Extent: 272 pages

ISBN: 978-978-58746-7-9

Dimension: 5.5” x 8.5” Paperback

Cowries of Blood: Essays on Herdsmen, Banditry, and Nigeria’s Endgame Politics contains essays about Nigeria’s struggles with insecurity, elite failure and leadership inadequacies. The timeline of the essays is March 2012 to August 2021.

The essays address Northern Nigeria and its diseases more than the south. This is because the north is the index region for the virus of terrorism, banditry and general insecurity threatening the very existence of Nigeria as a united country.

This book queries and challenges the lack of urgency and humanity in official engagements with the poor who are perpetually at the receiving end of these blights. In doing this, the author employs the imageries of unrestrained cattle and the dread they evoke in 2021 Nigeria. This is sauced with ‘cowries’ (money) and ‘blood’ to awaken all and halt the dangerous drift.

The core idea in the title is encapsulated in the obnoxious Yoruba concept of ‘owo eje’ (blood money).