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My lecturer of blessed memory, Frank Uche Mowah, told us back then in our great citadel, which is not the same setting as Osasuyi’s novel, The Great Citadel, that creative writing was not easy venture. It took me almost two decades to appreciate, fully, the truth in that assertion when I published my first novel.
For starters, many doctors are legendary for their ineligible writings, so it is always fascinating when we get the opportunity to read creative works penned by a doctor. The Great Citadel is set in the University of Benin during an unnamed military era, which was overthrown at the end of the novel. Though it falls into the category of fiction, the content of the novel tends towards historical insinuations with references to “Oyegun buses” and other markers that help us situate its time setting. In fact, anyone who attended the University of Benin in the 1980s and 1990s, will easily connect with the novel and its main character, Osato.
The novel opens with Osato, a freshman (aka Jambito), arriving at the University of Benin to begin a new phase of his life as an undergraduate. Through Osato’s naivety in his interactions with other characters in the novel, the narrative documents challenges and complexities that existed in Nigeria in the 1980s and 1990s.
Rather than apply the rule of “first come, first served”, students chose to reserve seats for their friends who are either far from the hall or still in their respective hostels. Osato, who initially frowns at such a practice, fails to put up a strong resistance when his friend, Chris, offers him one of the free seats in spite of his lateness to the hall. Sadly, similar situations still prevail in our country today where affluent members of the society reserve opportunities for their wards, despising others either there ahead of them and, in many cases, even better.
The novel also talks about other life issues and social challenges in the country such as hunger, inequality, stigmatisation, poverty, illegal sale of handouts, cultism, bullying, religiosity, corruption, quest for success, and sexual indiscretion, among others.
When Osato and Chris converse about the poor state of infrastructure in the lecture theatre (p. 46), the duo agree on the point that “The school authority is supposed to provide a sound system in this place or even build a new lecture theatre to decongest this one. What we see here is a reflection of the state of the country at large.”
The issue of poverty echoes in the novel when Osato and his hitherto arrogant roommate, Onome, hold a frank discussion, after the former realised that the latter’s “only earthly possession” in school are “a few clothes on the hangers, some text books and notebooks, a few toiletries in addition to other paraphernalia of little importance”. Both roommates, after their dialogue, agreed that “ground no level”. In fact, Osato concludes that poverty is a stigma, particularly in our part of the world, where stolen and ill-gotten wealth is flaunted by both the rich and their children with abandon, and to the admiration of those whose wealth they stole. As if to endorse their concerns, somewhere from a room along the tunnel, Fela’s voice drifts towards them: Beast of no nation, egbekebe, bad bad society!
In the mid-point of the novel, we see Osato, now integrated, as a metaphor for the ordinary Nigerian student struggling to excel academically in the face of harsh economic conditions, which drive some to the brink of madness during semester examinations. In his quest for academic excellence, he becomes worried that he finds it easier to fall asleep than stay awake, compared to the others who appear to be veterans of overnight reading.
Like the real-life professional politicians, the student politician characters in the book, depicted by the fictitious Comrade Tony Esene, prove to be about the same thing. Although not fully developed, the writer portrays Esene as a rising light who is eventually impeached and removed from office by the Students Union Parliament for alleged corruption in the wake of a military coup ousting another military government. It is a case one could liken to the narrative in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are not yet born.
The riots planned to protest against the coup staged at the end of the book reveals what many of us know back then as students. It is near impossible to defeat any government. Whether military or civilian, they are about the same, and Osato summarises it with allusions made to the Roman Catholic cliché: “As it was in the beginning, so it is now, and shall ever be. Nothing really changes.”
The author uses palpable humour to engage the reader. The comic situations in the book make up for some identified gaps in terms of plotting. The character of Baba Cave, who, according to the narrator, is unarguably the oldest and longest staying undergraduate at Uniben, will no doubt endear readers to the book.
At the end, after several struggles and needless anxiety, Osato, on checking his semester examination results, discovers he is actually the scholar of his class. For him, that is part of fulfilling his dreams at Uniben. His story tells us that, in spite of whatever difficulty we may face as individuals, once we keep at it, success is never far away.
Like every beautifully crafted work of art, The Great Citadel is not without flaws. A pair of editorial eagle eyes would be quick to detect some proof-reading errors, which in no way affect the flow of the story and the punchlines of the author.
