A contemporary political story of Nigeria of the 1980s, though
referred to with the fictitious name of Kangan. It is a story of
conscience, in which the key actors do a lot of soul searching and try
to do the right thing. The country and place names are fictional, but
the language, character names, food, local customs and type of
government, not to mention the corrupt police, are definitely Nigerian.
It
is the brief story of three friends and classmates who now find
themselves in government by courtesy of a military coup. Sam is the
military leader whom power is slowly corrupting. Chris is the
information minister and Ike is the government-appointed editor of the
national daily. As the struggle for power would have it, Ike was
suspended from office for failing to worship the military leader and
government’s policies, and then murdered by the secret police. Chris
goes into hiding and gets crash lessons on living poor. As he is leaving
the capital heading for a deeper hide-out, there is a military coup in
which the military government is toppled. Chris is however thoughtlessly
shot by a soldier amid celebrations on the road, just because he dared
speak on behalf of a girl the soldier wanted to rape. It is then left
for the girlfriends of Chris and Ike to pick up the pieces left by their
men.
No comments:
Post a Comment