The Association of Nigerian Authors and the Established Pattern in Election Shenanigans: A Personal Message of Hope- by Chidozie Chukwubuike

November 06, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments



A keen observer would have noticed the apolitical pretentions of the writers that populate the Nigeria's writers body.

The first thing you observe is some kind of grandstanding, a pretention to a non existent political piety.

It is said that the writer is the conscience of the nation. This is however one of those numerous unexamined expressions that only massages the ego but 'signifies nothing'. 

The writers of any nation are either as good or as bad as the institutions that produced them. The snake cannot cease giving birth to lengthy offsprings.
Here in Nigeria abound numerous examples of fine (even great writers) who took up political offices and have not been any different from the regular Nigerian politicians. They write beautiful literatures in defence of evil.

Perhaps, it would be safer to say that the writer in a country with the culture of sanity is the conscience of the nation while the writer in a country with the culture of subversion is the albatross of the nation. In Nigeria, it appears the latter prevails. No doubt there might be few isolated exceptions, they do not form a substantial pattern to be called the conscience of the nation.

One therefore is often quite bemused when, at every election year of the Association of Nigerian Authors, some 'politicians' unleash all manners of blackmail to either win or help their candidates to win. Every election year these writer-politicians conjure this 'conscience of the nation' cliche to whip up false sentiments.

This holier-than-thou posturing of the Nigerian writer has not helped the writers' body because anything founded on false pretenses cannot be sustainable. Other organizations like that of the lawyers, doctors, journalists, teachers, actors, etc make bold to play their politics without pretences. And these bodies are recognised by the Nigerian state. In the Association of Nigerian Authors, the politics of succession is played the Nigerian way with all the accompanying vitriols, bitterness, slander, calumny, intimidations, blackmail, underhand manipulations and rampaging impunity. The only difference is in the bare-faced denial of the obvious by the writers. It did not start today. From Makurdi to Yenagoa to Owerri to Minna to Zaria to Illorin to Uyo to Abuja to Enugu, etc the story is the same.
We have seen 'acciuntability,' ANA Land, identity revalidation, etc weaponized every election year. We have seen the police, the courts, the DSS and even the army used exactly the same way they are used in normal partisan politics in Nigeria, yet the writers pretend they are not like the regular Nigerian politician.

At Enugu Denja was accused of all kinds of criminal acts, Camillus was labeled Denja's stooge and Maiwada was accused of importing non writers and even using his position as legal adviser to do some shady things on the ANA Land... Now at Abuja I hear that Denja is no longer the criminal, Camillus is now the 'embezxler of funds' but no longer Denja's stooge, in fact, I heard the new president was labeled Camillus' stooge.

Perhaps, Maiwada didn't feature quite prominently this time because he did not come out to campaign.
 
Some platforms masquerading as preaching unity were actually being used to advance certain political interests. Nobody was spared in the onslaught. Even the good Dr Gomba who meritoriously won the NLNG Literature Prize was subtly blackmailed and asked to abandon his quest to be vice president for a fictitious 'unity' conversation. All was politics!

The sad part is that amidst all these shenanigans nobody is taking note of the real concrete gains. Nobody seems to have noticed that this year's electoral contest was very keen and balanced. Nobody appears to have noticed that in spite of the bickerings on the side by the one-eyed mourners who mourn more than the bereaved, the contestants themselves tried to make their campaigns issue based. No one seems to have noticed that the avalanche of congratulatory messages pouring in to the eventual winners, particularly the president, cuts across the pre-election divides. These are gains. It means there is hope for the association. No matter how slow paced, the association is making progress.

My only fear is of the vicious cycle where every election year the writers are dragged through this tortuous route that leaves injuries that take long to heal, sometimes they never heal. 

Now that the elections are over, can the writers take out time to focus their writings on self examination? Let the writers first purge themselves of the daemon of denial, tell themselves through their writings the bitter truth that there is no difference between them and the regular Nigerian politicians, then begin to speculate and imagine how they can make the politics of their association a model.

If a writer is convinced that a leader of their association betrayed the trust of his/her office then it must be followed up with proper judicial prosecution and not the same media trial always deployed by regular Nigerian politicians.

Perhaps, this is the time for Nigerian writers to sheath their swords, go back to the drawing board and see if they can give substance to the phrase 'conscience of the nation' or just let the phrase remain an empty expression that signifies nothing.

Congratulations to you Mr President and your new EXCO. I wish you good luck.

- Chidozie Chukwubuike writes from Owerri, Imo State.

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Poetry| Ọ̀KẸ̀RẸ́ G'ÓRÍ ÌRÓKÒ... | By Dr. Sàngódáre Àyìnlá

November 05, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments

Àkànbí, dance like the small snail! 



Path to victory, like
the red road to freedom...
 splinters of bottles! 
heavy load of horns
 with an image of lion's head
the length of an ìrókò 
 is a boulevard of terror
when the beast of road 
roars like a lion, 
how many hearts dare wait? 
it's only the tough griot 
that chants 
when the rhythm of music goes cryptic
triumph is a twin brother of shellacking... 
one, 
slim... 
the other,
fat! 
Don't you know that:
(Ayọ̀ a bí ara tí!ntín!)? 
victory is an idiom of the hunter's win
at the twilight... Ships of victory
 do not sink at the instance
 of the tempest of gremlins 
Usman Ọládiípò Àkànbí, 
your victory is the proverb of ọ̀kẹ̀rẹ́ 
who climbs the high ìrókò tree
and shames the foes! 

Àkànbí, wield your victory wand! 
001 of ANA, 
you perch on the roof:
your ears grasp every word!


- Dr. Sàngódáre Àyìnlá is a member of ANA and Information Officer with the Kwara State Ministry of Communications.

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Poetry| Usman Akanbi, Mr President | By Kehinde Akano

November 04, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments

   All hail Usman Akanbi
    Omo Baba ICPC
     Omo ojumokan, ofin kan
     Akanbi, icon of Mustapha
     the legal wizard

In your hand is a winnowing fork
As you salvage the savages' dungeon
As your elephant marches on a wet ground
Your steppings digging up Oasis of fortune
Your priest providing for acolytes and initiates during harvest
 
All hail ANA's standard bearer
In his hand is the gavel truth
the healing staff for the weaklings
In your hand is ANA's legendary optical
Its lens sharper than binoculars or microscope
Its diagnosis fairer than aiyekooto's
It's elegy passionate than the owl's

All hail Usman Ola 
for his offer humane service 
Its ANA's benignity to mankind

Akanbi, ANA''s guardian servant 
In his mouth is an ode 
Chorusing the anthem of his predecessors
ANA's avatar and living ancestors

All hail Usman Akanbi Oladipo
In his chest is a breastplate of words
It is his stinging armour
His tongue sharpened by Achebe's anti-colonial vibes

All hail you Akanbi Oladipo
Icon of the legendary ICPC pioneer helmsman
Pious is thy mission in ANA of Nigeria
Our ANA of humanity


- Dr Kehinde Rueben Akano, an award winning poet, is an Associate Professor in the English Department of the Kwara State University.

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Obari Gomba Wins Nigerian Prize For Literature After Five Attempts

October 14, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments

Dr Obari Gomba, winner NLNG Literature Prize for 2023

Obari Gomba, an Associate Dean of Humanities at the University of Port Harcourt, has won the Nigerian Prize for Literature 2023.

Gomba, a poet and playwright, who teaches Literature and Creative Writing at University of Port Harcourt, won with his Drama book, Grit.

He emerged from 145 entries, 11 Longlist and later Three Shortlist, beating two other playwrights in a fiercely contested finals at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, on October13, 2023.

The other playwrights are; Abideen Abolaji Ojomu (Ojuelegba Crossroads) and Henry Akubuiro (Yamtarawala – The Warrior King).
With his victory, which is coming after five attempts at the prize, across three 11 Longlists and two Three Shortlists, Gomba takes home $100,000 grand Prize in the winner takes-it-all contest.

The NLNG Finalists

In his acceptance speech, he commended the NLNG for the prize platform, which he said has positively impacted Nigerian literature and creative industry at large, while commending other two contestants, who he described as winners too.

Apart from the highly coveted Nigerian Prize for Literature, the NLNG also announced Eyoh Etim, a lecturer at Akwa Ibom State University, as winner of Literary Criticism Prize. Eyoh takes home $10, 000 for his literary prowess at the contest.

As well, Hippolite Amadi, a professor of Medical Engineering & Technology, Imperial College London, won the 2023 Nigerian Prize for Science.

Earlier in his opening remarks at the ceremony, Philip Mshelbila, managing director/chief executive officer, Nigeria LNG Limited, noted that the 2023 prize ceremony holds on the theme ‘Redefination’, in line with the need to reevaluate our priorities, visions and to push for change that will make the world a better place for businesses and humans.

Speaking on the prizes, the NLNG boss noted that the authors have used the power of words to redefine values, institute change and call attention to things that need to be preserved in a fast changing world.

He commended all the writers for exhibiting a high level of literary ingenuity, while assuring on sustained support for the prizes.

Who is Obari Gomba?

Obari Gomba (PhD) teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, and is an Honorary Fellow in Writing of the University of Iowa (USA). He is a recipient of Rivers ANA Distinguished Writer Award, Halogen Award for Poetry, and Kangaroo Poetry Festival Poet of 2018. He is a two-time winner of both the Best Literary Artiste Award and the First Prize for Drama of the English Association of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His works include Guerrilla Post (Winner of ANA Drama Prize 2018/ Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2018), For Every Homeland (Winner of ANA Poetry Prize 2017/ Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2017), Thunder Protocol (Winner of ANA Poetry Prize 2016), Length of Eyes (Shortlisted for ANA Poetry Prize in 2013 /Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2013), and Pearls of the Mangrove (adopted as a ‘Book of the Festival’ for the 2011 Garden City Literary Festival and the 2019 Festival Poetry Calabar). He curated an anthology featuring 35 writers from 33 countries, entitled A Piece of Daily Life, for the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa (USA) in 2016.

His poetry has been featured in Re-Markings: A World Assembly of Poets and The Second Genesis: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry. His poetry has been published in international journals such as Prosopisia, Sentinel, Maple Tree Literary Supplement and Eleven Eleven (which listed his ‘Gun Policy’ in the 20 Best of the Net for 2016). He has read his poems in the United States at Shambaugh House (University of Iowa), Dubuque Museum of Arts, Oaknell Retirement Centre, and Kirkwood. In Nigeria, he has read his poems at Alliance Francaise in Enugu, Lagos International Poetry Festival, Lagos Book and Art Festival, Abuja Writers Forum, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Port Harcourt Book Festival, Art Republic/Art-in-My-City Exhibition in Enugu, History Concourse in Port Harcourt, and CORA Book Party for the Nigeria Prize for Literature, etc. He has also read his poems and discussed literature (and politics) on media platforms such as Radio Rivers FM, Nigerian Info FM, Rhythm FM, Radio UST FM, Garden City FM, Unique (Uniport) FM, NTA, and CCTV Africa. 

His poems were performed by the Portland Stage Company in Maine USA in 2016. His other writings have also appeared in Matatu, African Review, Africa Oil+Gas Report, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, Oja, Third Text, Jeltan, ANA Review, Culture Digest, Crucible, Working Papers, The Muse, Mgbakoigba, New Age, Lagos Review of Books and Society, This Day, The News, etc. There is a chapter on his writing in Masterpieces of African Literature; and his works have been reviewed/mentioned in 234 Next, The Guardian, The Guardian Life, This Day, The Sun, National Life, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, Ago, etc. 

His work, as a teacher at the University of Port Harcourt, has deepened his interest in human capital development. Beyond teaching in the classroom, he also offered service as a moderator for Christopher Okigbo Foundation/Conference; as a facilitator/resource person to the International Writing Program’s MOOC; as a panelist for Iowa Book Festival; as the LOC Chairman of the 3rd International Conference on Tanure Ojaide; as the Festival Coordinator of the Gabriel Okara Literary Festival; as a moderator at Lagos International Poetry Festival; as a moderator at Lagos Book and Art Festival; as a writing workshop facilitator for Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital, Port Harcourt Book Festival, and Niger Delta Creative Writers’ Workshop; as a judge for Port Harcourt Carnival and Bayelsa State ANA; as a book reviewer and editor for Hornbill House of Arts; and as a resource person on advocacy to the Ministry of Economic Planning of Delta State in conjunction with ODA/UNDP. He understands that a knowledge-based society is crucial to development in the 21st century.

Dr Obari Gomba is the 2021 Global South Visiting Professor

This brief was culled from: TORCHOxford.

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Story| The Golden Mean | By Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema

October 14, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments

Photo credit: Oziel Gomez

David drove to his office in a daze. Glad that work had ended for the day and most of the staff had gone, including his secretary, he flung himself in his chair, stretched his legs on top of the files strewn across his desk and shut his eyes.

Man, he had not expected such a hot brickbat. But then perhaps it was what he needed. Nagging fear clutched his heart: was there still any hope left for him and Njideka? Had they gone too far down the slippery road to the point of no return? Reverend Adolphus had assured him that all hope was not yet lost. ‘As long as the signals have not completely died out you can recharge the batteries. If you still love her make the move. Like you did when you were chasing her. In spite of all this women lib stuff the ladies still want bedroom warriors. At least most of them.’ David had come away rather amazed that a man of the pulpit could talk so forthrightly and knowledgeably about matters of the flesh. But then the young Anglican clergyman was one of the most maverick pastors in town. In addition to his degrees in theology and Biblical studies, he earned a first-class degree in Psychology from the University of Ibadan. Male members of his parish often held up his wife as a model of godly sexiness to their wives and girlfriends.


David sighed and let the Technicolor slides of the past five years with Njideka play in his mind. It was all as fresh as yesterday and now as sad as a bleak rainy day. He met Njideka at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Whether it was love or lust or a combination of both at first sight, neither could say. None of them cared either because they ended up in David’s bachelor pad after the party, tearing off each other’s clothes and burrowing into each other in a sheer wave of carnality that made them forsake the bed and take to the floor. It should have been a one-night stand but apparently they could not get enough of each other. Both had so much in common: they were Anglicans; their home villages was just three kilometres away from each other in Imo State; they got their degrees from Abia State University, though David majored in History while Njideka started off with Economics before switching to her dream discipline, Law. Both were top students, amazingly missing first-class by cat’s whiskers. Both were driven and super-ambitious. Both were opinionated and relished challenges.

And both felt they had found the one who would meet the needs of their hearts without any yeye compromise. When they got married, David was a middle-level manager at Straight Kings, the leading HR firm in Lagos and clearly headed for the top. Njideka was already making her mark as one of the dynamites of Femi, Kanu and Iroko Chambers, the undisputed leading light of the private legal enterprise in South-Western Nigeria. Within two years of marriage, the bedroom was replaced by the office. Files, phones and laptops took the place of pillows, duvets and bedsheets. Sex, whenever it happened, was a pain in the ass and a clear obstacle to planning the latest Power-Point presentation or preparing briefs for those legal fireworks. But then certain marital duties had to be performed. After two years during which they prospered financially from their exertions, subtle hints came from families and friends about a little boy or girl in the house. Njideka would not deny her brooding but she was also hungering to be a senior partner in the illustrious chambers and possibly be in charge if the head honchos set up a branch in the East. A baby would not be convenient for now. She was glad her man was the modern, yuppie, career-driven New Age husband who would not be tied by traditional concepts of the marital life.

Alas, it was not to be. David was still a man and his machete demanded a farm to weed. Rebuffed repeatedly, he called Njideka in for a serious talk. He got the shock of his life when his wife made it clear her fast-track as the female power house of Femi and Associates would not be derailed, even by konji. The resentment and quarrels got too much for both of them. Soon they talked only in monosyllables, and only on the most essential and most mundane matters. Somehow, despite all the hints he got from attractive female colleagues and clients, David held out, temporarily quenching matters with porn and masturbation. Anger seethed in him. One night, he got home and had an awful fight with Njideka, turning into an almost demented tiger. ‘Fuck the career-climbing. I didn’t bargain for this.’


‘Well, you have it and you better live with it. Dick and pussy doesn’t bring the good life,’ she thundered back, a sexy hellcat at that moment.

‘My learned friend, go get the divorce papers. I can’t go on like this.’

‘What did you say, David?’

‘You heard me. This is no marriage; it is a goddamned board meeting.’ He grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the house. He returned to the office, thankfully free of staff, and for the first time in ten years, cried his eyes out. He did not know that Njideka was also soaking her legal briefs with tears and struggling with her personal demons and desires. David ended up in a night-club and in the arms of a big-breasted escort who confessed he nearly ‘killed’ her with his wild waist sciences.  

The home front was now broken. Each passed the other tight-lipped in the corridors. Each went out for days on end without keeping the other informed. David half-expected divorce summons any day.  

Hot guilt over his repeated sweet trysts at night-clubs filled his heart. One night, after a rollicking session with another escort, he went into the bathroom to clean up and broke down in tears. 

‘Why are you crying?’ 

He turned. It was Marcie, the escort. He doubted it was her real name. She was dragging on her cigarette, her lush tresses falling wildly down her shoulders, her most suckable breasts unbridled beneath her towel. Her long legs were raw sex on the move.

David knew he should just shut up and leave but he so badly wanted to unburden his heart.

‘My marriage is gone.'

‘Care to tell me about it?’

‘Why should I?’

Marcie‘s smile was sincerely sympathetic. ‘It will do you some good and at least clear your head to drive home without tears blurring your eyes. Come.’ She led him like a mother guiding her troubled son to the small but neat sitting-room. She retired into the bedroom where they had turned the earth upside down in a frenzy of coition and returned, decently dressed in a T-shirt and knee-length skirt. She handed him a Coke and sat opposite him.

‘Talk. I will listen.’

David could not believe her disposition. But then he had read somewhere that prostitutes give men far more life-saving services than mere release of konji. He sighed and talked. When he finished, an almost visible silence filled the room for a couple of minutes. Marcie looked up and smiled enigmatically.

‘No wonder you were thrusting like tomorrow will never come.’ She paused, apparently ignoring David’s discomfort which he tried to hide with gulps of Coca-Cola.

‘Go home, take her in your arms and give it to her as you gave it to me.’

David looked at her as if she was a bundle of idiocy.

‘Haven’t you been listening to me?’

‘Sure, loverboy, I have.’ She reached for a cigarette, noticed the flicker of disapproval in his lovely eyes and decided to humor him. ‘See, I am a woman and I can bet you all you paid me tonight that right now your lady is in deep torment. She wants her career badly but her body craves for you, the man she loves. Be her man. Love her till she is healed; then both of you find the balance. The golden mean, as good old Aristotle said.’

The high-flying HR expert did not know his mouth was wide open in sheer amazement. Sure, things had so degenerated in Nigeria that undergraduates and graduates were taking to prostitution, popularly known as hustling, to make ends meet. But he never thought the day would come when he would see a commercial sex worker tossing off Aristotelian philosophy.

‘Jesus' was all he could say when he regained control of his mouth.

‘Indeed. Now go and do it and may the one you called just now help you.’

David sighed heavily. His guilt-riddled countenance was as readable as a CNN headline. Marcie guessed what was troubling him.

‘You have made the mistake. If things were okay between you two, you wouldn’t be here. Who knows what she might have done since you guys became Iran and Iraq? Healthy women love to meet the needs of their clit, you know.’ There was no element of vulgarity in her voice. ‘Go, and good luck.’

They stood and stared at each other. Marcie ‘s hazel eyes looked so much like his favorite late aunt’s that he had to restrain himself from hugging her. At the door, he turned and spoke softly.

‘You are much more educated than me. Why are you doing this job?’

‘Because somebody has to do it. I have served you a great purpose tonight, abi?’

‘Yes. Thank you.’

As soon as the door closed behind him, Marcie went into the bedroom, lit a cigarette and let her tears flow. For herself. For the man whom David reminded her of; the man she loved like no other and had been killed fighting against Boko Haram as a Lieutenant and member of the Special Anti-Terrorist Squadron of the Nigerian Army.    

After two days of mental struggle David went to see the funky but wise man of God.

~~~~~~

Njideka sipped her cognac and smiled humorlessly. She had never been much of a drinker, even socially, but recently she had taken to relaxing with some cognac after the day’s labors. Loneliness at home inevitably increased the quantity she downed. ‘Watch it, Nji girl, or you might end up a shayo mistress,’ she said to herself. She closed her eyes to imagine herself in an inebriate state and laughed bitterly. She set down the glass on a side stool, stood up and glanced at the wall –clock. 8.30p.m. She was not expecting David home but a heart-breaking pang of sorrow hit her hard as she reflected on how they came to this sad pass. She shivered as she vividly remembered those x-rated texts David used to send her towards the closure of work. Texts that got her wet between the legs and made her silently but venomously curse anyone who dumped any work on her desk at that time. Those days when they discussed work and ended up fucking on top of files. 


Where had it all gone, she wondered for the millionth time. Where is the spring and the summer, as the hit Swedish pop band Abba sang in their heart-tugging masterpiece ‘Hasta Manana.’ She began to pace the elegant room. It was the master guest-room in their de luxe six-room bungalow; she had moved into it shortly before the conflagration that was consuming their marriage. Initially she had not intended to remain cooped up there at nights, just pausing to keep sexual heat away from the growing demands of her job. But David had gone beyond reason so there was no point returning to their bedroom. But now, as she took in the expansive bed, the beginning of tears formed in her eyes. Without any deliberate plan to do so, she stopped before the in-built full-length mirror situated in the far left cream-colored wall. Her eyes fell on her reflection which was amplified by the bright light overhead. 

Photo credit: Kelly Sikkema

At twenty-nine years, she had the figure of a woman nine years younger. Endowed with a beautiful ripe-pear complexion, average height and a small, neat, curvy body that could excite unholy thoughts in a priest, her oval face could not be described as classically beautiful. But the sum of her impish dark eyes, the well-carved nose, smooth and immensely kissable lips and high-cheek bones gave her demeanour an arresting attractiveness. Her breasts were by no means the typical big African mangoes but they always looked like determined rebels whenever she was on the move, even in her legal attire. Whatever she wore sat neatly on her compact backside. It was the movement of her backside under her denim skirt at the party that got David into trouble.

She sighed deeply and looked at the small mesh of lines at the corner of her eyes. Where had they come from? She had not seen them before. Or perhaps they had been there but she had apparently not noticed them. To think there was a time these lines were not there and her sunlight had not dimmed. She returned to the sofa beside her bed and reached for the bottle of cognac. At that moment the front door bell rang. She paused. The bell rang again as she got up.

‘Who is it?’

‘Me.’ It was David.

Njideka glanced at the clock. 9.15p.m. The rat was rather home early today. Steeling herself to look unbothered; she approached the door and unlocked it, then walked back to the room wordlessly. David entered, shut and locked the door. In the natural order of their war, he would not bother to greet her. He would retire to the bedroom, bathe and either go to bed or catch the news from Aljazeera or BBC from the portable TV he had moved into the room since she moved out. There was no question of dinner. He took care of his stomach outside though he faithfully credited her account with family upkeep money and kept her informed when he did this via whatsapp. 

But now he went to the shut door and knocked gently. Njideka looked up from her mobile where she was trying to engulf herself in, of all things; the Brittle paper bestseller erotica by Obinna Udenwe mischievously titled ‘Holy Sex.’ The knocking was persistent. She ignored it.

‘Darling, please open up.’

Silence. Njideka’s heart and head danced with a cocktail of barely restrained emotions.

‘Nji, I am not leaving here till you open this door. ‘ David’s voice was low, calm and sad.

‘Didn’t you see your whores tonight? You can mount sentry for all I care.’ Njideka was chagrined at the strident note in her voice.

‘There is no whore, nne. This madness has gone far enough. Please, open the door.’

Silence for what seemed like a century. Njideka dropped her phone on the sofa as tears filled her eyes. She knew her self-control was virtually gone. But somehow she remained glued to her seat. David began knocking again. 

‘Leave me alone!’ she shrieked. ‘You want a divorce; you will get it.’

David took a deep breath.

‘Nji, I am sorry. They were the words of a frustrated man. I love you and will never leave you.’ The words rang true. Njideka broke down and cried openly. David’s heart bled as he heard her sobs.

‘Nji, o zugo. Please.’

The door flung open like the released entrance to Aladdin’s cave. A sobbing Njideka turned to go back to her seat but David caught her with gentle ease and held her arm fast. The months of pent-up anger, frustration, guilt and passion raged in her struggle to let go but David gathered her to him and virtually crushed her in an embrace. Gradually she ceased and sobbed heartbrokenly. David could not restrain the tears in his eyes and voice. ‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ he said repeatedly. ‘Forgive me. I love you.’

Njideka looked up into his eyes.

‘Davi m,’ That was her pet name for him. A name David had longed for like mad. ‘I hurt you badly. Gbagharam, biko. Can you pardon me?’

‘For calling me that, I can forgive you anything.’ He was not kidding and she knew it. He sighed. ‘I have to tell you something.’ The difficulty in his voice gave her the message.

‘Later, Davi m. I know what it is and heaven will not fall.’ She took his right hand and led him to the bed. David followed her obediently. They sat side by side. ‘Fuck me till I faint,’ she said hoarsely, the pool in her eyes almost drowning him.

‘Are you sure about this?’ David tried to ignore what her words, her scent, her desire, were doing to his loins.

‘Yes, I can’t go on like this. I’d rather get drunk on you than cognac.’ Before David could reply she pushed him on the bed with surprising strength. David had removed his shirt and vest in the bedroom but had his trousers on. Njideka wore shorts and a loose-fitting T-shirt. David’s engorged manhood nearly burst as she swiftly peeled off the shirt and her swollen mammaries jumped at him like a commando’s knife. Was it his imagination or had they grown to the size of medium paw paws? Njideka smiled at the flare of lust in his face.

‘Want some breast milk?’

David pulled her down and pressed her body hard on his. Njideka gasped at the tip of his iroko touching her womanhood; his chest burrowing into her painfully ripe mangoes; his male scent mixing with her womanly sexy aroma.

‘I wan chop,’ he whispered gutturally.

‘Your wish is my command,’ she replied, giggling with unbridled happiness. Only Hymen knew how much she had nearly tumbled into the chasm of depression because there was no-one to eat her ikpu since she and her husband went to war. David watched, transfixed, as she got rid of her shorts with the subtlety of a strip-tease in heat, cupped her boobs and lay back on the bed. Anticipation and something akin to sweet dread engulfed her being.


David‘s lips and fingers went to work. While he kept his hands on her breasts, his fingers playing her nipples and all the circumferences of her aureoles, his mouth researched her genitalia with the dexterity of a PhD candidate writing a thesis on a subject dear to his heart. By the time his lips dug into the candy of her clitoris, Njideka was making sounds very much like those of dogs fighting over a plate of juicy meat. The sounds and crazy mix of Igbo, English and gibberish emanating from her mouth could have set an eunuch’s head on fire and David was no eunuch. He ate and ate till she let out an unalloyed scream which must have pierced the sound-proof walls.

A nam abia ooo!’ Neither of them bothered why she was announcing her arrival but somehow David’s head remained burrowed between her almost unhinged legs as she reached the destination of her orgasmic journey. Her husband raised his face, bathed in female juices, and watched as Njideka convulsed rhythmically on the king-size bed, a beatific smile on her face. Then he held her tight and let her tremors pass through him as she calmed down. They remained still for what seemed like years. Then Njideka opened her eyes and kissed her husband on the nose. ‘I needed that,’ she whispered.

‘I am sure you did.’ David wondered if the throbbing of his penis was real or imaginary. He gasped as his wife’s right hand snaked out and took charge of his shaft, sneaked to his balls. ‘You are killing me, babe.’

Njideka smiled wickedly and made him lie on his back. She propped herself up on her knees, bent and descended on his manhood with sweet savagery. David was no stranger to blowjobs and back in the old days Njideka had been one hell of a dick-sucker. But this one was unique. She did not shut her eyes for a moment as she devoured shaft, scrotum, testicles; the entire package. David’s head seemed to erupt as she unexpectedly went slow, then fast, gentle, then almost rough, light, then amazingly heavy with both mouth and fingers. At one stage, her alternately cool and hot lips ceased their mission of mercy. Almost at the door of Nirvana, David opened his mouth. She smiled her wicked smile again.

‘Say nothing. Just enjoy the ride.’

She formed her right hand into a circle, wrapped it around the trembling manhood and gently lifted the skin at the base of his erection. David knew he was a goner. Two more of that and he would come. He gritted his teeth in anticipation. Njideka tugged once more, and then abruptly took him almost savagely in her mouth, letting her lips encase his entire velvet, compelling the JT to travel as far as it could down her throat. The sky burst open. David could not help the rough cry that escaped his lips as he bucked and exploded. White milk gushed as if from a broken tap. Njideka’s face was rinsed with perhaps the biggest man-goo she had ever sampled during coition. She paused very briefly to give her dribbling mouth a little respite before getting back to work. She sucked and licked till there was nothing left in the pipeline. Almost perfect silence reigned, only interrupted by the sound of the in-built split-air-conditioning unit.

‘Are you still alive?’ Njideka asked mischievously. She had adjusted her position to place her naked trunk on her man’s inert form, making no effort to clean her face. David wrapped his arms around her and she purred like a contented cat.
‘Guess BJ 101 was a compulsory course in the Law Department.’

‘Of course. That’s why I am a first-class bongi advocate.’ The sultry way she spoke made David resolve never to have such undue period of abstinence from her again.

He looked into her shining eyes. ‘Where do we go from here?’

‘All the way to paradise. Remember, you must fuck me till I faint.’

David sighed. ‘We must go to work echi.’


She smiled as if reassuring a little boy who forgot to come home from school with his assignment notebook. ‘Today is Friday. Not that I care.’

The realization that the weekend with its sweetly unholy potentials stretched out before them activated David’s juices. He swung her up and laid her across his lower regions. ‘Let‘s get to work.’

~~~~~~

They did not step out of the house that weekend. In fact, only the need to bathe and eat made them engage in non-erotic movements. All phones were switched off or put on silent. They unleashed every device of erotic enjoyment their minds could conjure. David was happily shocked by his wife’s unorthodoxy and more than once wondered whether their unplanned celibacy had brought forth the beast in her. On her part, Njideka rejoiced in her man’s ultimate willingness to recognize her needs and incorporate her pleasures in his.

No sex style was left unattempted. When David sought for a condom, Njideka firmly shook her head. He hesitated. She kissed him reassuringly. ‘I know you fucked outside during our fight. I also know you used protection.’

David could not hide his surprise. All his trysts with escorts, including Marcie, had been with packets of Gold Circle. He insisted on it and the commercial sex workers, more used to the average Nigerian client who preferred skin to skin, happily obliged.

‘Who told you?’

‘I know my man. Now shut up and give it to me like those dogs that roam about in my village market.’

They downloaded X-rated stuff from the internet together and tried out what they watched. At David’s suggestion, they took to bedding like bunnies in all the bedrooms in a sex game he called ‘Bongi the Rooms’ and ended up in their abandoned marital bedroom. Njideka could not restrain the emotion that overwhelmed her as she lay on the bed. Her tears flowed with the surge of her husband’s groin in her thighs and when he took her in the wildest jack-knife style on the bed, she sobbed and screamed unashamedly. When she finally regained her senses, she hugged him.

‘If you don’t share this bed with me again I will shoot you.’

‘Never, Nji.’ He meant every word.  

 On Saturday evening, in spite of her insistence, he joined her in the kitchen as she dished out food. The exercise lasted longer than usual for some reasons. First, Njideka went into the kitchen wearing the shortest and most pussy-defining bum shorts she could lay her hands on and a bra the late queen of American porn, Linda Lovelace, would have killed for. Second, when she opened the fridge and bent to collect a cooler of stew, something drastically shoved her from behind against the cool fridge. Something hard and rigid in her hole. All thoughts of food were suspended; indeed the thrusts suspended her memory as David gave her raw fireworks in the kitchen. They ended up eating in the kitchen naked.
Later, well after midnight, after an exhilarating 69 session which culminated in a good pounding in sensational missionary-style, they lay in each other’s arms, spent and swimming in unmatched bliss. Abruptly, Njideka gently nipped at David’s left ear. He opened his eyes.

‘Emm?’

She sat up, a pensive look on her face. David guessed she wanted to download some information and also sat up.

‘My bosses offered me headship of their newly established branch in Onitsha.’

David felt an invisible cloth covering the glow that had taken hold of his soul since their reconciliation.

‘And have you accepted?’

She took a deep breath.

‘I must give them an answer this week.’ She suddenly put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

‘It is one hell of a chance in a lifetime. But I don’t want us to go to war again or worse.’

David smiled and took her in his arms. When he released her after a tight love-lock, he focused a warm gaze into her beseeching face.

‘Do you really want to go? It will be tough but we can work things out. You deserve to get to the top of your career.’ 

She spoke quietly.

‘I know. But after this weekend, I guess my priorities have sort of been readjusted. I know what matters.’  

 David held her arms. ‘Don’t be hasty, Nji. Onitsha is not on planet Jupiter. We can come to an arrangement which will suit us fine.’ He sounded so sincere that tears sprang into his wife’s eyes.

‘No, darling. I don’t want a weekend husband, a cold home and a colder bed. One shot at that nearly turned me into a dependant on cognac. And what if the kids come? No, Davi m. I am not that liberated.’

Her man took a deep breath. He realized his duty was to support her in a decision that would be good for both of them. What an unbalanced world, he thought. If the shoes were reversed I, the world, would expect her to move with me, probably give up her job, just because I am the husband. He kissed her long and hard, only stopping when passion began to quicken their heartbeat.

‘Easy, babe. You are my wife, and your happiness and fulfillment matters to me. Take a decision that you can live with.’

Njideka asked him quietly, ‘Who or what transformed you, honey? It can’t be our bed-creaking exercises, though they helped.’ She grinned. David took a deep breath and told her about Marcie and Reverend Adolphus. She listened patiently. There was a short interval of silence, and then she took his right hand in both of hers. 

‘Thank you, Davi m. I love you.’

He gave her a blatantly evil look.

‘Prove it.’

‘How?’ She asked with deceptively child-like innocence.

‘By giving me a dangerous lap-dance in the sitting-room.’

She giggled.

‘Glad you want a dangerous one. O ya, make we go.’

Njideka politely told her bosses she would not accept their offer. Barristers Femi Okoduwa and Kanu Eze listened to her reasons and watched her intently as she spoke. When she finished, Okoduwa smiled knowingly.

‘Hope you don’t mind my saying this but you radiate a brightness that I have not seen in you for God knows how long.’

‘And a relaxed beauty, I must add,’ added Kanu.

Njideka could not help the laughter that bubbled up from her insides. The two doyens of the legal profession in Nigeria told her they would get back to her and assured her of their highest regard for her contributions to their chambers.

On Friday, she got a letter promoting her to senior counsel in the chambers of Femi, Kanu and Iroko, putting her in charge of the research section at the Lagos head office. 

###

Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema is a Lagos-based author and historian. Email: henrykd2009@yahoo.com

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ANA Announces 2023 Fellowship Nominees

October 13, 2023 TWF Editor 0 Comments


By: Abdulhafeez T. Oyewole

The national body of the Association of Authors (ANA), through its national Secretariat, has announced the list of its 2023 ANA fellowship nominees. 

The National Secretary of the Association, Maik Ortserga, made the announcement in a statement e-signed and sighted by The Words Finesse (TWF).

The list contains name of twenty-five nominees which, according to the statement, were arranged in no particular order.

They are as follow as seen by TWF.

1. Prof. Sunny Ijirhevwe Awhefeada
2. Prof. Emmanuel Dandaura
3. Prof. Joy Eyisi
4. Prof. Isidore Diala
5. Mr. Josef. Nengi Illagha
6. Hon. Justice Francis Chukwuma Abosi 
7. Dr. Tivlumun Nyitse
8. Dr. Tunde Olunsule
9. Dr. Raymond Anumve
10. Hon. Ernest Onuoha
11. Arch. Nimo Bassey
12. Mr. Ibrahim Sheme
13. Prof. Chris Onyema
14. Dr. John Otu
15. Alhaji Yahaya Dangana
16. Prof. Nuhu Yaqub
 17. Prof. Emeka Aniagolu
18. Yeye Yetunde Abiola Fosudo
19. Maj. Gen. Lawrence Pwanobato Ngubane (Rtd.)
20. Col. Oladele Babajamu (Rtd.)
21. Prof. Tony Afejoku
22. Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke
23. Prof. Priye Iyalla-Amadi
24. C. Don Adinuba
25. Dr. Abubakar Othman

The statement finalized, "All nominees are expected to get in touch with ANA national secretariat and submit their citations for proper documentation". 

Congratulations to all nominees from all of us at TWF.

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