THE SUCCESSORS
By Jerry Agada
The book explores the significant shift that occurs in inheritance as a means of showing the challenges that patterns succession - displaying how at the end, one has to choose a path that either leads to success or failure. The beauty, ugliness, morality or otherwise of the path is not the ultimate message in this book. ‘The Successors’ is the story of who comes next and how they got there - in this case, the fictional life history of Okoh Ameh and Terkura Atsen and the succession by David and Ifenne. And what did they learn - that Industry and hard work pays.
So, as I mentioned earlier, the story is mainly of these two young men Okoh Ameh and Terkura Atsen who met in a hotel as junior workers. Terkura is very ambitious and dreams of one day owning a hotel as big as the one he is working in. Okoh on the other hand is the opposite - very unassuming. All Okoh wants is to do well at his job, get promoted, marry a nice and obedient girl with whom he’ll forever live happily. All these he did but because of his limited ambition, he feels inadequate as he observes that his mates, Terkura inclusive, had done very well for themselves. Inferiority complex thus drives him into drinking and womanizing. So much so that he neglects his family. As a consequence of his neglect, his eldest son joins a gang, begins to skip school and took to smoking marijuana. This drives Okoh further into despair. Terkura on the other hand goes on to finish university and is lucky to meet a benevolent who helps further fuel his ambition. He becomes very rich and influential. Although, he never got married nor had children to bequeath his wealth.
Ifenne, son of Okoh continues in the difficult and destructive path his father had chatted for him. He struggles at every turn to make ends meet. He becomes a bus conduct and in a twist of faith, manages to own a bus of his own.
Terkura, transfers his wealth to his nephew David. And the young man overwhelmed by the magnitude of his disposable wealth embarks on a frivolous life style that sees him flying all over the world, attending and holding the most ostentatious and lavish parties.
In an ultimate twist and the author’s design, Ifenne and David join up and put together a grand plot beyond everyone’s expectation.
Jerry Agada’s work is fast paced with unrelenting suspense.
Various use of Middle-Belt name such as Okoh Amen, Terkura Atsen, Ifenne, and places like Markurdi situates the fiction in that region. However, the use of other names of people such as Eze, Fr. Mckinnon, Olu, and places like Kano, Obudu, Lagos, Zimbabwe, Chad, etc takes the setting beyond the immediate geographical environment.
The story is told through the speech, thoughts and point of view of an omniscient narrator. The narrative technique where the narrator comments on the action of the characters obviously shows an effort on the part of the writer to impact the values behind the subject matter. While some people might question such an approach , claiming it is an authorial interference, that forces readers to follow particular thought preference, others would see it as showing the author’s intention to highlight narrator’s position, that is, an attempt to show the narrator’s positive moral values which ultimately helps to pass on the lessons. Besides, they may also argue and rightly so, that without point of view, there can be no... good story.
Dr. Jerry Agada’s ‘The Successors’ is masterly written with linear plots and sub-plots that ensured the story is told without distraction thus keeping the reader in grip of suspense till the end. Perhaps, the brilliance of ‘The Successors’ as a novel is the audacity and ease with which the author manipulates the English language, almost as a form of exhibitionism, a show-off and this perhaps is what stands Jerry as truly an experienced writer and a good story teller.
The book explores the significant shift that occurs in inheritance as a means of showing the challenges that patterns succession - displaying how at the end, one has to choose a path that either leads to success or failure. The beauty, ugliness, morality or otherwise of the path is not the ultimate message in this book. ‘The Successors’ is the story of who comes next and how they got there - in this case, the fictional life history of Okoh Ameh and Terkura Atsen and the succession by David and Ifenne. And what did they learn - that Industry and hard work pays.
So, as I mentioned earlier, the story is mainly of these two young men Okoh Ameh and Terkura Atsen who met in a hotel as junior workers. Terkura is very ambitious and dreams of one day owning a hotel as big as the one he is working in. Okoh on the other hand is the opposite - very unassuming. All Okoh wants is to do well at his job, get promoted, marry a nice and obedient girl with whom he’ll forever live happily. All these he did but because of his limited ambition, he feels inadequate as he observes that his mates, Terkura inclusive, had done very well for themselves. Inferiority complex thus drives him into drinking and womanizing. So much so that he neglects his family. As a consequence of his neglect, his eldest son joins a gang, begins to skip school and took to smoking marijuana. This drives Okoh further into despair. Terkura on the other hand goes on to finish university and is lucky to meet a benevolent who helps further fuel his ambition. He becomes very rich and influential. Although, he never got married nor had children to bequeath his wealth.
Ifenne, son of Okoh continues in the difficult and destructive path his father had chatted for him. He struggles at every turn to make ends meet. He becomes a bus conduct and in a twist of faith, manages to own a bus of his own.
Terkura, transfers his wealth to his nephew David. And the young man overwhelmed by the magnitude of his disposable wealth embarks on a frivolous life style that sees him flying all over the world, attending and holding the most ostentatious and lavish parties.
In an ultimate twist and the author’s design, Ifenne and David join up and put together a grand plot beyond everyone’s expectation.
Jerry Agada’s work is fast paced with unrelenting suspense.
Various use of Middle-Belt name such as Okoh Amen, Terkura Atsen, Ifenne, and places like Markurdi situates the fiction in that region. However, the use of other names of people such as Eze, Fr. Mckinnon, Olu, and places like Kano, Obudu, Lagos, Zimbabwe, Chad, etc takes the setting beyond the immediate geographical environment.
The story is told through the speech, thoughts and point of view of an omniscient narrator. The narrative technique where the narrator comments on the action of the characters obviously shows an effort on the part of the writer to impact the values behind the subject matter. While some people might question such an approach , claiming it is an authorial interference, that forces readers to follow particular thought preference, others would see it as showing the author’s intention to highlight narrator’s position, that is, an attempt to show the narrator’s positive moral values which ultimately helps to pass on the lessons. Besides, they may also argue and rightly so, that without point of view, there can be no... good story.
Dr. Jerry Agada’s ‘The Successors’ is masterly written with linear plots and sub-plots that ensured the story is told without distraction thus keeping the reader in grip of suspense till the end. Perhaps, the brilliance of ‘The Successors’ as a novel is the audacity and ease with which the author manipulates the English language, almost as a form of exhibitionism, a show-off and this perhaps is what stands Jerry as truly an experienced writer and a good story teller.
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