Friday 5 May 2023

An Open Letter to theTribunal Judges

 


Dear Tribunal Judges,

The ongoing election tribunal is very important in the history of Nigeria. It will define how good or how corrupt Nigeria judicial system is. The 2023 general elections, especially the presidential elections has been tagged by Nigerians and the rest of the world as fraudulent, corrupt and violent election. The people’s elected President, his Excellency, Peter Obi of Labour Party was denied the victory given to him by millions of Nigerians and was asked to go to court by INEC and APC after declaring Bola Tinubu of APC the president select. Ever since, Nigerians all over the world have been crying, agitating and calling on the judiciary to do the right thing. It has been very disturbing whether or not the judiciary will fail us too. It will be shameful if the judiciary will allow a few number of witches to keep holding Nigerians to ransom. Many Nigerians went to vote on the national Election Day against all odds. I was very sick on that day yet I managed to find my way to my polling unit to cast my vote because the coming affliction that I see, is far worse than the bodily affliction that I felt then. To deprive Nigerians of the president they have chosen is therefore not acceptable.

The evidences of who won the election are very clear starting from the campaign period to date. The enemies of Nigeria tried to dig up faults against Peter Obi, and when they failed, election violence and rigging became their only source of false victory. There were so many manual and electronic evidences that revolve around collation and transmission of the presidential election results that are too obvious to be denied. I therefore urge you to look beyond money and threats, and save your integrity as well as the face of Nigeria and Africa.

It is not possible that a proven drug lord, liar, ruthless killer and a terrorist will become the president of Nigeria just because INEC and few Nigerians that are indebted to him said so.  The only thing that is possible is a new and better Nigeria where students will pay school fees and enjoy the wealth of knowledge without interruption of frequent strikes, where the youths will have an enabling environment to thrive in their entrepreneurial endeavors devoid of hostility, where Nigerians will pay for light and water and enjoy same in adequate measure, where federal character will truly be implemented and where labourers will no longer labour in vain.

It therefore lies in the hands of the judiciary to make sure that justice prevails and that a criminal shall not be sworn in as Nigerian president come May 29th. We implore you not to manipulate the law and thrash the hopes of many Nigerians, hence giving God a hard time using other means. Enough is enough! May the Almighty God, the greatest judge see you through!

Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Thursday 23 February 2023

Enemies of Nigeria

 


From the North and down to the South, Nigerian enemies have continued to increase over the years. They can be found in every nook and crannies of Nigeria and their fangs have continued to grow because they eat fat and suck the blood of many Nigerians. They have turned the green fields of Nigeria to red with blood of innocent citizens. They shake hands today, they exchange fists tomorrow. The more we watch their movie titled ‘chameleon,’ the less we see. Their only agenda is to impoverish Nigerians until we all see them as gods to be worshipped.

Enemies of Nigeria are not only those who embezzle public funds and divert it to their personal gains, they are not only those who bury money at their mansions, they are not only those who divert our natural resources to their private businesses, they are not only those who create artificial scarcity, They are not only those who starve and destroy our institutions because they have stolen enough money to get the services they want anytime they want it and anywhere in Europe, America or Asia, they are not only the greedy politicians who can destroy innocent lives to get to the seat of power, they are not only the greedy politicians who engage the services of contractors but refuse to pay them after doing the job, they are not only the selfish politicians who sponsor election rigging, they are not only those who rig elections or manipulate election results, etc.

Enemies of Nigeria are also those who applaud those wicked politicians, they are those Nigerians who help the evil politicians to carry out their nefarious activities, they are those Nigerians that help the wicked and selfish politicians get to the seat of power, they are those Nigerians that do not have PVCs for no good reason, they are those Nigerians that did not collect their PVCs for no good reason, they are those Nigerians that have their PVCs but have made up their minds not to vote on Saturday, the 25th of February 2023 for no good reason, they are those Nigerians who go hungry because they cannot access their deposited money and still think that what will happen will happen whether they vote or not, and bla, bla, bla.



The die is cast and this Saturday, Nigerians are faced with two choices: to choose freedom or continue to live in bondage. We have seen the handwriting on the wall and cannot continue to pretend we don’t know what is happening. In this season, God has caused a credible candidate to come out and contest for presidential candidate. The Holy Bible said by their fruits we shall know them. Peter Obi has proved himself as the best candidate of all the presidential candidates, if not for any other thing, at least by his past records when he was the governor of Anambra state. It is not God’s job to come down and drag Peter Obi to Aso Rock, rather, we only need to go to our respective polling units and vote for him and then allow God to finish what he has started in this election season. How Peter Obi will survive in the midst of enemies of Nigeria shouldn’t be our problem; all we need to do is vote for him and then keep praying for him to succeed and the rest is God’s job.

IdealOlive says a new Nigeria is possible! Vote for a new Nigeria, vote for Peter Obi of labour party as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Remember, majority carries the vote!

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi


Monday 16 January 2023

The Political Revolution Ever

 



It Began with Corruption

The political revolution Nigeria has ever witnessed since its Independence in 1960 has been happening since February 2022 till date and there is no going back. Before now, it has been business as usual and corruption grew from Day Care to Post Graduate level until it was finally given a PhD robe and crown. Most Nigerian politicians saw Nigeria as their farmland, private business enterprise and their personal ATM and POS machines. So there, they mine treasures and mineral resources as they like, recruit who they want and sack who goes against them and embezzle funds as they want without thinking of the damages and consequences of their actions. No accountability of any sort! Why will they care? Why will they account for anything? Do they even have conscience? Who will they give account to when if one thief leaves another thief will take over and the circle continues?

They intentionally created a system that will protect them - a system that promotes criminals and imprison the innocent people who they consider a threat to them. They are the official criminals that recruited men and woman out of the masses they have impoverished to cause chaos and spread terror in all the zones in Nigeria. A lot of monsters they created have kidnapped and killed a lot of people to please their official criminal masters or at times to force their masters to look their way for their pay after completing a particular deal. Burning of churches and places of interest, kidnapping, robbery, mysterious eating of money by animals, rapping of women in their farmlands and destruction of farmlands by cows became the order of the day.

Life Became Unbearable

The innocent people were the worst hit in this tragic drama and political nightmare. Standard of leaving kept going down and all hope seem to have been lost. Some who can no longer meet up with life’s challenges joined the bandwagon through praise singing – they started praising the criminals to sustain themselves, hence, the list of criminals continued to increase. Those who could not join the ‘moving train’ continued to work like an elephant and eat like an ant then go on their knees to disturb God for their daily needs that He has already provided. When the available churches could no longer contain those who come in to cry unto God for deliverance from their enemies and those who oppress them, more churches were built and founded; both good and bad; for people to pray more so that God will deliver his children from slavery and poverty, and for those who hijacked our God-given resources to distribute it evenly.

Aside crying to God for help, Nigerians resorted to creating jokes out of every frustrating and depressing situation just to get on by. Comedians started increasing day by day and using their God-given talents to put smiles on the faces of people. Through them, most Nigerians learnt to overcome their sadness and sorrow with jokes and laughter.

Agitations Started

Some could no longer tolerate the nonsense going on in the county as a result of bad governance but many did not have the courage to speak out. However, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu took the bull by the horn and started attacking the corrupt politicians one by one in his own way. When he started many saw him as a ranting animal and did not side with him but as time goes on, as he began to open the eyes of many and as many saw in reality what he was ranting about, they started believing him. He became a threat to the evil politicians and they started searching for him until they caught and imprisoned him for no legal charges. Meanwhile, most of his family members and IPOB members have lost their lives in that struggle.

Youths were not left out in this, in fact, they were the most marginalized. They started losing hope in education and in Nigeria, since there are no jobs waiting for them after graduation. Not only did Nigerian leaders fail when it comes to job creation but they also failed to create an enabling environment for many industrious youths to create jobs on their own. They couldn’t keep quiet any longer when they were tagged ‘lazy youths’ and when government started encroaching in their private lives through security operatives, and then ENDSARS started. Youths started agitating peacefully for their rights and yet again, the shameless politicians dared to touch the lion’s tale by killing some innocent youths whose crime was to demand for a better Nigeria.

God’s Answer Came

It is clear from the political events of February 2022 till date that God has actually answered our prayers the same way He answered the prayers of Israelites while they were in Egypt, and that answered prayer was the beginning of the political revolution. An Eagle rose from the land of the rising sun and decided to be the answer to the many years of prayer. He refused to be intimidated by the ruling gods but became the reason why Labour Party, a party without a surname and structure became a popular party in Nigeria today, and is even shaking the ruling parties.

Power of Credibility and Competence

Like most politicians whose campaigns are characterized by intimidation, stealing, kidnapping and lies of what they will do and will not do when they assume office, Peter Obi started his campaign by telling the masses what he did as a governor which every true Nigerian has testified to. He has since changed the political orientation of people through his speeches on the state of the economy and solutions to Nigeria’s problems. He has been consulting great minds and politicians of developed countries to learn their secret, yet his opponents are busy using microscope to dig up irrelevant faults from him while criminality spews out of their mouths and prints on their footsteps.

While his opponents were sharing money because that’s what they’ve got, Peter Obi was busy enlightening many Nigerians and appealing to the hearts of many. Hence many Nigerians have come to realize that they have been selling their conscience for a peanut that can only feed them a short while and throw them into a more severe poverty. Since Peter Obi emerged as a presidential candidate, many crashed hopes have been revived and many people have believed again in a better Nigeria. Before now, many people believe that politics is for the corrupt; to them, vote doesn’t count, they have already chosen the candidate to be in power and casting of vote is for formality. Therefore, so many people don’t bother to get their voter’s card and those who have will rather stay at home on the Election Day and wash dirty clothes and clean their houses. Today, many people have decided to give voting a chance because of Peter Obi.  Because of Peter Obi’s enlightenment, many people no longer believe in party politics, rather, they have come to believe that every credible or competent candidate should be voted for irrespective of the party they belong.

Still Doubting?

Though there are still people out there who still doubt, who can’t still read the handwriting on the wall, still believing that it will still be business as usual, like the doubting Thomas, they will believe when they see, so we don’t have to crucify them, as they are still afraid of what the political bullies can do. Meanwhile, the political bullies who are threatened by Peter Obi’s emergence and credibility have been busy strategizing on how to rig the election to their favour, so they can finally sell off Nigeria. They should know that it is no longer business as usual and prepare for karma and nemesis. Some of them will run to exile, some will be confined on a hospital bed battling with many deadly diseases while some will go six feet underground. Our only prayer for them should be that whether they are on exile or on a hospital bed about to die, may they endeavor to make peace with their maker before death knocks.

Knock! Knock! Who’s there?

A new Nigeria is about to be born and no one can stop it. The political bullies may empower their tugs to spread terror and scare people from coming out to vote. This is not the time to be afraid because the only weapon against them is our votes. We should rather prepare for self defense and be at alert while we go to our respective polling units to cast our votes. Nigeria of our dreams is knocking at our very doorsteps and we should do our best to give it a chance. Idealolive says: Election is around the corner, Vote Peter Obi of Labour Party as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria! So go collect your PVC now!

 Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Friday 12 March 2021

Re-evaluation of African Values and Culture in the Face of the Crisis of 21st Century

 

A Speech Presented at the Fourth Achebe Conference, University of Nigeria, Nsukka on March 9th, 2021 

There is a familiar joke that ever since the Niger Deltans were told that the solution to their problems is in the pipeline, they do nothing but drag and fight over oil wells and pipelines.

 Dating back to pre-colonial times, with reference to historical books and artifacts, it is obvious that Africans enjoyed a level of peace and unity, compared to this period of renaissance, after the ‘whites’ invaded the sanity of the ‘blacks’. Since then, our value system and culture have been under threat, and are gradually going into extinction. Chinua Achebe’s novel ‘Things fall Apart’ is a typical example of how the ‘Whites’ invaded the ‘black’ nations. Things fell apart ever since, and we are no longer at ease. A certain school of thought strongly believe that African values have become non-relatable and translatable, and therefore have no place in this age.

 Have we actually lost our place – value system and cultural heritage in the globe? Are there chances of regaining our space in this competitive world? Should we now say that white men are the root of our problems; that we don’t need their educational system, their science and technology, their mode of worship of the Supreme Being, and their social and digital life, that we have placed higher above ours? To set our priorities right and answer the above questions, we need to examine our values and cultures against that of our pre-colonial masters.

African Values

“He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.” – Jose Rizal. Africans are known for their rich values which, to mention but a few are as follows:

1.      Greeting – Africans, based on their various tribes have special ways of greeting their elders and superiors.  In some places, their males bow while their females prostrate to greet elders. Handshake among age groups is also common in most parts of Africa. Back then, elders raise their brows when youngsters greet in a weird manner, they even rebuke them for such a greeting. Youths then are conscious of their environment, and they are careful not to disobey or provoke the elders. But today, elders and youths seem to be robbing shoulders, the atmosphere of respect is gradually vanishing. We now hear greetings like hi mum, hi dad; with hands in the pocket, etc.

2.    Value for more number of children and large/extended family co-habitation: Men pride themselves in the number of wives they got married to and the number of children they have given birth to. That large/extended family system that produced strong and fearless men then is gradually phasing out.

3.    Hard work: During pre-colonial times, almost every African family has farmland, and wealth was measured based on the fatness or quality/quantity of one’s crop/harvest. Farming, hunting, fishing, etc were considered as jobs for real men while those who do nothing but sing or play music were seen as a weakling or lazy people, or better still, categorized as women.

4.    Respect and worship of a supreme deity: During pre-colonial times, Africans worshipped many things they called god, known to them as the mediator between them and the Supreme Being. Some molded their god, some carved wood and called it god while some others worshipped water goddess, trees, sun, moon, etc.  Those gods were valued and respected by them. They feared committing certain crimes in order not to incur the wrath of their god.

5.     Political Structure/Value for kings (Monarchs): The system of government then was mainly monarchy. They had family heads, village heads, community heads, and tribal heads and those were highly respected and revered. Some value their king to the extent of burying him with human heads when he dies.

African Culture

“Having a low opinion of yourself is not modesty, it's self-destruction. Holding your uniqueness in high regard is not egotism, it’s a necessary precondition to happiness and success.” – Bobbe Sommer

Aside from boundaries and color, cultural identity gave Africans a unique definition, which can only be accepted by others, if we accept and value ourselves. Some of African heritage includes the following:

1.      Food: Staple foods like yam, cassava, corn, millet, wheat, etc are common to Africans but different methods of preparation and eating apply. Some people turn up their noses at the restaurants when they see others eating eba, fufu, pounded yam etc. with their bare hands, but these same people stress themselves out while trying to eat same with fork and knife. Some people don’t even eat our local dishes anymore because to them, they are archaic. According to Chika Unigwe, when our bush meat crosses the borders of Africa to Europe and America, it becomes game, and most Africans who are ashamed to eat bush meat will take pleasure in eating game because the name has become civilized. Who did this to us?

2.    Fashion: We were proud of our local fashion before civilization. We pride ourselves in our jigida, wrappers, uli, etc before we got entangled in foreign dressing codes. Today, uli, used for body decorations and paintings have been replaced with tattoos. It is a good thing that our fabrics, like Ankara are making waves again.

3.         Language: This is the worst-hit because we hardly use our languages these days. Parents these days rather raise their children using English than their native language. The funny thing is that most of them can’t even use English correctly, and their wards end up learning it the wrong way, all in the name of following the trend. Most Africans judge intellectual faculty based on the ability to use English fluently or not, as if English is all that we need to survive on earth.

4.    Festivals: The long-cherished African festivals are gradually submitting to foreign festivals. Take Nigeria for instance and Igbo in particular, Our New Yam Festivals, ofalla festivals, Igba Nkwu, Wrestling, music etc. are gradually turning to carnivals, cantatas, fiestas, etc.

5.     Native Names: Most Africans are ashamed of their native names, some take up English names of their choice for themselves if their parents didn’t give them any. Some prefer to answer names of European/American dogs rather than answer their native names, just to be accepted or recognized by the Oyibos.

6.    Informal Education: Formal education has taken over African informal ways of teaching their children proper manners, moral values, personal hygiene, and home tricks. Today, morality sounds strange, even in the ears of children.

7.     Folklores/Superstition: The culture of gathering around a tree to listen to folklores usually told by elders has gone into extinction. If at all some people still have that culture it will be very few African villages. What we hear about today is bedtime stories read to children by their parents, and most of those stories are mainly Disney land stories that don’t connect them to their identity and heritage. Most Africans believe that the position of the star on their birth date has an effect on their personality and therefore determine their fate, but found it difficult to believe their grandmother’s superstitious jargons. We can go on and on.

Having gone through African values and cultures, the question now is, should we go back to how it used to be? We already know that it is not possible. Another question is, Should we forego our identity and completely embrace the identity and cultures that stare us in the face daily through our TV sets, internet and social media? We have come a long way and there is no going back. Culture is dynamic, and there is nothing wrong with embracing foreign culture. But where a culture poses more threat or harm than good, the best thing to do is to sieve and take what is friendly to us.

An average African thinks he is inferior to the whites, and we tend to be gullible when we come in contact with the whites. That is why we place much value on foreign products, foreign schools, etc. The whites know this, and that it why they value their dogs more than Africans. They capitalized on our inferiority mindset and made us believe that we are worthless, and so is our thinking, language, food, mode of dressing, and everything that made us who we are. The result is that we are facing a lot of crises today that seem to be beyond our control.

21st Century Crisis

There is no doubt that colonialism stimulated positive and negative changes in Africa and injected many vices that brought about an unending crisis. The fact is that civilization and everything it has to offer has come to stay but it is left for us to manage the situation.

Laziness: Civilization made us less creative and lazy because almost every activity has become computerized. A large number of us now sit in offices pressing computer to solve our numerous task.

Immorality: Due to the influx of culture through civilization, lesbians, homosexuals, and prostitute have become bold enough to defend their immoral activities

Violence: Colonial rule brought about greed, oppression, and capitalism. No doubt, corruption, cheating, violence etc. found their way into the African leadership system, kicking out the traditional setting that ensures morality and decency.

Abuse of Africans by Africans: Colonialism opened the eyes of Africans to the slave trade which abused the dignity of human value, making even Africans to hate themselves and treat their fellow Africans as worthless.

Political Rivalry: It was colonialism that taught Africans that with power, they can make laws that will enable them to commit crimes and also make laws that will exonerate them from such crimes. That is why African leaders commit all sorts of crime, including killing, embezzling of public funds, etc in order to rise to power and also when they are in power. The result today is rioting, protests, armed-robbery, kidnapping, etc due to poverty that is ravaging Africans. Need we say more? Terrorism has rendered many people homeless because the government that has brought so much pain on its citizens has failed to protect them. We can go on and on.

What should we do?

The worst is that these vices and crisis are gradually becoming our new norms and most of us are helpless in the situation, wondering if it will ever come to an end.

We always say that the only constant thing in life is change.  We swayed towards civilization without thinking, now that we are better-equipped knowledge-wise, we can also marry our cultural heritage with friendly foreign cultures and come to an equilibrium. Nobody can do that for us except us and we can start by adopting the following strategies.

1.      We should start by priding ourselves in our colour, food, arts, craft, etc because God has placed in our lands the kind of skin, food, craft, etc that we need for our survival.

2.    We need to start defending our good cultural values against any foreign threat.

3.    We should learn to preserve our cultural products and records for historical purposes. (even the whites treasured them when they first came to Africa) Such materials should be archived and used as educational materials.

4.    Our movie industries should project our values and culture, and tell our stories instead of confusing our stories with that of a foreign culture.

5.     Government of post-colonial countries should start sponsoring bills and making laws that will promote cultural research and defend cultures of their respective nations and not waste time on laws about legalizing gay and prostitution.

6.    Africans should start producing movies and books in their various dialects.

7.     Africans should start telling their war stories, love stories, legendary stories, etc for the world to hear.

8.    Africans should promote their own games along with the foreign games and sports.

9.    Africans should start teaching their children their mother tongue and let them learn English or French in their schools as their Lingua Franca or second language because a person without a native language is like one having no background.

Conclusion

“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others throw at him/her.” – David Brinkley

We will never bring things the way they used to be, and even if we can, we don’t need to, because colonization brought much good to us than harm. The whites have opened our eyes to knowledge and we love their science and technology, craft, music, sports/games, etc, but we will be richer and stronger if we carry along our values and cultural heritage, i.e., if we don’t lose our sense of dignity in the face of modernism.

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

For Sam Maduka Onyishi

Saturday 7 December 2019

Birthday Whispers 2019



We are created to continue the creation story, that’s why we have creative writers, innovators, manufacturers, explorers, builders, designers, etc. If you are not part of the creation story, then you are on earth to do otherwise. Life is sweet only when we devout our time to meaningful ventures that takes care of the many problems of man. 

We are created to give one service or the other and if we fail to give that service, we wallow in misery. Since I realized this, I’ve seen it as a duty to make my birthdays count. To me, a birthday without an added crown is not worth celebrating.

Though I’ve not been able to justify the years I’ve spent on earth, but I am happy that at least I spent those years not creating problems for others. 

December 7 is the day that brought me into this world and I vouch to make it remarkable.

It’s my birthday today but I have to specially wish happy birthday to Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and all my birthday mates all over the world.

Cheers from Olive

Monday 21 October 2019

Enugu 2019 – ANA’s Homecoming



The 38th International Convention of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is set to take place in Enugu between 31st October and 3rd November, 2019 at Sunshine Hotel and Guest House Enugu and International Conference Centre, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu respectively with the theme ”Literature, Nationalism and the Poetics of Integration.”

ANA’s first convention took place in 1981 when the Association was established by the patriarch of Modern African Literature, Chinua Achebe and others in the University town of Nsukka, and ever since, the convention has never been held in Enugu State; and for this reason, the leadership of the association tagged the convention "ANA Homecoming."

The Chairman of ANA Enugu State Chapter, Zulu Ofoelue and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) headed by Hon. Ndubuisi Ene are all working hard to make sure that the convention which will feature an evening of palm wine, folklores, drama, cultural night, literary prizes award dinner, tour around Enugu, etc. is a success.

The association will also elect new National President during the convention to man the affairs of the Association at the National level as the tenure of the current president Denja Abdullahi and his team ends.

The Chairman of ANA Enugu State Chapter, Zulu Ofoelue on Monday the 14th of October, 2019, made it known to the public in a Press Conference that the convention which is an annual ritual of ANA will have in attendance the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu), as Chief Host; Prof E.E.Sule of the IBB University, Lapai in Niger State, as Keynote Speaker and Professor Ernest Emenyonu, a Trustee of ANA and Editor, African Literature Today who is coming as a Special Guest. He stated that over 400 of Nigerian’s best and foremost creative writers, literary critics, journalists, members of the academia and other stake holders have registered to attend the convention, adding that three new Fellows of ANA and distinguished writers and scholars will be inducted during the opening ceremony namely: Prof Zaynab Alkali, Prof J.O.J Nwachukwu-Agbada and Prof Remi Raji while the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr John Kayode Fayemi will be conferred as a patron of the Association also during the opening ceremony.

The national convention is aimed at promoting cultural values and encouraging creativity and will no doubt, promote nationalism via its poetics of integration.

Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Tuesday 15 October 2019

Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo Co-Win Booker Prize



Photo Credit: The Guardian

Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have emerged winners of this year’s Man Booker Prize. Deciding one winner must have been a tough one for the judges that made them settle for two. According to Peter Florence, the chairman of the Booker judges, they were told that the rules state that there will only be one winner. But they flouted the Man Booker strict rules and divided this year’s prize to celebrate two winners who were announced on Monday.
Photo Credit: The Guardian

According to BBC News, it wasn’t an easy decision by the judges to rebel and award the prize to two writers this year. The judges, including author Xiaolu Guo and Editor Liz Calder, spent over three hours trying to pick a winner before asking if they could choose both but they got no for an answer. Since they were given no better choice, and since they couldn’t tell which of the two books to award, they made it known to the Booker organizers that their final decision is for the two books to be awarded. Yet, their decision was unacceptable until their third attempt thirty minutes later that the Booker Prize’s trustees accepted the decision.

Evaristo, the first black woman to win the Booker Prize won for her novel titled “Girl, Woman, Other” while Atwood, won for her novel titled “The Testaments,” which is a sequel to her 1985 dystopian classic, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She won in 2000 for “The Blind Assassin.”
Photo Credit: BBC News

Four other novels were shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize and they include Lucy Ellmann's "Ducks, Newburyport," Chigozie Obioma’s "An Orchestra of Minorites,"  Salman Rushdie’s "Quichotte," and Elif Shafak's "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World." 

The 50,000 pounds Man Booker Prize, one of the literary world’s most prestigious prizes, will be shared among Evaristo and Atwood. Past winners include Rushdie, Hilary Mantel and J.M. Coetzee.


Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

An Open Letter to theTribunal Judges

  Dear Tribunal Judges, The ongoing election tribunal is very important in the history of Nigeria. It will define how good or how corrup...