Books:
Honesty is the best legacy & Tony the proud boy
Author:
Oluwabusola Phillips A
Reviewer:
Sunmola Olowookere
Year of publication:
2021

Philips Oluwabusola is a teenage boy with a budding interest in writing short stories. The two short stories he published; Honesty is the best legacy and Tony the proud boy are evidences of this fact.

The first short story, Honesty is the best legacy, has its plot centered around a typical African polygamous home replete with the usual tale of bitterness, neglect and the outcome of the negative influence.

The six chaptered story opened showing a closely knitted family. The parents doted on their son, Kolade, and were involved in every aspect of his life.

His marriage was no exception as his wife’s inability to conceive soon after their wedding gave her mother in law the opening to interfere in their marriage. Along with Kolade’s father, she demanded that he should marry a second wife so that they could have babies as the marriage had clocked five years without any issue.

As providence would have it, Kolade’s wife, Abike soon got pregnant and had triplets. It was a happy time for the family as family and friends celebrated the christening with them. The worst seemed to be over with the young couple.

Alas! the devil was to rear its ugly head. Kolade’s mother who seemed to be fixated on her son getting a second wife began to scheme how she would achieve her aim. Through fetish means, she got rid of Abike and her children and installed another woman in her son’s house.

Abike and her children suffered a lot before they could make a headway in life due to neglect by Kolade. However, good eventually triumphed over evil. Abike’s children excelled while the child of the second wife became  miscreants and eventually amounted to nothing.

The lessons learnt from the story indicate that there are rewards for truthfulness, honesty and hardwork. It also shows that no matter how long, it takes there is a rewards for good deeds.

These are valuable lessons coming from a theme formed by a secondary school student. It gives an assurance that there is still hope for the upcoming generation despite the preponderance of immorality seen amongst them.

The second story, Tony the proud boy was also published in 2021. It portrayed a boy who got heady because he was born with a silver spoon.

The young writer also built another character who was a direct opposite of Tony. While Tony was lazy, rude, spoilt and playful, his antithesis, Afarin was hardworking, well-behaved, focused and serious with his study. Afarin came from a poor family background although his parents were determined to train him in school.

Due to myriads of reasons, Tony’s mother contributed to his problem.

In this story too, the theme of hardwork was much in play as Afarin’s hardwork was rewarded during their final examination and he was awarded a scholarship to study in any university of his choice while Tony failed woefully.

He drew out the theme “hard work pays” as a government representative came to the school to celebrate Afarin’s excellence.

Rather than repent and turn a new leaf, Tony decided to stop schooling despite his father’s pleas. While Afarin, the poor boy soared higher, Tony slipped deeper into the mire.

He was rudely jerked from his stupor when his support system was yanked from beneath. His mother lost her job. His father got into a terrible accident and they spent all they had at a hospital abroad before he gave up the ghost.

By then, everything they had was gone and they had to feed from hand to mouth. Unlike many rich boys that lost all, Tony was eventually delivered by a most unlikely acquittance; Afarin.

He went back to school, turned a new leaf and became very hardworking. His hardwork too was rewarded and things turned around for him.

Eventually, it all ended well as both men became inseparable allies and they became self-made men.

Oluwabusola Phillips is 17 year old and hails from Igbara-Oke in Ondo State. He is presently schooling at a private secondary school in Akure. He has written other novels yet to be published. With adequate mentoring, he will carve a niche for himself in the literary world.