Book Review

Where We Are: A Call To Reclaim Nigerian State

Author: Nowinta Igbotako

Number of Pages: 305

Published by: Amazon (KDP)

Year of Publication: 2022

ISBN: nil

Book Reviewer: Erasmus Ikhide

Foreword by: Chief (Dr) Patrick Osagie Eholor

Written in honor of Peter Obi, presidential candidate, Labour Party (LP), the book is divided into two parts. The first, titled: Where We Are attempts to x-ray Nigeria’s condition leading to the present sorry passé from its historical background. Readers are likely to get a glimpse of this from the titles of the chapters one to five of the first part of the book – (i) Insincerity of the British Colonial Masters (ii) The Rigging of the First Parliamentary Election in Nigeria, (iii) Where we are, (iv) The Elitist Bondage (v) The Crippling of Nigeria by General Muhammadu Buhari and (vi) A State in Coma. Part two of the book dwells on the present condition of Nigeria. In it, the author predicts a coming revolution. For that revolution to come to pass, the author sets an agenda for a law against vote buying and selling in Nigeria.

In a country bombarded and dumped in the latrine of global shame and ridicule, due to decades of mad political leadership, a revolutionary book: “Where We Are – A Call To Reclaim Nigerian State,” is a passionate advocacy for the nation’s masses to furiously effect a drastic leadership change at the center.

Written in honor of Peter Obi, presidential candidate, Labour Party (LP), the book is divided into two parts. The first, titled: Where We Are attempts to x-ray Nigeria’s condition leading to the present sorry passé from its historical background. 

Readers are likely to get a glimpse of this from the titles of the chapters one to five of the first part of the book – (i) insincerity of the British Colonial Masters (ii) The Rigging of the First Parliamentary Election in Nigeria, (iii) Where we are, (iv) The Elitist Bondage (v) The Crippling of Nigeria by General Muhammadu Buhari and (vi) A State in Coma.  

Part two of the book dwells on the present condition of Nigeria. In it, the author predicts a coming revolution. For that revolution to come to pass, the author sets an agenda for a law against vote buying and selling in Nigeria.

The reason he set this agenda possibly has to do with how the political elite has weaponized poverty, and that in spite of the EndSARS Protects of October 20, 2020 that rocked Nigeria, there was indication that youngest people were getting prepared to vote in cohorts of the political elite that had sort of enslaved and impoverished Nigerians.

The book ends with a clarion call on Nigerians to reject the old order and begin afresh with Mr. Peter Obi, presidential flagbearer of the Labour Party in Nigeria, LP.

The author says: this coming presidential election must surely be the beginning of our perpetual and determined resolve, to vote out this ineptest, insincere and clueless cabal.

This is the time to reclaim our country from this extremely mad rentier system; from the hands of those who have deliberately infested Nigeria with horrific impunity. Who says Nigeria must not diversify its economic mainstay from crude oil? It is now ripe for Nigeria and Nigerians to move away from over dependence on oil. The authors and perpetrators of socio, economic and political genocide in Nigeria must be decapitated.

That there is angst and anger in Nigeria is without a doubt. Prior to the emergence of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Nigeria rebased her economy to discover that it beat all comers like Egypt and South Africa to emerge as the largest economy in Africa.

Seven years after, Nigeria is poverty capital of the world, and her people are leaving in droves to other lands.

There is no doubt that with the entire educational and security apparatus of Nigeria in very dire straits, Nowinta Igbotako’s book eloquently captures the frustrations of many Nigerians and seems to freeze that emotion in this literary work.

Besides that, the book sets the agenda for the coming elections, analyses pertinent socio-political issues bedeviling the Nigerian contraption and advocates that the only way to get break from the shackles of poverty and want is to vote Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Written in fluid prose that drips with the passion and eloquence of a scholar, Igbotako uses simple and straightforward words that make the reader easily come to terms with the issues that he presents before them and with which they are confronted every day of their lives.

Issues with typhus are very few.  Readers will have little or no issues with an interpretation of the literal or figurative implications of his diction, and that the book is published on Amazon readily attests to the fact that the author met international best practices that appeal to modern tastes and standards of digital publication.

This must-read book was written by Nowinta Igbotako, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution scholar (Professional Mediator and Conciliator).

Nowinta is an erudite Television/Radio analyst, publisher, speech/script specialist international weekly columnist and member, Board of Trustees of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ).

Nowinta is also Nigeria Bureau Chief, Alltimepost.com, an online newspaper based in Boston Massachusetts, USA. That apart, he is publicity Secretary, Society for Peace Studies, and Practice (SPSP), Edo State, Nigeria.

He was Chairman, Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Edo State, during the darkest period of military dictatorship in Nigeria (1995-1999); Secretary, Strategy & Tactics Committee, Campaign for Democracy (CD, Edo State, 1993-1994); Chairman, National Conscience Party (NCP, Edo State, 2004 – 2011); General- Secretary, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP, Edo State, Nigeria, 2007-2011), etc. Nowinta is media and research consultant at Nigeria Good Governance Research Centre (NIGOREC).

While the hard copy of the book is in the making, its digital form is already trending and selling on Amazon.com. Obtain your digital copy now!