The Good Man

The story behind the writing of The Good Man.

During my stay at Oko as a student, some indigenes touched my life, and their wonderful impact prompted me to craft them as characters in this book.

There was this jolly elderly man, I never knew his real name, but whenever people saw him, they hailed him, ‘onye ma eme’, and he would answer, ‘soso chukwu’ meaning, who is good, his answer, only God. He was a good man and we became so friendly that he gave me, a student, a piece of land to farm on. Of course! I accepted it and got people to plant yam for me but did not stay to harvest it.

Ichaka and his wife were other indigenes who left an indelible mark on my life as a student. I lived in the same compound with the couple. They were both skilled labourers, particularly good at farm work and clearing farmland. Ichaka's wife also processed cassava, which she sold in the market, both raw and pounded ones. Often, I returned from lectures to find her peeling heaps of cassava alone until her husband returned at night and assisted her.

One day, I had no lecture, so I picked a knife and went to help her. They see me as ajebutter, who knew nothing about such a thing. I surprised her and taught her many things about how to process cassava, which shocked her. My mother taught us to do so many things in the house. We had farmland in Lagos, and everyone went to the farm on weekends. And we harvest and process cassava into fufu and tapioca.

Ichaka’s wife spread the word; the people overwhelmed me with gifts that evening, and I became a celebrated figure in the community. Ichaka and his wife cultivated the farmland Onye ma eme gave me and harvested it.

The next person was a palm wine tapper. I didn't know his name, either. There was this small Palm wine bar beside the house I lived in. After the cassava sage, whenever I was returning from a lecture, the men in the bar would always call me to come and drink. Some days, I would sit and drink a glass to their delight.

Every day, either in the early morning or late evening, I go to Pal Brewery to fetch water. The company constructed a borehole for the community, and the water was sparkling clean. One morning, I met a man with wine kegs. He stopped and asked, "Student, I heard you like Palm wine?" I smiled and replied, "Yes, I do."

"He offered me one of his gourds and asked me to drink as much palm wine as I wanted. At first, I thought it was a joke, but he insisted, so I accepted. The sweet palm wine was fresh and undiluted. From then on, it became a ritual that whenever we met, I would drink fresh palm wine from his keg."

I used these people in the book to tell a fictitious story of faith, reliance on God, rivalry, and good versus evil in our communities.

The Prince and the Witch

Wicked Uncle
Some of us have that wicked uncle who is the architect of most of our woes in life. The wicked uncle who truncates our destinies, who laughs with us, eats with us but stabs us in the back. In The Prince and the Witch, Prince Ebuka just realises that his uncle Udensi is that wicked uncle after him and what is rightfully his.
What will he do? He is an only son and an orphan to boot. Who will fight for him or speak for him?
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Against Every Odd.

William Shakespeare, Wrote, “The course of true love never ran smoothly.” falling in love is easy but maintaining that love and building it to fruition is a battle of its own. Nothing good comes easy, not even love, Adeyemi learns. When he falls in love with his nurse, he never realises the battle facing him, the class divide, cultural diversity and norms that mount blocks on his path towards marrying the love of his life.

How did he surmount the obstacles?

Finding love in the line of duty

A friend had an encounter with armed robbers, was shot in the leg and later rushed to the hospital. The following morning I followed some friends to visit him, before we got to his ward, we heard his howl of pain. He is this big boy not used to pain or hardship, we clustered around his bed and watched him in silence bereft of how to comfort him, while he waited for the surgeon who would remove the bullet lodged in his thigh. As we listened to his moans and complaints, in walked a pretty nurse into the ward and smiled at him. Like her smile contained a healing elixir, the guy’s mouth clamped shut and he forgot his pain as he chatted thereafter with the nurse. It was hilarious, but then when Cupid’s arrow struck you’re stuck. Love happens daily between patients and their caregivers, nurses, doctors and other medical personnel. Finding love in the line of duty inspired the writing of “Against Every Odd.”

Against Every Odd

“Theresa is hired as Adeyemi’s private nurse; she takes up her appointment with one intention in mind, to discharge her duties very well. Adeyemi, ‭despite his worries over the state of his health and anger towards his fiancée’s elusive attitude, gets hooked by his nurse’s smile and intelligence. When love enters their cosy nurse-patient relationship, they discover that true love comes at a price, especially between a prince and a pauper. They have a class divide to contend with and cultural diversity and norms; add a jealous fiancée to the mix, and the tension swells.”

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When I wrote Beyond Repair,  I did not intend it to be a series. But, I sat back and read the story again. One character, Tonia, leapt out of the pages. Her story begged to be written. 
What made Tonia scornful of love? I had to look into it.
They are four friends, Stella, Tonia, Bola and Vera. Beyond Repair was Stella's story. Now Tonia's story is out in Beyond Dreams, while Bola's story is still loading and for Vera?

Fool's Paradise

Joy is a beautiful and intelligent woman. However, she made one fatal mistake common to most women, especially desperate ones - accepting a man at face value. David is every woman’s ideal man, a successful lawyer and human rights activist, well connected in the corridors of power and with a burning ambition to be in the upper house, come the next political dispensation. Though of average look, he was charming and witty and possessed some irresistible qualities uncommon to most men–single, available and rich When they met, Joy was desperately in search of a man, David came across as the fulfilment of her dream–she fell in love. A blissful “Fall”, so she assumed when she walked down the aisle with him. However, instead of a “happily ever after”, she realised to her chagrin she had only landed in a Fool’s Paradise when she discovered that beneath David’s charming veneer lay a conscienceless pervert.

Pawns in the hand By Ngozi Ebubedike

Love is so illogical and full of pains and heartache, so Naomi discovers when she finds herself at a crossroads, where she has to make a choice between her true love Godfrey, who after three years of absence reappeared into her life to claim her back and Tony, the father of her unborn child and the man she is set to marry. What is the right thing to do? To listen to her conscience or follow her heart.

Decoration of faith

The blurb

Hannah lives in misery and tears due to her childlessness and ridicule from her co-wife. And the support and love of her husband Elkanah are not consolations enough for the ache in her heart to have a child of her own.

After waiting on the Lord for years, in distress and desperation, she challenges God with a vow, God opens her womb and she gives birth to a son who rises to be great in Israel. And she also becomes a joyful mother of children.

Sinful Desire

For Vetty

The attention from Tonye was new, the emotion it elicited inside her was strange, something she had never experienced, it brought back her fantasies, some nights in the darkness of her room, alone on her bed, she imagined what it would be like to be in his arms, to be stroked, touched and be kissed. Desire coursed through her, she shuddered and tried unsuccessfully to bring her rampaging thoughts out of the so-very-sinful part it had taken.

For Tonye

He found her tugging at his heartstrings, not what he intended or planned. Without knowing how it happened, she stalked his thoughts; he saw her gapped teeth and smiles in his subconscious mind; very frustrating, he didn't want any complication; he had a woman he had been dating for a year and was comfortable with her.