(Being the Chairman’s opening remarks by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, represented by Prof. Christopher Bode, Chief Medical Officer of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, at the launch of MADAGALI by Dr. Wale Okediran on Thursday, July 29 2021 at the Harbour Point event center, Victoria Island, Lagos.)
I CONSIDER it a great pleasure to have been invited here today as the Chairman of the Public Presentation of the Novel, MADAGALI, written by my good friend, brother and professional colleague, Dr Wale Okediran who is the current Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association based in Accra, Ghana.
Although Wale Okediran was trained as a Medical Doctor who later became a Member of the Federal House Of Representatives in Abuja, he is more known in Nigeria and abroad as a writer of great distinction. Apart from his other publications, his award winning book, Tenants Of the House, which is a factional account of his stay in the National Assembly was recently adapted into a motion picture.
As many people will know, Literary History is replete with books and novels which capture, in fictional form, momentous events in the historical developments of many countries. It is in that regard that I have captioned my speech, “When Fiction Mirrors Life”, and I believe it’s most appropriate.
While the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was about World War 1, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell was a fictional account of the American Civil War while Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternack captured the Soviet Union at the time of the Russian Revolution.
Nearer home in Nigeria, a plethora of novels have been written on the Nigerian Civil War such as Cyprian Ekwensi’s Divided We Stand, Eddie Iroh’s Forty Eight Guns For TheGeneral, Aniebo’s Behind The Rising Sun as well as Chimamanda Adiche’s Half Of A Yellow Sun, among others.
For the past decade or so, Nigeria has been battling with the Boko Haram insurgency which has affected many Nigerians however far they were from the specter of the crisis. As expected, Nigerian Writers at home and abroad have commenced the necessary and very important duties of documenting the insurgency in Fiction and Non- Fiction. One of such fictional efforts is Wale Okediran’s Madagali which is being presented here today.
According to the author, the book’s title, MADAGALI, was named after Madagali town in Adamawa State which was recently in the headlines as one of those towns in the North East which suffered a lot of attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents. Although the town may not be the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency, the town deserves the book title with the hope that the expected global and national attention to it among other badly affected towns in Nigeria will lead to a further abhorrence of the insurgency.
I am aware that in appreciation of the author’s decision to name the book after their town, some prominent members of the Madagali Community are represented at today’s event. It is my hope that these prominent community leaders as well as other invited guests to this book launch will support the author’s efforts of highlighting the wider dimension of the menace of the insurgency by purchasing as many copies of the book as possible for wide dissemination.
As has been well elaborated over the years, the fight against insurgency is not limited to the government. It is the duty of every Nigerian to support the Government’s efforts in every way possible.
My hearty congratulations to the Author and Publisher for another wonderful contribution to the Nigerian Literature. We earnestly pray that apart from being a form of reading pleasure to many, the book MADAGALI, by bringing attention to this decade old insurgency will assist in the urgent and very important role of finding a quick solution to the problem.
