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12 June 2014
By Taofeek Ramat
Scampering through the cyberspace, at a wastes dump
junction along the social media boulevard of the
Nigerian ‘cyberia', I stumbled on a post about the
Will Ferguson's Giller Prize-winning novel – 419.
Like the relentless armies unleashed into the
cyberspace by the current Nigerian misruling elites, I
also take a break from my usual manioc cultivation
preoccupation to pry into the world of the internet to
feed my curiosity on the myriad of posts emanating
from Nigeria and about Nigeria.
You will wonder why a
mere manioc farmer is keen on exploring the internet,
not in search of the new cassava variety released by
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
or the next major point of cassava demand, in terms of
the thriving flour milling factories venturing into
the uncharted territory of cassava flour for bread and
other confectioneries. Wonder not further. I have
gotten beaten by a particular bug which secreted into
me an unquenchable and perplexing preoccupation about
Nigeria. What is it about this mammoth and complex
giant of a nation call Nigeria? It is an unexplainable
love.
More so, like the many
unfathomable mysteries of Nigeria Ferguson attempted
to unravel in his novel, I have always wondered why an
entity with so much obvious potential keeps defiling
basic expectations, intermittently raising the hopes
of her admirers and dashing those hopes periodically.
That has been the sequence about Nigeria from the
pre-independence years.
Before I go further, it
is worth affirming that Nigeria and all that it has
come to be identified with, including 419 and
corruption, have become a metaphor for Nigeria and
Nigerians. Reading through Ferguson's novel, which he
chose to call a work of fiction, I am marveled at the
level at which the work of fiction perfectly depicts
the Nigerian situations, the disheveling realities
even the sceneries. As the novel unfold the plots
about the lives of the key characters, he takes the
reader on the journey exploring the Nigerian landscape
– a vivid and nearly accurate depiction of land, the
people, their cultures, their dreams, their
desperation and damnations, as captured by the fate
that befell Nnamdi and other characters in the novel.
I contest the novel
should not be categorize as a work of fiction, but
rather an illustrative novel about Nigeria. 419 in the
Nigerian sense is not a fiction. 419 is not an
illusory metaphor, but rather a metaphor for the
realities about Nigeria and Nigerians. Nigerians
themselves, particularly those from the ethnic stocks
southeast of the Niger River have overwhelmingly
referred to the country as a British 419, a British
scam, a collection of diverse peoples and cultures
forcefully wedged together to feed the greed of the
colonial masters and rampaging business interest from
across Europe, represented by the Niger Company.
As depicted and detailed
in the novel, lives touched, changed, transformed or
damned by 419 are no fictions. The 419 scam has been a
come-up, albeit unsustainable and dripping with bloods
and shame for many Nigerian youths who have evolved
different rationalizations for perpetuating the
advance fee frauds and other assortments of scams.
These rationalizations for continuing on this damning
path is captured in the novel as the introductory
conversations between Winston and Ironsi-Egobia are
told. The excuses of the youths who are still laboring
away, wasting productive work hours scanning the
internet for the nextmugu or maga are
not too different from those rendered by the 419
kingpin.
From the start of the
novel to the end, the various turn of the lives of the
characters: dreams, fortunes and misfortunes is of
Nigeria as a country, Nigerians as a diverse ethnics
peoples, and the observing outer world, or the
international communities keenly observing and gauging
the steps and missteps of a nation birthed with huge
promises.
I read the 419 novel in
exhilaration, not as a work of fiction, but as an
essential guide to the Nigerian soul. Like I mentioned
earlier, the 419 novel is a vivid and nearly accurate
depiction of Nigeria and her realities. The stories of
the lives of the characters are lived daily by
millions of Nigerians. Amina running from the Sahel
and it sands, pregnant which dreams and expectations
whose outcomes turned out to be near or total gloom
rather than ‘sunlight
on silver' is
the fate of many Nigerians. Like Amina, Nigerians are
still running from their shadows, chasing fortunes
into unknown lands.
Like Igbo Joe, whose
presence in the novel was for a while, despite the
exploits, conquests and coming to sudden riches, the
fates of many Nigerians are not too different. This is
what happens when chaos yield fortunes. The raging
wings of chaos always dissipate whatever poorly
founded fortune a man may have come by. Like the mists
formed from a light showers of rain on a sunny day.
Ironsi-Egobia is a
perfect depiction of the misruling elites. Many who
have journeyed through poverty to come to affluence
and immeasurable influence, carry-on, ignoring the red
flags, even those telling of their not too distant
damnations? Rather than take on the many opportunities
to make a detour and change the story of their fetid
domain, they plough on rolling more heads on a one-way
drive to perdition. Those they are not able to kill on
their self-destruct voyage, they keep in perpetual
fear. That is the fate of Winston. That is the fate of
Nnamdi. The Nigerian reality does not condone pacific
temperament. To ride the Nigerian horse through the
unpredictable Nigerian terrain, you must be ruthless,
dispelling favors and dealing horrid fates to many as
you so fancy.
419: a novel is a
Nigerian metaphor, a realistic one. I am amazed that
the current governments, particularly at the federal
level picked no fight with Ferguson on this tell it
all rendition of the Nigerian tragicomedy story.
Nigerians and their governments rather than take up
the challenge of a not too sweet reportage, go for the
kill and on many occasions directing tantrums in the
direction of the source of such foul reportage. It has
happened severally in time past. It happened with the
BBC welcome to Lagos. It just happened with the movie
adaptation of the half of the yellow sun. It is for
the same purpose of throwing tantrums that the many
relentless armies of youths have been unleashed on the
cyberspace by the misruling governments across
Nigeria. If you need to know what bites at the heart
of Nigerian governments, take a stroll on the
social-media boulevard of the Nigerian ‘cyberia'. I
for one have identified as many wastes dumps on this
boulevard where vultures and scavengers congregate.
Never mind, there is no law enforcement agent on the
prow to instill any semblance of order.
If you are like me, with
the cupid arrow for an eternal love for Nigeria struck
deep into your heart, the 419 novel should be your
study companion. If you are like Laura Curtis in the
novel driven by humane passion for a lost Amina and
her son, and this reflects the international community
and external concerns, once injured by Nigeria and
Nigerians, 419 provides a unique study and useful
story into the Nigerian soul. For many in the shades
of Winston and officer Ribadu in the hot or lazy
pursuit of dreams or duties, I recommend 419 for
repose and inspiration.
Will Ferguson with the
419 novel, published for over two years, and with a
highflying sales rank has played a 419 on the Nigerian
government. It is a great scam to have escape tantrums
that would have emanated from the Nigerian government.
Perhaps Will Ferguson conjured up spirits from the
Niger Delta Creeks that put a perpetual spell on the
Nigerian government. Should the spell be broken by
this review, Nigerians should demand to know what
quantum of the newly rebased economy is fully or
partially scams driven.
Taofeek Ramat is
a cassava farmer who has never tasted cassava bread. |
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