Bisi Ojediran: A Best Selling Author

Scale of Value in Bisi Ojediran’s Literature

Very few authors can boast of Bisi Ojediran’s niche around here. He is the prolific author of an impressive number of imaginative literature, schoolbooks, plays and a memoir of anointed men of God in the country, while custody a day job. A multifaceted writing career that demands robust intellect we’ll dare say and thanks to it, Ojediran is a reference point today in Nigeria’s culture sector.

Celebrated as ‘Nigeria’s one novel a year novelist’, this graduate of Economics from the University of Legon, who was once a schoolteacher, author of an Economics textbook and Business/Economy Journalist, is one of the most prolific contemporary Nigerian writers in the imaginative literature genre.

The author of novels and plays that include, The Black Godfather, Survival of the Beautiful, Love wars, Sacred Seduction, Trying Times, Boxing at House, My Other Mother, Opportunity Cost and The Drunkard among others, Ojediran hails from Inisa, Osun State and sees writing as a gift through which social reform can be effected.

 It is therefore not surprising that two of his books, The Governor’s Wife and Love Wars, were approved by the Lagos State Government for use in the teaching of English Literature in Senior Secondary Schools from year 2004 to 2008. His six children books for primary and junior secondary schools are also undergoing the selection process.

But, what is it about books by Bisi Ojediran, an author who defied the booming bootleg industry of the late 1990s and 2000s to churn out books of different ilk? Certainly, it is not the mere aesthetic appeal of its covers and if we are to judge Ojediran’s books by such, they are certainly above board.

Apart from his novels, some of which has popular actors namely Jide Kosoko, Grace Amah and Rita Dominic on its cover, making it attention grabbers, Ojediran’s school book for children are sure to aid learning. The cover and inside pages of the children textbooks are illustrated with the cognitive needs of children in mind. The exceptional arty designs from front to back of the books will aid learning even in the simple minded.

Coming to his novels, especially The Governor’s Wife and Love Wars, approved for use in teaching of English Literature in secondary schools in Lagos State, they address contemporary issues that affect the social fabric of our society and it can be said to be apt choice for youths of a country in desperate need for moral re-awakening.

The books, which are certain to meet the academic and moral needs of students, possess tremendous social value, justifying its choice as a subject of college study. What the young reader will find in Ojediran’s genre of imaginative literature is a jolting authentic insight to life.

No preppy Cinderella story, where a fairy godmother turns a pumpkin and mice into a coach and horse. These are works that seem to have been inspired by the peculiar Nigerian situation, though the author deems it fit situate it in a fictive space.

In The Governor’s Wife for instance, ‘the story of drought, poverty and death of the ruled, and opulence, adultery and pilfering by a few,’ was told by the author in a realistic way, with Peter Abel, an investigative journalist as the hero whose adventures and triumphs in the fight against evil, the youths will readily identify with.

As a story the youths can relate to, the triumph of good over evil in The Governor’s Wife, makes it akin to consciously formulated expectations synonymous with reading escape literature, will still make the reader undisturbed and optimistic about the world in which he lives.

But for readers at different levels, especially those who seek to be interpretative, Bisi Ojediran’s fiction can also be said to be a source of behind the scene knowledge, which clears illusions about life, explores abuse of power by African political office holders and sundry abstract issues like reincarnation and retribution, as evident in The Black godfather.

With a compelling claim on attention, Ojediran’s imaginative literature yields out not only enjoyment but also understanding and authentic insight. A fact, which makes possible for it to be regarded as both commercial (that written for wide popular consumption) and quality fiction (that written with more artistic intent), it blends into both.

Bisi Ojediran’s foray into writing has 1984 as its birth year. Back then he had a stint with teaching and his students said they love the way he teaches them and they encouraged him to put his thoughts into a book, which he did. It turned out to be a success. That spurred him to try his hands on creative writing and he found it to be more pleasurable than writing textbooks, the rest is history as they say.

Ojediran, who started out writing short stories for the Tribune and Sketch Newspapers in 1985, and had his first work published by Abbey Prints, Ibadan, remains one of the few Nigerian novelists that have had their works revised and reissued.

Also, he signed a deal with a foreign literary agent for publication of his works in the United States and has employed the services of Laurie Rosin (editor of 36 bestsellers) and Sol Stein, who for over 36 years had edited and published the works of great writers such as the immortal James Baldwin, to ensure quality output.