Sam Azoka Onyechi
'Miasma' captures from the author’s privileged perspective of a Nigerian born in the period that could rightly be termed the beginning of the socio-political ills of Africa’s most populous nation - the early 1960s. It captures the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness of citizens of one of the most corrupt countries in the world, which ironically has more human and material resources than almost any other country in the world. 'Miasma' discusses the attendant waste of monumental resources; the wickedness and brutality of the military and the upstart political class; the unbelievable corruption culminating in looting of public funds and the neglect of all public institutions; the politically-motivated murders and assassinations; the ethno-centric policies of the junta designed purely to favor their military constituency and their tribesmen; the gradual militarization of the Nigerian psyche; the devastation of mental and physical resources leading to the self exile and massive brain drain of the 80s in the country; the prevalent religious hypocrisy and the constant massacre of innocent Christians by extremist Moslems; the general deprivation and severe lack in a country that makes an average100 million Dollars per day from sale of crude oil and another 50 million from gas, yet whose citizens literally suffer malnutrition and associated diseases and drink water from infected ponds, all due to the unbridled greed of the military and the political elite. Miasma also discusses the issue of Biafra and the Igbo quest for self-determination as a people alienated within their own country. A people dehumanized, deprived, repressed and neglected in a polity that nurses bitter revenge and lingering hatred for the Igbo for daring to say no to man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Finally, the book captures the sacrifices of a few truly brave individuals, some of even continental relevance, who have paid one price or the other including loss of their lives in the course of fighting these man-made monsters of oppression.
