{"id":4467,"date":"2007-03-25T17:29:48","date_gmt":"2007-03-25T17:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.com\/?p=4467"},"modified":"2007-03-25T17:29:48","modified_gmt":"2007-03-25T17:29:48","slug":"the-good-and-the-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4467","title":{"rendered":"The Good and the Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Finally, I have brought myself to reviewing Maryam Ali Ali&#8217;s novel (&#8216;The Faces of Naira&#8217;) after a long time of her waiting for me to do it. I entitled it &#8220;The Good and the Ugly&#8221; because that what I think summarises the plot. The review will be published on Tuesday on\u00a0Frontline, my newly formed newspaper (more on this later!). Meanwhile, here goes:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Faces of Naira<\/strong>, a novel by Maryam Ali Ali, published by NNI Publishers Limited, Ilorin, Kwara State, 2006, 99 pp.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Ibrahim Sheme<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Four young friends decided to stop their layabout life and give their lives a sense of direction. They came up with an ingenious idea: each should leave town on the same day, go into the world and try to become rich, and then return after ten years to an appointed rendezvous outside the town at an appointed time and date in order to see what each had become in life.<\/p>\n<p>The young men \u2013 Shu\u2019aib, Tijjani, Imran and Alhassan \u2013 vowed to adhere to the arrangement. Thus they left their city and went in search of wealth. Imran and Alhassan went together, while the others went separately. None knew where he was going, but each was drawn to his destiny, which he seemed unable to control. Tijjani got a hike in a truck and ended up joining a criminals\u2019 gang in which the truck driver was a member. The four hoods in the gang received him warmly, especially the boss, Jimina, who liked the young man\u2019s gregariousness.<\/p>\n<p>When Tijjani came up with the idea that the gang should try and live a normal way of life while perpetrating its criminal activities, Jimina agreed. Tijjani, however, swindled the boss of all his money, a whopping N80 million. He ran away to another city with the loot, with the connivance of unscrupolous bank managers. He changed his name and other forms of identity. The world was at his feet to enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>Shu\u2019aib was the other character consumed by materialism and desire to make money at all cost. At first, he found a decent job as shop assistant in the city that he went to. However, he met a wealthy man, Alhaji Ya\u2019u, who introduced him into a secret watering hole where the affluent lived a hedonistic life.<\/p>\n<p>Shu\u2019aib\u2019s curiosity and greed led him to press Alhaji to introduce him to sources of incredible wealth. Assured of the young man\u2019s commitment, Alhaji Ya\u2019u took him to a dark house where a mysterious old man headed an evil secret cult. It is here that Shu\u2019aib was fed the philosophy of wealth-making, which involved dark rites and murder. Alhaji Ya\u2019u informed him (p. 35 &#8211; 36), &#8220;Most of the time it\u2019s the face of the naira that does the trick. The power of money, when it speaks, everyone listens. Even in our own mother\u2019s sight, you are the best if you can speak the language of money. You\u2019ll be regarded as the eldest, though you may be the last born and your word is final. And for that, for power and for glory, we do all this. For the three irresistible things in life: wealth, power and women. For these three, we do this and we do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Therein lies the fulcrum of the novel\u2019s message. Even though this should sound as a warning to anyone bothered about morality, Shu\u2019aib\u2019s greed blinded him into following the dark path. Eventually, he murdered a girl he knew, at the behest of the cult, and she was sacrificed for the &#8220;prince of evil.&#8221; For his reward, Shu\u2019aib became stupendously wealthy. He married a graduate and they had a son. For nine years and five months, he enjoyed whatever good things life could offer and awaited the appointed date with his childhood friends.<\/p>\n<p>The tie seems to be evenly divided between good and evil. The other two young men, Imran and Alhassan, represented goodness in this gripping tale. After leaving their hometown, the duo started as porters in a garage, after being introduced to the head porter by the Sarkin Tasha. They started life from a scratch, therefore, with firm commitment to go all the way up. They engaged in several menial jobs: car wash, filling of potholes, driver\u2019s apprenticeship, etc. In a spirit of modern day company building (the fabled &#8220;grass to grace&#8221; success), they persevered. Their business expanded into refuse disposal, dairy and poultry farming. Imran was able to marry a beautiful girl from a good background, as opposed to the one Tijjani got through a matchmaker. And as fate would have it, Alhassan inherited millions of naira and a chain of businesses from his uncle, who had swindled Alhassan\u2019s father years back.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the D-day was approaching fast. The four friends, wherever they were, prepared to travel back home. Nemesis, however, began to catch up with the dishonest and wicked ones. Shu\u2019aib unintentionally ate a fried liver, which broke his vow to the cultists, who had warned him never to eat liver again. As a result, he lost his sanity and was sent to a psychiatry, where he was being tortured by images of his past misdeeds whenever he slept. Tijjani was found by his former gang, who came to extract their pound of flesh.<\/p>\n<p>But in order to fulfil their promise, the four friends managed to travel back home. Shu\u2019aib escaped from the hospital, and Tijjani was pursued by the gang. Only Imran and Alhassan went in peace. The four met at the crossroads and assessed the good things and the evil things each might have committed.<\/p>\n<p>The novel is centred on the ancient theme of struggle between good and evil, personal will and predestination, as well as the evil of materialism. Maryam Ali Ali proves, with this, that another female voice is around on the scene of creative writing from the northern part of Nigeria. Zaynab Alkali and a few other women have made a mark on the scene. Maryam is here to score a niche for herself in the realm.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Faces of Naira<\/em>, the evidence of this, is however marred by typographical mistakes, \u2018Nigerian English\u2019 and other errors that a very good editor and publisher should have corrected. The book was based on an earlier Hausa version. It should have been better publicised.<br \/>\nMaryam, who hails from Kano, graduated from the University of Jos and is undergoing postgraduate studies at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto. She is a well known face at the meetings of Nigerian authors all over the country, whch she hardly misses.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_4467\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"4467\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finally, I have brought myself to reviewing Maryam Ali Ali&#8217;s novel (&#8216;The Faces of Naira&#8217;) after a long time of her waiting for me to do it. I entitled it &#8220;The Good and the Ugly&#8221; because that what I think summarises the plot. The review will be published on Tuesday on\u00a0Frontline, my newly formed newspaper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_4467\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"4467\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-online-musings"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":19,"today_views":0},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Good and the Ugly - Ibrahim Sheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4467\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Good and the Ugly - Ibrahim Sheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Finally, I have brought myself to reviewing Maryam Ali Ali&#8217;s novel (&#8216;The Faces of Naira&#8217;) after a long time of her waiting for me to do it. I entitled it &#8220;The Good and the Ugly&#8221; because that what I think summarises the plot. The review will be published on Tuesday on\u00a0Frontline, my newly formed newspaper [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4467\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ibrahim Sheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-25T17:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ibrahimsheme.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/facesnaira-1.jpg?fit=217%2C321&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"217\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"321\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nafisat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"IBRAHIM SHEME\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nafisat\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bb4e2be5e35db546de899bf1493897e4\"},\"headline\":\"The Good and the Ugly\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-25T17:29:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467\"},\"wordCount\":1111,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/facesnaira-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Online Musings\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ibrahimsheme.net\\\/?p=4467\",\"name\":\"The Good and the Ugly - 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I entitled it &#8220;The Good and the Ugly&#8221; because that what I think summarises the plot. 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