The book is not about musical concord or the combination of different musical notes to create pleasing sound or music. It is about the brutal sounds of war that have resonated in a hitherto peaceful state and shattered its silence.

Though the author’s decision to reconstruct the events in his state on the structure of musical symbols could have been informed by reasons best known to him, what is incontestable is the fact that the political music being played in Osun State by some elements is discordant to reason and which if allowed to continue, will not only shatter the cochleae of Nigeria’s fledgling democracy and those of its discerning citizens. The brutal music is also capable of destroying the treasured age-long moral, social and political fabrics of the Yoruba race.

The author opens the door for the readers to glimpse the workings of his inner man and understand the raison detre for the book. According to him, his decision to embark on the literary expedition was conditioned by the necessity to deconstruct the castle of falsehood that had been built and is still being constructed by members of the opposition parties, particularly those in the Action Congress (AC), on the political situation in Osun State.

Being an insider and a vital member of the Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s government in Osun State, Olagunju has the advantage of not just an ear-witness, he is a witness to the brutal events that had almost turned a state that was known as a haven of peace into a battle ground, where deaths and destruction were the spoils of the ego-inspired and ambition-induced war.

Olagunju also claims that part of the reasons for writing the book was to defuse the landmines of propaganda that the opposition had buried in some sections of the Nigerian media and which were being exploded to deliberately misinform members of the public on the correct political intrigues in Osun State.
It is instructive, however, to note that the author agrees that the task he set for himself was a daunting one. But he promises in the book not to take sides, as he would naturally have been expected to do.
But how objective is the author in presenting the events or to put it appropriately, representing the truth in the book without falling into the same trap of singing out tune himself?

The book is farmed out into 10 distinct chapters. Each chapter is presented to specifically address both the generative and generic issues that reshaped the political configurations of Osun State. The strand that connects all the chapters is the refrain - which, though not stated, is still palpable in the book - that the crux of the culture of violence that has been introduced to the politics of Osun is the unbridled ambition of a political overlord to control the soul of the Yoruba nation by planting his stooges in the five states of the South-West, including Lagos State.

In the first chapter of the book entitled The Ominous Cloud, the author recalls an incident, which occurred shortly before the April 14, 2007 governorship election when Oyinlola played host to a group of newspaper editors in Osogbo. The editors watched with petrification as some hoodlums bearing the symbols of the Action Congress unleashed mayhem on the state capital, causing destruction to the properties of perceived political enemies and singing raucously that they had run the governor and his supporters out of the state.

According to the author, it was not the first time such a discordant tune of violence would be played: he reveals that the Action Congress and his standard-bearer in the election, had made known their intention long before the election. He cited the example of the 2006 Oroki Day celebration, which was disrupted by the standard bearer and his supporters after which they treated the residents of Oshogbo to an orgy of violence.

With journalistic precision, the author gives insightful details into the brutal aftermath of the 2007 election, which left deep wounds, which are yet to heal. The brutal killings, arson and bestiality that attended the election had deflowered the virgin essence that made the state the spiritual hub as well as the ancestral hub of the Yoruba.

The book contains the photographs of these brutal details as well as the list of victims of the April 14 elections who suffered both human and material losses. The urgent intervention the state government made to at least give succour to the unfortunate victims whose only guilt was that they did not belong to the AC. The rest, as they say, is history but pictures do not lie and they speak volumes or sing resonantly or dissonantly.

The bomb blast that rocked the state capital and the reports of the investigations and confessions of the culprits dominate chapter five just as chapter six and seven focus on AC’s petition at the election tribunal and the controversy about the purported illegal telephone transaction between Justice Naron and counsel for Governor Oyinlola. On both issues, the author presents the two sides of the coin and shows how truth was deliberately falsified by a section of the media.

The events at the Election Petition Tribunals and the judgment which validated the election of Governor Oyinlola and subsequent appeal filed by Engr. Aregbesola and the determination of that case by the court of appeal sitting in Ibadan, which ordered a retrial of the petition as well as the politicization of the efforts to universalise the rich cultural heritage of the Yoruba race through the establishment of a UNESCO centre in Osogbo are the focus of chapters eight to 10.

As usual, the author did not attempt to present his own views, rather he relied on the proofs and evidences tendered by the political gladiators as well as statements credited to them. To reinforce his promise of presenting facts and correctly re-presenting truth, Olagunju in the Appendix, makes available copies of the statements of the accused arrested over the bomb blast incident and the correspondences on the UNESCO centre in Osogbo.

The Appendix includes the letter written by Professor Wole Soyinka to the international agency to challenge its decision to challenge the choice of the location bringing his personal dislike for former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the fact of his special alignment with the camp of Senator Tinubu to cloud his judgment. The response of UNESCO to the issue is also contained in the Appendix.

How well did Olagunju fare in the 180-page literary offering? Did he live up to his own promise of sticking to the facts and are there even dissonance in the political undertones of Osun State? The book, despite its small size, is very huge in details.

There is no doubt about the intention of the author as he tries as much as possible to detach himself from the events despite his own involvement. The technical and professional manner the author utilized the information available to him makes the book very crucial to anyone who is interested in discovering the truth about the stormy waters of Osun politics and the identities of those who caused the tempest.

However, just as dissonance distorts harmonies in musical renditions, typos in books create discord in textual balance. There are avoidable errors in the book which could have been eliminated had the editor(s) given it the same dexterity showed in the presentation of the contents. Nonetheless, Dissonant Harmonies... is a worthy acquisition. It is not just a recollection of events it is a factional account as opposed to the fictional concoction of the political ensemble that has fouled the political space with their phantasmagoric reports that beat even the rounded imaginations of both Amos Tutuola and Daniel Fagunwa.

•Ighere is Editor, Nigerian Tribune