Osmund Agbo and the burden of letters, By Okike Ezugwu

Agbo, to borrow Okey Ndibe’s phrasing, is strictly responsible of the “scandal of productiveness.” He nearly breathlessly adopted Black Grit with a novel, Velvet Courtroom, whereby he explored a really trendy theme, a radical shift from the normal African approach of telling tales. He shared mouthwatering excerpts from Velvet Courtroom for months earlier than its eventual publication. You’d suppose that after that spree of laborious work, Agbo would pause to gather his plaudits, however the scandalously prolific author is simply getting began in his dedication to counterpoint our literature.

I met Osmund Agbo as I met most individuals: by way of a shared penchant for studying and writing. He had hit me up after studying certainly one of my articles, and we struck up a dialog. His surname “Agbo” already betrayed him as being from my a part of Igbo-land. I instructed him — this maybe introduced some amusement — that my longer surname is definitely Ezugwu-Agbo, and that even so, one wouldn’t have exhausted the entire thing. The rational factor to do, when the time got here, was to drop one for the great sake of brevity.

I had mistaken Agbo for one of many drive-by admirers one generally had; a patron of artwork and never a practitioner. As you already know, I used to be flawed. He despatched me some opinion items he had written. As I settled to them, the sensation break up evenly between awe and admiration. That marked my first encounter with Osmund Agbo, the author. Ever since, I’ve learn practically every little thing Agbo has written, even checking up on him in periods that indicated creative drought.

Agbo is by each normal a wonderful author. And that is to keep away from overstepping the bounds of modesty. One factor I discover particularly interesting about his opinion items is how facts-fired, perspective-broadening they all the time are. His opinions are sometimes replete with historical past and geography, sprinkled with allusions, fairly often felicitous and another instances barely lacking their targets. Agbo’s writings reduce by way of the underbelly of North America, discover the ever-stimulating intrigues of the South, cease on the crisis-ridden Center East and in the end come house to the intractable conundrum that’s Africa. As an illustration, if Agbo writes, say, in regards to the disaster rocking Rivers State (and he not too long ago did), he would transcend the unashamed scramble for native assets happening there. He would battle, by the dint of analysis, residual information or hindsight, to search out historic equivalents. Agbo leaves the reader believing that certainly nothing is new below the solar.

The three Musketeers, as they’ve been fondly described — Agbo, Ochonu and Kperogi — can simply afford consolation in faraway North America, however nonetheless maintain sleepless nights for the victims of the merciless Nigerian state. Kperogi’s unsparing, wholesale onslaught on the neoliberal ideas turning Nigeria right into a mass graveyard is noteworthy. 

Agbo varieties a really formidable mental coalition with the opposite two of a few of Nigeria’s most consequential modern critics of energy. Within the combine, you might have the unsparing, brutally polemical Farooq Kperogi, and the extra delicate, but deep-cutting Moses Ochonu. As Nigeria is now a relentless poverty machine, spinning swiftly and turning out ultimate merchandise of “the poor” at a scarcely paralleled industrial scale, the trio stand out of their unrelenting interventions for the pauperised  Nigerian individuals. That is much more in order majority of educated Nigerians now regard the nation as a sunken value, not price any serious-minded particular person’s time.

The three Musketeers, as they’ve been fondly described — Agbo, Ochonu and Kperogi — can simply afford consolation in faraway North America, however nonetheless maintain sleepless nights for the victims of the merciless Nigerian state. Kperogi’s unsparing, wholesale onslaught on the neoliberal ideas turning Nigeria right into a mass graveyard is noteworthy.  First it reveals a very good, even perspicacious understanding of what’s going on. Second, any particular person of common training is aware of how dangerous it’s for a person of his stature to take a public stance in opposition to the deep-state, well-heeled international forces propagating these ideas around the globe. In his long-running activism, Kperogi has crossed the Rubicon and burnt his tent. I’ve nothing however admiration for these champions, at the same time as I don’t agree with every little thing they are saying or write.

Agbo’s first ebook was revealed over two years in the past, superbly titled, Black Grit, White Knuckles, the Philosophy of Black Renaissance. I had the privilege of getting him signal a duplicate for me in his Enugu house, whereas we did bouts of palm wine. It’s truly extra acceptable to say, ‘whereas I did bouts of palm wine’. Agbo is hardly a drinker however is that type of liberal affect that loves being a spectator to his buddies’ ingesting. In Black Grit, White Knuckles, Agbo argues vigorously, with a number of historical past besides, that it’s excessive time black individuals, the world over, stopped screaming blue homicide about historic injustices and put their shoulders to the wheel, to elevate the dignity of the black race. This opinion has, over the a long time, gained appreciable forex in mainstream black scholarship and I discover large deserves in it too. I did a assessment of the ebook, which was revealed on many Nigerian platforms.

Agbo is out once more with two novels, concurrently. After he introduced this milestone, I used to be speechless. I’m nonetheless speechless. I believed that earlier than I begin studying Let the Shaman Die or Ma’am, I Do Not Come to You for Love, I ought to first salute this sensible and amazingly hardworking man. Nicely, I’ll begin with Let the Shaman Die. I’ve a factor for arresting titles.

Agbo, to borrow Okey Ndibe’s phrasing, is strictly responsible of the “scandal of productiveness.” He nearly breathlessly adopted Black Grit with a novel, Velvet Courtroom, whereby he explored a really trendy theme, a radical shift from the normal African approach of telling tales. He shared mouthwatering excerpts from Velvet Courtroom for months earlier than its eventual publication. You’d suppose that after that spree of laborious work, Agbo would pause to gather his plaudits, however the scandalously prolific author is simply getting began in his dedication to counterpoint our literature.

Agbo is out once more with two novels, concurrently. After he introduced this milestone, I used to be speechless. I’m nonetheless speechless. I believed that earlier than I begin studying Let the Shaman Die or Ma’am, I Do Not Come to You for Love, I ought to first salute this sensible and amazingly hardworking man. Nicely, I’ll begin with Let the Shaman Die. I’ve a factor for arresting titles.

Okike Ezugwu Esq is a lawyer and freelance author.