BOBO Omotayo left Nigeria for the U.K. at the age of 10; he did not return until he clocked 22 and bagged a university degree from Coventry University. Now, he has a new book, London Life Lagos Living, from which he read last Saturday at Debonair Bookshop, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos. It was at the Pulpfaction Club-organised monthly Book'n'Guage reading event.Largely satirical, humorous and witty, Omotayo's book of illustrations and photographs captures the many vignettes of Lagos social life that often leave the newcomer breathless in its many contradictions that are sometimes pleasant and not so pleasant. Omotayo, too, embodies his book of wits and humour as he affably regaled his audience in his reading and responses.According to him, he 'created a book that relates to people, that doesn't bore them, give them short stories with visual illustrations and photographs that are pleasing'.And in what appears like a huge flattering of his creative powers in craftmanship, Omotayo stated, rather tongue-in-cheek, that 'Nigerian literature had become a sort of backdrop, something I can't quite relate with, something young people can't relate with; the way we live is quite unique, different' from representations in the literature being produced, and also noting, 'you don't have to go wild in imagination before you write.'It is for this reason, the former Bella Naija columnist argued, that he wrote the book in conversational style, and for which he has got a dose of press criticism, a style he confessed to being 'blogsy' (in the manner of a blogger), which he is, too. But he loves the criticism of his book, adding, 'I would rather have no indifference to my writing'. As if stretching his argument further, Omotayo concluded rather unconvincingly that Nigerian literature was yet to receive global recognition like its music and fashion counterparts, and that his conversational style was the answer to that lacuna in Nigerian writing.And he has had to rely heavily on humour to pull off what he considers a successful book, as it helped him to talk about topical issues, also noting that the Nollywood movie, Jennifa, with the wild Funke Akindele as lead actor and producer, has been a great inspiration towards realising London Life Lagos Living. He asserted, 'I took a lot from Jennifa in looking at social issues'.But 'there is a great deal of patriotism in the book', he stated, while reminding Nigerians in the book, how much they have deviated from the original social values that formerly shaped their lives in preference for strange, imported ones that are working against the development of the country.He read three short pieces, 'Loovu wan tin tin', which is about love blues in a socially warped environment, ''So, what do you do for a living'', where every conversation opener in social discourse is about why what a person does is so vital to establish his status in society, and '50 years old', a truly patriotic piece about the greatness of Nigeria irrespective of what pessimists say or think.Of course, like every newcomer, Omotayo had a hard time finding a publisher for his book on account of its quaint type. It is not exactly a collection of short stories that would easily have lent itself to categorisation. As he put it, London Life Lagos Living 'is a collection of Lagos life observations'. He only overcame publishers' rejection by being 'dodged when publishers turned me down and moved on because they didn't understand my concept. Self-publishing was tough on the financial side. I'm a very bitter man right now about publishers in Nigeria. I think they still live in the dark ages. The book sold 2000 copies in the first two months'.In defining himself, the self-confessed owambe party freak said London Life Lagos Living is 'my story; I'm of the DStv generation; I'm the guy with too much information, about a Western-trained man trying to grapple with Lagos living, who wanted to capture a moment in time' of happenings in his beloved Lagos. He also stated that the book is 'a social commentary on pop culture that criticises the upper class because everybody wants to be like them. Imagine somebody driving a MBW and buying N500 petrol in his car!'Also to thrill the packed audience was spoken word performer, Ndukwe Onouha, whose politically charged poetry was a direct challenge to his generation of youth to quit docility and be involved in the political re-engineering of society before it swallow them in its murk.At the last civil protests over fuel subsidy removal at 'Occupy Nigeria' ground at Gani Park, Ojota, Onouha had trekked all the way from his Aja home to be part of what he felt was a momentous event for Nigeria, a new political awakening that would upset the status quo. Needless to say that the march and protests gave vent to brilliant poetic pieces.'Change' was one such poetic piece that emerged, and as he said, 'At the protests, I was fired up; I walked all the way from Aja to Ojota. My poems are rants against the system, and even against us, for ranting and at the same time, sabotaging us'. He felt betrayed at Nigeria Labour Congress' (NLC) abrupt manner of calling off the strike at a time when Nigerians were politically charged to demand from their leaders what they had long withheld from the vast majority toiling under the yoke of bad governance.Ese peter also gave a soul performance on his guitar; his vocal dexterity at pelting country music saw the audience applauding him. To round off, the usual Book'n'Gauge auction was held, with many books being given away.
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