News -- A reporter's account of The Season of Anomie

If there is a book that many have looked forward to with some excitement, it is Kunle Ajibade's Jailed for Life, his prison memoirs. And this is for very obvious reasons. One, Chris Anyanwu, his fellow journalist and victim of the Abacha's reign of terror had already beaten him to it by documenting her own experience in her book titled, The Days of Terror, published by Spectrum Books, Nigeria, that was launched with much fanfare late last year.

Secondly, when he appeared at the Justice Oputa Panel, Kunle held back certain information telling the members of the panel to wait for his book. As it has turned out, the wait was not to be too long except that it did not come early enough for Chief Bola Ige, one of those who inspired the author to ensure that he did 'a damn good book' to witness its eventual birth. There was also the point that being a creative writer and critic, Kunle was expected to come out with some different, especially because of how he got into the lion's den. Finally, the book is out, or as others would say, has seen the light of day. The launching was quite impressive though there were those political opportunists who thought they could get some mileage from identifying with the book and its author. After all, in these days, Abacha-bashing is a favourite pastime for many, including those who were fellow collaborators in that inglorious era of our national history. Yes, they made the headlines that they wanted but then nobody was fooled. But for some of them, it would have been difficult for Abacha to hold a whole nation captive for so long. Even when Nigerians are said to sometimes suffer collective amnesia, the Abacha years are too recent for us to forget who did what. This of course has little to do with the book. The problem really is not with these politicians. That after all, is in their character.

Jailed for Life without doubt is a major work that deserves critical attention but then in the usual manner of those who ought to do this, carry on as if nothing has happened. There has always been this problem with the critical establishment (or what is left of the tribe). After the launch, hardly anything has been said about the book except the 'sweet-nothings' by politicians and their fellow political jobbers. One begins to wonder then what has become of that celebrated sense of news of journalists and writers. Yet this is about us and our past.

One thing is certain, this book is a major contribution to what Kole Omotosho calls the country's narrations of survival' and it will not be an ambitious thing to group it in the class of such books as Wole Soyinka's The Man Died and Ken Saro Wiwa's A Day and a Month among others. Kunle has used his own experience, to enable society to once again take a critical look at itself. It is about roads taken and not taken. How well Kunle has done to be so categorized is left to individual readers. But the first thing about the book is that it ranks among the very few to enjoy an enviable high profile blurb. Odia Ofeimun describes the book as encapsulating in the best tradition of literary journalism, the experiences of incarceration and resistance during General Sani Abacha's years. "On the carpet throughout is the military as an institution, careering from one self immolating escape to another and dragging the country down with it along murky alleys of deprivation, torture and murder."

Biodun Jeyifo writes that the narrative carries one along compellingly. "Kunle Ajibade has found just about the right combination of the subjective and the objective: he gives vent to his own memories, feelings and judgements while letting the facts, events, realities speak for themselves."

There is of course the excerpt from taken from the forthcoming memoirs of Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. There can be no greater endorsement. Kunle sure deserves this.

But given the experience with some other texts, one has to be careful with some of these comments. The taste of the pudding, as it is commonly said, is in the eating and so it is with a book. A book must be judged more by its content and not what some others think or feel about it. It is important to make this point because there is always a problem associated with writing prison memoirs because the reader already has a mind-set about what it should contain. This of course is the first thing to be resolved in encountering Kunle's book.

No doubt, the author brings to bare his background as a creative writer and reporter. The writing is so tight that one finds it difficult to believe that a 213 paged book could contain that much information. The author decides to do something radically different from other books that belong to this genre of literature. In telling his own story, he tells the story of the Nigerian journalist and the Nigerian nation; so that the real protagonist of the book is the Nigerian journalist and not really Kunle Ajibade, the author. He does not stop there. As an extension of the journalist- hero, there is also the story of what is now known as the guerilla press. In doing this, what the author tells the reader is that he is just a victim (or is it product of the system?) that made this kind of journalism inevitable at some point in the nation's history. This of course excites the reader who admires something new and different. The book therefore calls for a careful reading

The genesis of guerilla journalism is best explained by the excerpt from Wole Soyinka's forthcoming memoir which serves as the introduction to the book. This piece does two things; it explains the direction in which the author intends to take and also why it became inevitable for Kunle and his colleagues to do what they did at the time. This is followed by a brief on the history of Independent Communications Network Limited (ICNL), publishers of The News/ Tempo of which the author is a founding member. He titles it "Before the last crackdown". Does this remind the reader of "Before the Blackout?" (Just a digression...). This of course extends the frontiers of discourse or response to the book which may be the likely intention of the author. Like the raconteur that he is, he ends that chapter with the fact that the story that he is about to tell came about simply because he was a factor in the resistance against tyranny. "That episode in my life was like a push off a cliff. How did I survive? I call on the recent past to explain..."

Kunle is not alone in this resistance. He was just a member of a determined army and it only makes sense that other heroes of the struggle get their due acknowledgement. And this is not just about the ICNL family but the entire journalism fraternity. According to him; "My arrest, interrogation and subsequent imprisonment were part of a stream of history of press repression in my country when journalism ran into conflict with arbitrary or arrogant power." He gives account of those who had passed this way before him. But while many had been victims of state high-handedness, this was the first time that journalists would not only be accused of coup plotting but also jailed for same. Together with Ben Charles Obi, George Mbah and Chris Anyanwu, a new chapter was written in the history of state repression of journalists.

The author does not only tell his own story, he also plays the reporter by informing the reader about the intrigues and politics of the phantom coup plot and how some of the principal actors were roped in and of course, the deliberate perversion of the judicial system just to ensure that the opposition is silenced. The book simply confirms what many already know. But there is nothing like hearing from one of those who the real victims. Here was a government that was being haunted by ghosts of its own evil actions. The trial and subsequent conviction of the so-called coup suspects was nothing but a mockery of the judicial process. None of those arrested in the first instance ever believed that they would get fair judgement but then, nobody thought that things could get to such a ridiculous extent. He employs his reportorial skills here by making others speak on some of the issues raised in this part. What this means is that there is no pretence to being the omniscient narrator who sees and reports all. Things happened while he was in detention and it is only fair that those who were in "the thick of action" tell the story.

He gives a graphic account of the more than three years he spent in the Gulag and in the process revealing the rottenness of the system. The prison system is of course an extension of a rotten society so that for those who run the place; it is 'business as usual'. The system is developed in such a way that the people are encouraged to devour themselves. The environment was simply hostile and only the lucky ones live to tell their story.

In all of this, there is the temptation to think that the victims were all on there own. But from the account of the author, this was far from so.

Those who could do nothing gave their moral support. There is nothing like being loved, appreciated and identified with in moments like this. Nigerians and foreigners were more than generous with their show of affection. At the last count, the author had 8,740 letters from different parts of the world.

According to him, it was quite a humbling experience going through some of these letters. "I felt so humbled by the generosity and warmth of those who sent those messages. Abacha and his minions took away my liberty, but they did not succeed in taking away my voice. If these letters kept me sane, my replies to some of them gave me a feeling of triumph...."

Among some of the letters reproduced in the book, there can be no missing that of Odia Ofeimun. While encouraging his friend to remain firm and resolute in the fight against oppression and injustice, he did not fail to give him a most unusual assignment. The former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) thought the author could exploit his situation to do some literary assignment for him. He asked for a 2,500 word essay on each of 20 African writers that he had interacted with.

And his argument was that "your day of freedom is not when you are free from the physical chains of the jailer; it is the moment you seize for yourself in a story that outlasts your jailers and every jailer..." That of course, is vintage Odia. And he got an appropriate response to that unusual request; "Why do you imagine that I'm on a writing fellowship?"

A respite came both for Kunle and other victims of the Abacha years of terror with the death of the dictator in 1998 but then the struggle, he soon discovered, was far from over. There was also the politics of their release and pardon by General Olusegun Obasanjo which threw up another moral and legal question. How do you pardon someone who committed no offence?

This happens only in Nigeria! That was the thrust of the protest by Kunle and his other colleagues to the president who was also there with them in the Gulag. This becomes an issue because it tells about the nature of the Nigerian society and how people could play politics with just anything. It is uncertain if Kunle and his colleagues got the kind of justice they expected from the Oputa Panel. But then with this book and others expected from other fellow victims, Nigerians will now get to read their own story. As Odia would say, no one can defeat a well told story.

Jailed for Life is not just an account of Kunle Ajibade's travails, it is also the travails of a nation. The reader could feel through the lines his pains and anxieties. Areas where he knew he was deficient, he interviewed people or used the library so that what we have is much more than just the story of an individual; it is the story of a people; their deferred expectations

and struggle towards self actualization. And with Jailed for Life, the author says "a heavy burden is lifted. My wound is healed. I am happy to be alive to share my stories with you." The reader cannot but share in this catharsis.

At the level of craft, it is difficult to fault the book. The language is simple and tight while the descriptions are vivid.

There is a twist of irony here though. What is supposed to be the strength of the book becomes for some readers, its shortcoming. In an attempt to operate from a wider canvas, he left quite some issues hanging. At some points, he gets carried away that more than anything else, he is supposed to tell his own story. What really was Kunle holding back from the Oputa Panel then that he said we should wait for in this book? Were this to be a video production then there could be the hope for a Part 2. But then for a memoir of this nature, the story is better told once and for all.

The author also missed the point about the football tournament that was aborted in 1995. The competition the country intended hosting was the FIFA U- 20 Football competition and not Under-17 as reported by the author on page 20. This is again repeated on page 26.

Though Jailed for Life has what looks like a happy ending, it throws up the challenge that the battle is far from being over. For now though there is a respite and Nigerians have another opportunity to rediscover whatever is the Nigerian Dream. That is, if there is any. Kunle Ajibade has paid a deserving tribute to Nigerian journalists and all those who stood to be counted for daring the tiger. We can only join him in the prayer that "the homeland for which we suffered so much privation would prove worthy of the sacrifice." Jailed for Life is also an indictment for those who acquiesced or maintained a criminal silence in the face of tyranny.

This is one story that needs to be told and it has been well told.