Amadi’s New Books Ignites Discussion On Nationhood
THE Nigerian book market last week had two new books — Tourist In Wahala Land and The Chemical Poems Of Ayatollah Khameni — added to its shelf.
Written by Ifeanyi Amadi, a United Arab Emirates- based upcoming author, the books were published in the United Kingdom by Authorhouse.
The author, a biomedical scientist and poet, has a conscientious way of using characters that cut across different regions to twirl issues plaguing diverse regions outside Nigeria his home country.
One of the books, Tourist In Wahala Land, a three- act play, is a satire on leadership, the ruled and general issues that many countries, especially developing nations are battling with.
The play aims at exposing the ills of the society and how the people in their docility have contributed in no little way to choose sleazy leaders. This, according to play, have snowballed into the breakdown of institutions and the dysfunctional systems that is almost making the society chaotic.
The second book, The Chemical Poems of Ayatollah Khameni, is a collection of poems Amadi partly wrote while still a student at the University of Port Harcourt.
They tell of his feistiness, outspokenness, activism and the desire to change society for good. From satire to surreal and adoring rhymes, the poems speak of topical issues and as well frown at the decadence of the times.
Drawing inspiration from the late spiritual leader of the Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the Arab world, the author disclosed that the title of anthology has nothing to do with person of the spiritual leader, but rather a way of showing his love for him and his philosophy.
“The title is imitative of the famous Rosicrucian manifestos, ‘ The Chemical Wedding,’ which never held but metamorphosed into something new that greatly impacted on the society for good. So, combining the ideologies of the late Iranian spiritual leader with my thought I came up with the title. It is a marriage of ideas for the greater good of all,” he noted.
Still nursing the idea of radically changing the society, purge it of corruption, injustice, inequitable distribution of the nation’s resources, bad leadership, ethnicity, lopsided development, among others bedevilling the growth of developing nations, including Nigeria, Amadi added that many Nigerians are in the UAR doing all manner of odd jobs because the country’s institutions and structures are functional.
According to him, the two books are his own way of awakening the people to their rights and duties, make policy- makers and opinion moulders to live up to their duties and responsibilities and also to make Nigeria work again.
The Imo State- born author, who had his first degree in the country before leaving its shores to seek greener Pasteur in the UAR, said the books are like chemical bombs that would ignite quality discussions in high places and among scholars.