The Companions of Jehu

Set out for a rollicking good time with Alexandre Dumas, the renowned French author who created timeless classics such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo . This tale is based loosely on a historical account of a band of highwaymen who fought their way to freedom after being jailed on dubious charges.

In this rich compilation, Emeka Nwosu takes the reader to a journey of the issues that have helped to shape discourses on various aspects of the Nigerian state and society. The articles, originally published in his weekly column in the premier Nigerian daily newspaper, ThisDay, not only show his perspectives on these issues when they were written but also reveal how discussions on some of those issues have evolved over time and how they have mutated today.

Journalists, especially those who maintain regular columns, are often said to write 'history in a hurry'. For experienced writers like the author whose writings are research-based, it does not mean that what they write about is factually wrong but simply that their writings are infused with the passions and emotions that attended those issues as they unfolded.

This collection is therefore not only informed commentaries on some of the issues that have shaped the contour of the Nigerian state and society over the years but a good trip on the passions and emotions that attended those discourses. The articles, 66 of them, are written with remarkable candour and gusto and therefore a delight to read. They form a very important contribution to the corpus of works on Nigerian politics and society.

Nous ne savons si le prologue que nous allons mettre sous les yeux du lecteur est bien utile, et cependant nous ne pouvons resister au desir d'en faire, non pas le premier chapitre, mais la preface de ce livre. Plus nous avancons dans la vie, plus nous avancons dans l'art, plus nous demeurons convaincu que rien n'est abrupt et isole, que la nature et la societe marchent par deductions et non par accidents, et que l'evenement, fleur joyeuse ou triste, parfumee ou fetide, souriante ou fatale, qui s'ouvre aujourd'hui sous nos yeux, avait son bouton dans le passe et ses racines parfois dans les jours anterieurs a nos jours comme elle aura son fruit dans l'avenir. Jeune, l'homme prend le temps comme il vient, amoureux de la veille, insoucieux du jour, s'inquietant peu du lendemain. La jeunesse, c'est le printemps avec ses fraiches aurores et ses beaux soirs ; si parfois un orage passe au ciel, il eclate, gronde et s'evanouit, laissant le ciel plus azure, l'atmosphere plus pure, la nature plus souriante qu'auparavant. Title; Contents; An Introductory Word to the Reader; Prologue The City of Avignon; Chapter I A Table D'Ho te; Chapter II An Italian Proverb; Chapter III The Englishman; Chapter IV The Duel; Chapter V Roland; Chapter VI Morgan; Chapter VII The Chartreuse of Seillon; Chapter VIII How the Money of the Directory was Used; Chapter IX Romeo and Juliet; Chapter X The Family of Roland; Chapter XI Cha teau Des Noires-Fontaines; Chapter XII Provincial Pleasures; Chapter XIII The Wild-Boar; Chapter XIV An Unpleasant Commission; Chapter XV The Strong-Minded Man