These essays are "essays," indeed, in the etymological sense of the word, in that they "try out" my ideas on different topics and different texts. As they are developed, they build up to a climactic crescendo of futility, which may be explained, in part, not by the darkening vision of a wizened and aging man, but by the gathering storms, which have tended to becloud the nation-state of Nigeria. ... The milieu from which my essays emerge has not been conducive to any optimistic or celebratory readings of texts and contexts.

These essays are "essays," indeed, in the etymological sense of the word, in that they "try out" my ideas on different topics and different texts. As they are developed, they build up to a climactic crescendo of futility, which may be explained, in part, not by the darkening vision of a wizened and aging man, but by the gathering storms, which have tended to becloud the nation-state of Nigeria. ... The milieu from which my essays emerge has not been conducive to any optimistic or celebratory readings of texts and contexts.