Gabriel Okafor
A new novel based on the morals of youths in our present society has been published by a renowned raconteur and poet, Philip Ngozi Ifechukwude. The acclaimed author of Wild Ixora, Imagine Lagos and Other Stories and CROAKS Poetry of Social Realities has again gone through the many ills that characterise our society today. As a result, he decides to sound a note of warning to our teeming youths who throng the wide alley thinking that it leads to their Eldorado. But the reverse has been the case.
Coupled with the general decadence and decline in reading culture, the general apathy attached to education in the country presently has led to gross disinterestedness in education. Little wonder, majority of them have taken to the wide path of social vices and get-rich quick syndrome, all in the bid to make money without working for it.
Generally, a survey has shown that most of them no longer have an interest in education. The bandwagon effect of this survey also shows a trendy age that gets involved in this ill that characterized our society today. They are teeming teenagers. Most of them drop out of school to engage in the trendy get-rich quick syndrome. Those who manage to scale through get enrolled in a new scheme called ‘miracle centres’ where answers to questions are written on the board for candidates to copy and write. Yet, these latter groups have a target of joining the tertiary level, births an environment to perfect their social vices skill.
Internet fraud, drug peddling and ritualism, no doubt, have taken over as the order of the day. These are what the author rallied round on a young man with a humble background but failed to live by the example of his humility. Despite the fact that his father never had such an opportunity in life but decided to instil into his son some good morals. He noticed his footsteps on time and began to tutor him against the path he seemed to tow, he felt that he would not inherit the poverty-stricken background that he met in his family.
Jideoffor’s misdemeanour and hobnobbing with children from a rich home, but with wayward characters gave him an orientation that stuck and followed him even when the others decided to forge ahead. He forgot so soon all his father’s words of admonition to him. Some of his friends and classmates saw the paths before them on time and decided to choose the one that will give them a career future.
Unfortunately for Jideoffor and his recalcitrant two friends, the wide alley swallowed them, because they could not heed the warning attached to the grim crevices that lined the path. Only two out of five friends stood their grounds right from their point of convergence and eventually proved the good benefits accruable from the narrow path.
The author explores the need to heed to fatherly advice, no matter the circumstances. He reveals the porosity of many families who always depend on the teachers to serve as models to their wards. A vivid description and dissection of the morals attached to the two roads comes to the fore with the author’s writing prowess.