching on the capital.  The following morning, a group of patients from the nation’s premier mental hospital institution, joined by a huge army of the jobless, the hungry and the disposed marched on the capital and seized the Liberation Building, the nation’s premier symbol of independence.

    The young editor is confronted by the old man who disallows him from going:

    “Mister, you can’t go. I have a message for you” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 10).  The old man says he has been on the road and has lost count of the years. He says he is a boomerang and begins to sing:

    If you don’t know the elephant. Don’t you know the elephant’s voice? If you don’t know the lagoon. Don’t you eat salt in your soup? I am Ogidi Olu owner of the dawn well I’m Olukotun (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 10-11).

    The old man brings out an old but well-kept newspaper with a banner headline:

    Disaster At Noon: Madmen take over the country and on the page another screamer: Hunt for psychiatrist continues (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 11).  The old man confesses that he was one of the mad men said to have been cleared by the inferno twenty years before as a result of the protest then.  The old man goes further to chastise the young editor and the people for accepting the lie of the government that the poor sick fellows like him had the explosives to blow up the huge building.

    The young editor informs the old man that the shabby reality of their existence is that “they believe what they are told and told what to believe” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 12). For saying this, the old man decides to deposit the truth with him: “You are truly a worthy son of your ancestors, a noble custodian of the truth. I have been asked by the greater powers that be to deposit the truth with you” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 12). As earlier mentioned the bundle is called a book of “revelation” by the old man: “It tells you what happened on the day of the boa constrictor. Don’t open it, because the more you look, the less you will see. I will tell you the full story in four days’ time at the sailor’s Quay side” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 13).

    With the two manuscripts (the General’s own and the one given to him by the old rustic man) the editor decides to go to his office. He tells his director that the General’s manuscript contains a tissue of lies but that he has a manuscript which tells all about what had happened in the past. As he goes for the manuscript in his office with his boss and wife in toe following him, the manuscript disappears leading to his being seized by a fainting fit.  After three days of lying in bed; he goes to his office and finds the missing manuscript lying under his desk.  He rushes out in uncontrollable excitement and orders one of his office clerical assistants to switch on the photo-copying machine only for the manuscript to vanish again. On opening the shutters, he sees the old man in the distance, clutching the manuscript and smiling at him: “So young man, take this pen and these sheets and put down the revelations for the generation unborn” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 20). The old man further tells the young man that he is ninety years and further reveals of how he abandoned his teaching career to become a musician. As a musician he went through an ordeal occasioned by his randy life style, ending up as an inmate in Lugard’s asylum ward.

    The Lugard’s ward is a harsh and inscrutable environment known as “the place of the skull).  He explains that given his humiliating experience in the ward, he resolved to devote the rest of his life to a worthy project: “the study and recording for posterity of the wise-sayings, riddles, mysteries, puzzles and puns of my people” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 28). The old man narrates the story of one of the inmates to the young editor of his ordeals in the hands of the state. The inmate’s land had been taken over from him for a road project and all attempts made by him including bribing everybody that mattered came to naught. In frustration, he wanted to behead the master and ended up in the ward for pleading madness. Again, while in the lunatics’ ward, according to the old man: “the whole land had been gripped by a sense of unease… with reports about an unprecedented wave of hooliganism, political murders, ethnic uprising, botched elections, students unrests, a rumored army take-over…” (The Remains of the Last Emperor, 34).

    Continued next Saturday

     

    *Dr. Uwasomba is of the English Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.