A whopper could be a put-off to readers who don’t have the luxury of time, but perhaps the key to unlock that disinterest is for the scribbler to begin with a seductive hook and stay the course with twists and turns. In Turbulent Waters, Timothy Etchie has managed to put together a weighty tome that’s unputdownable.
Before the advent of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, Nigeria’s Niger Delta, south of the country, had been a hotbed of youth restiveness. Rival gangs and ethnic militias sought to outdo each other in bloodletting and orgies of destruction, the most pronounced being that of the Ijaw versus the Itsekiri and the Urhobo versus the Itsekiri in the Warri area.
In part, Etchie’s In Turbulent Waters answers the question on the complexion of that sad chapter. This novel tells the tales of feats of derring-do, senseless wars, love tangles and the inevitability of peace. In Turbulent Waters, thriller meets realistic fiction, and the result is a titillating read.
For decades, campus cultism has been an albatross in Nigeria’s citadel of learning. Rival gangs go all out to hurt other members, cutting the lives of many youths short. Etchie recreates these sordid spectacles in this novel. Blood floods unabated at Aliu Zamani University in Jankara. The appearance of a sugar daddy don and a collaborating ex-minister with scores to settle with an undesirable lover boy from an enemy ethnic group set the tone for intrigues and chills for the faint-hearted and thrills for the average reader.
The major character in the novel, Tosan, who leads the most dreaded cult gang at Zamani University, The Owls, cuts a Jekyll and Hyde kind of persona. He is ruthless when ethnic and cult battles are involved. When he puts on his imaginative veil, he is the best artist around and lover boy, too. His art teacher, a man notorious for corruption, victimisation of students and the Patron Saint of cultists, serves as the antagonist. The love triangle between him and Ebi Dabiri, the daughter of an influential Ijaw man and ex-minister, and between Tosan and Ebi, brought four heads on a collision course, which took hundreds of pages to be resolved amid cliffhangers and trail of deaths and destruction.
Etchie begins his narrative with florid language and sustains the tempo till the end with fine turns of phrase and narrative control. “It had been gradually getting overcast, and the sky was black and lowering with the weight of the storm beneath its pouches,” begins the story and, “In the distance, the wind began to moan. A stream of dull clouds coming up against it flashed down thunder, and quivering lightning followed it.” This picture surely tells you the author has a way with words.
The hair-raising first meeting between the dissatisfied middle aged lecturer, Dr Vincent Ubangha, and Wuru, the leader of Egbesu Boys, to track and nail Tosan early in the plot prepares your mind for a pulsating plot. While Wuru can be regarded as a soldier of the Ijaw nation, Tosan is his equivalent for the Itshekiri in the despicable Warri crisis that painted the soil and air magenta.
The skirt-chasing Ubangha is having a liaison with a female student, Ebi. But a crack suddenly appears in the relationship when Ebi finds her Romeo in Tosan the artist, whose hands have been soiled in blood both in the Warri crisis and on campus. How can the randy Ubangha tolerate this affront by one of his best students? The ultimate plot is to get rid of Tosan to retain his diamond. But we know it isn’t easy to fetch water in a basket, no matter how hard you try.
That’s the foundation of the crisis in Etchie’s In Turbulent Waters. Stream of consciousness features prominently in this work, as the author offers the reader access into the recesses of the characters, filling unspoken vacuums. Suspense takes you to paradise intermittently, also.
Ebi has found a new love, and there is nothing anybody can do about it, even when a mouthwatering offer is put on the table to convince the lover boy to take a walk in the relationship and leave the hawk to enjoy his coveted pizza in peace. When entreaties fail, the lecturer decides to use rival cult boys to unsettle Tosan. Five cult groups, hence, form an alliance against The Owls, taking the latter unawares by gunning down three senior members of the fraternity.
Revenge and intrigues are in the air. A peace talk initiated by The Owls turns out to be a smokescreen to seek a pound of flesh. Mike, who spearheaded the attack on The Owls, and most of the rival gang members who attended the meeting, are taken out. The university is closed down when the killings continue.
Meanwhile, Chief Dabiri and Ubangha haven’t stopped in their scheme to exterminate Tosan months after. the agenda was nursed But on the eve of his departure to America for an exhibition and further studies, a plot to kill him fails, as Wuru and other assailants suddenly have a rethink, and both parties sue for peace.
This thriller has a didactic ring about: that brothers being used as tools for senseless fights must come to terms with reality; that true love knows no tribe. Tosan, unlike many that were killed, gets a second chance to live and become an accomplished artist. Readers are invited to read and enjoy this book for its thrills and reflect afterwards on the weight of its conclusion. Etchie has crafted a sizzling piece you would love to read over and over.