Freedom from servitude #920257

Set mostly in Nigeria (with a few excerpts of study and travelling experiences in Australia and Britain); this is the recounting of a man’s career and his personal plea denouncing the social injustice suffered by most employees in this African country, often discharged or dismissed with no apparent link to established laws or regulations except those making the self-serving interests of an elite ruling discriminately and ruthlessly. Spanning over decades of local and non-local history his testimonial sheds light on internal and external politics (with a brief but thorough analysis of Australia’s and the Commonwealth legacy hinting at white settlers and their crimes against the indigenous people), and mentioning Nigerian voodoo practices contaminating the establishment, strong coercion, timeless intrigues, shameless corruption at high levels, all manipulated by ever-present red tapes and bureaucracy strangling the freedom of hard working otherwise merit-deserving individuals. The “freedom from servitude” is a human right but perhaps also a dream which the protagonist of this story tries to pursue in his search and hope for truth, equality and justice.

Folarin Olufemi Akinremi the author of this book was born on the13th of September 1927 in Nigeria. He had his primary and secondary education in Nigeria with a lot of in-service training courses that spanned over two decades from the period he started his journalism career with the Daily Times in 1952. He also holds a diploma in journalism from the Thompson Editorial Study Centre Cardiff Britain. He was a professional Journalist who worked for some Nationalist Newspapers in Nigeria during the Colonial Administration before joining the Western Regional Government as an Information Officer in 1954. He also worked for the Lagos State Government and finally moved to the Federal Ministry of Information where he retired prematurely in 1986 after an eventful 32-year life experience in the Nigerian Public Service.