Silence of the Living: A Novel on Silence and Its Antithesis

By Dumo Kaizer J Oruobu

Silence of the Living is one book beyond what is traditionally called a trilogy, which Dumo Oruobu has defied to enlarge and to build on. I Dare You, Ghost!, Ghost of Dr. VU, and Dying To Live are books that chronicle the episodes of a philanthropist who has transformed from chief; Professor Enemameniyaa Tubokesagbema Ibifaagha Tamunosaki in I Dare You, Ghost!; Professor Temebo Temebo in Ghost of Dr. VU; Professor Ibiso Tamunosaki in Dying to Live to Fafaagha here in Silence of the Living, where he has no title as a prefix to his name.
Fafaagha is our hero here, and he has come from the long line of his forebears in the other characters in the three previous works—Professor Tamunosaki, Temebo, and Ibiso Tamunosaki—to continue to weave the ingredients of the substance of the plot of the story together.
You will find in Silence of the Living drama, dialogues or conversations that burn the minds of those who engage in it, as well as discussions that are as political as they are apolitical, with the storyteller as nothing but a catalyst who is not a part of the process.
While Eko Akete is mentioned as a port of entry and of departure, little or nothing is known about the country in which the story is located or the town in which the major characters of the story gyrate, living their ordinary lives.
You have to rely on your knowledge of the culture and traditions of the peoples of West Africa to point to Nigeria and her Niger Delta as the unmistakable settings of the story, with the Naira as the local currency providing further evidence to that fact.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546298748

Dumo Kaizer J Oruobu

DUMO KAIZER JOHNNY ORUOBU was born in Ogurama in Degema District of Nigeria’s Rivers State of Th e Niger Delta Region to Christie and Chief Kaizer John Oruobu on September 22 in 1952. He studied at Baptist Day School, Old Bakana, Zixton Grammar School, Ozubulu, Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Borikiri, County Grammar School, Ikwerre-Etche and Baptist High School, Port Harcourt between 1959 and 1973; and in 1975 went on to study English Language and Literature at Nigeria’s Prestige University Of Ibadan, graduating in November, 1978. He is an accomplished Singer, Poet, Inspirational Speaker and Preacher of Th e Word of God. He is a Prize Writer in all the genres, an accomplished Print, Radio and Television Journalist and is fi rmly rooted in Entertainment, Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. He has written well over eighty Novels out of which sixteen have been published between 2016 and 2018. He is a Fellow of Nigeria’s Institute Of Corporate Administration and is a Member Of Th e Nigerian Institute Of Public Relations. He holds two Traditional Chieftaincy Titles – Anyawo XI Of Ogurama and Amaibi Dokibo Se Erena XII Of Kalabari. He loves Travels, People and Makes friends very easily.

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© 2018 . All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/28/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9873-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9874-8 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Telephone Contacts And Email Addresses:

About The Book Beyond A Trilogy

Appreciation

Dedication

Chapter 1 Maybe And The Relative Clause If

Chapter 2 No More Surprises

Chapter 3 Better A Little Than None At All

Chapter 4 On Course And On Track To Pretoria, South Africa

Chapter 5 A Reality More Dream-like Than A Dream

Chapter 6 Invitation To Witness Happenings On Two Fronts

Chapter 7 The Devil, Where?

Chapter 8 The Truth To Know

Chapter 9 Ice That Fails To Melt

Chapter 10 Syntax And Stylistics Carrying The Semantics Along

Chapter 11 Back To A Road Once Travelled

Chapter 12 Learning The Ropes Of Playing Golf

Chapter 13 Nothing Happens But In God’s Own Time

Chapter 14 What Would Happen If All Men Were Created To Be Exactly The Same?

Chapter 15 Hostesses Disappointed

Chapter 16 One On One Encounter With God’s Anointed

TELEPHONE CONTACTS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES:

[phone] + 234 7042220012, [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone],

[phone], [phone], [phone].

Email: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

ABOUT THE BOOK

Beyond A Trilogy

Silence Of The Living is one book beyond what is traditionally called trilogy which Dumo Oruobu has defied to enlarge and to build upon. I Dare You, Ghost! Ghost of Dr. VU and Dying To Live, which chronicle the episodes of a Philanthropist who has transformed from Chief, Professor Enemameniyaa Tubokesagbema Ibifaagha Tamunosaki in I Dare You, Ghost! Professor Temebo Temebo in Ghost of Dr. VU, Professor Ibiso Tamunosaki in Dying to Live to Fafaagha here in Silence of The Living where he has no title as a prefix to his name.

Fafaagha is our hero here, and he has come from the long line of his forebears in the other characters in the three previous works –Professor Tamunosaki, Temebo, and Ibiso Tamunosaki, to continue to weave the ingredients of the substance of the plot of the story together.

Ibiene, Fafaagha’s wife here who is Ibiyingi in Dying To Live, and Professor Temebo’s wife there, has resurfaced here by leaving the Hospital in which she has been held for treatment of the ailment about which nobody knows anything, accompanied by her best friend Jessica here who is Enefaa in her previous life.

Names like Enemajei, Okiwano, President of the Opobo Nkoro and Kala Ibiama Development Unions have progressively metamorphosed into the future and to the present as Ibiwangi, Daata, Ibiwari, Anjiba, Ibiene Wariso, Nengi Amasa, Fenibo Halliday and Dakoru Kentebe.

Amaka Nnamani and Kaine Adango have also travelled from the waters of the trilogy to become Pamela and Madonna in Silence Of The Living.

A new character of prominence has been introduced here – Chizzy who rapidly transforms from someone who is completely incommunicado even by the telephone to become a very passionate lover, has left the Medical Department of the Government’s Mega Corporation as a Registered Nurse to take up a plum job as a Senior Matron in Professor Abbey’s Evangel Medical Centre which is a reincarnation of the Creeks Hospital in Dying To Live after she is made senseless by Fafaagha’s rain of money on her that she cannot believe to be true but is true anyway.

Fafaagha the very successful and self-made Billionaire is very generous with his wealth which he employs as well as deploys whenever expedient, to the good of nearly everyone around him – everyone including people who are far from him – people like Adanna and Chizzy the two Matrons in the Evangel Medical Centre, the first of whom has metamorphosed from Osioma Ezeilo in Dying To Live.

He takes nine people along with him to an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa, England and the United States of America – a trip which is partly paid for by the President of the country whose ears and heart are his for being the thoroughbred Technocrat and upright –yes, for being the almost incorruptible man of impeccable character and credentials that he is.

Silence Of The Living is replete with incontrovertible facts about the author’s obsession with his love of God, his faith and belief in His Prophets, in particular, the Prophet of the Present Generation, Prophet Shepherd Bushiri or Major One of Malawian origins but who, rejected by his Country, takes flight from there in search of safety and fair grounds, is finally firmly established in the safety and open arms and hearts of Pretoria, South Africa as the President and Spiritual Head of The Enlightened Christian Gathering – ECG.

You will find in Silence Of The Living drama, dialogues or conversations that burn the minds of those who engage in it as well as discussions that are as political as they are apolitical, with the story teller as but a catalyst who is not a part of the process.

While Eko Akete is mentioned as a Port of Entry and of Departure, little or nothing is known about the Country in which the story is located or the town in which the major characters of the story gyrate in living their ordinary lives.

You have to rely on your knowledge of the culture and traditions of the peoples of West Africa to point to Nigeria and her Niger Delta as the unmistakable settings of the story, with the Naira as the local currency providing further evidence to that fact.

Why is Dumo Oruobu shy of giving a name to the Country in which the story is berthed? Is it for him to say that the things that happen in the Countries of the African Continent know no borders and are the same in nearly every respect, or that he sees all the Countries as one in a united or discordant Africa? Or is he protesting against anything that we cannot see at a glance?

Whatever the answer that you give to those questions being suggested may be, it is crystal clear that our wordsmith Dumo Oruobu is gradually but steadily cutting a niche for himself as a Writer who is redefining the entire concept of fiction, by challenging a few of the previously traditionally known mechanics, motifs or prototypes that drive the genre called fiction as a form of expression of a people who have very few avenues left for them to express their hopes, angst, their frustrations and pains in a destructive cul-de-sac.

The taste of the pudding, as we say, is in the eating.

Read Silence Of The Living and come to your own conclusion and decision as to whether or not you agree with Dumo Oruobu that many people who are alive or pretend to be alive are more dead and more silent than the dead who are known to be dead and are safely held down in their dark and voiceless graves, and so, allow the ills of Society to have a free reign as current on which dirt flows and is deposited at the door steps of the living.

To make complete sense of what we have in here requires you to read the trilogy.

APPRECIATION

I am grateful to Godswill Udeme Ikpe and to Miss Amenjiba Rose Robert Ibani for the great job they did for me in typing and re-typing the Manuscript that led to the finished product that Silence Of The Living is.

I am once again grateful to all my passionate friends who stayed away from me for different reasons which gave me the space and the time that people of my occupation and preoccupation very badly need to do what we do to bring what we do to the public, as well as to all those who I may have perceived wrongly or rightly as persons who hate me, but through whose hate, and, sometimes through whose wish or desire that I should disappear from the stratosphere disguised as love which I see through, anyway, gave me greater insight and fuller understanding of the concept of hate, dei gracia, in order for love to be more meaningful to me than I knew and would have ever known that it is…

Dumo Kaizer J Oruobu

February 20, 2018, Port Harcourt, NIGERIA.

DEDICATION

Silence Of The Living Is Dedicated

To the sweet memory of my Father,

Chief Kaizer Johnny Oruobu, Oku X of Ogurama & Oruobu I of Kalabari;

My Mother,

Alabota Christie Bekinbo Oruobu (Nee Herbert Ikpoye Iwaribiobeingo);

My Best Friend,

Francis Ola Falemara;

Basoene Sunday Douglas, the first mentor I had in my earliest childhood.

And to God Almighty for giving me these personages free in my path through life, and for making me be as I am, with my gratitude forever.

CHAPTER 1

Maybe And The Relative Clause If

Silence Of The Living

The silence

Of the living

Is worse –

Far worse

Than

The silence

Of the dead.

It is worse

Than

Even

The silence

Of the grave,

Because

We know

That when

The dead

Are taken

Away

From us

To the grave –

The grave

Where

Even

The brave

Fear to go,

We no longer

Expect

To hear

Anything else

From them

But silence

Through

And through,

To the end

Of our time

And

To eternity.

But here,

When

We are alive,

We expect

Something,

Even should

What

We expect

But be

An answer

To our

Question

Just for us

To say

That we

Should not

Expect

Any

Answer!

Therefore,

Friend,

Please

Do not

Greet me

With

Silence.

Speak

To me,

Even

Should

What

You have

To tell me,

Not be

As sweet

And

As lovely

As you would

It were

To me!

What would you feel like, if you look in a mirror on a wall in front of which you stand, but do not see your image thrown back at you? Fafaagha began to speak to himself in a monologue. Or that you stand overlooking a Stream, you stand beside a pool of water or you sit on a canoe on a River, and you do not see your own image in that situation in any form – in an avant-garde, a surrealist, gothic or realist form, how would you feel? He asked himself with a lot of concern and worry too.

You will definitely feel worried, I know, if not outright scared. He told himself.

And I am making this very strange analogy, only in order for me to stress the importance of a feedback in any inter-personal communication scenario. A feedback is always necessary. It is in fact mandatory. It is imperative. Where there is no feedback, communication cannot be said to be complete. He kept on musing.

Do you as a habit, answer anyone who talks to you, with silence? Please don’t do such a thing; don’t, because that silence will not qualify to be described as golden in any way. No! It will not be golden. He declared to himself in his inside with a very strong conviction.

Which is what I am feeling right now about the silence with which you have greeted what I have communicated to you during the last one hour or so ago. He began to talk to his friend, but still from the inside of his mind.

And just in case you did not receive the communication which I am referring to, I am re-sending the same message to you. Yes. I am doing so right away! Fafaagha told himself, as he wrote what he was saying in his inside on the telephone in front of him, and pressed the send button as soon as he was done writing it. He had dispatched it at the speed of light.

Let it go where I have directed it. He told himself, satisfied with what he had done.

A very terse response came back to him moments after he posted away what he had called his re-send communication.

Just seeing what you talked about. Taking appropriate action as soon as now! Sorry for the delay.

Enefaa wrote.

Fafaagha was happy with the conclusion of the response that he got to his re-send. Yes. The conclusion pleased him a lot. He did not worry too much about the first part of the reply to his message. No. How long ago Enefaa saw what he had sent to him did not matter to him as much as his remorse or apology for responding to it at the time that he was doing so.

What he was not sure of, and so, what he did not know also, was how to react to his doubts as to whether or not Ibiene was truthful to himself and to him when he said that he was receiving the message only through the re-send, and not from the original text that he had sent to him more than an hour or so before that time.

Can Ene, as Fafaagha liked to call Enefaa his friend and the Chairman of their Cultural Club, engage in playing games with him? He wondered.

Or was Ene as usual, telling him the stark truth and nothing but the truth that was inherent in what he wrote in his reply that he was telling him? He wondered.

Maybe settles it! He told himself. Yes! Maybe! Maybe, because maybe settles as many issues as it does not settle anything at all by just being as it is – the word maybe – to signal that something can be exactly as it may not be what it is said to be. Maybe is dangerous and unreliable. He said to himself.

Maybe! He told himself. Maybe. He said again, but now with an air of definitive angst and finality. Is a word which people should not use if they can help it. No one should use it. No one should use it. Not if they can help it. No. No longer if they can help it, but not at all! He told himself. Not at all! He screamed inside him.

Maybe. He said to himself once again. Maybe! It is worse than the relative clause if. He told himself as he stood up to walk away from where he sat while the drama in his inside was playing itself out. Maybe, yes, maybe even sitting where he was sitting could contribute to the uncertainty which he was facing that was raging in his mind right now. He thought to himself. That is how bad the word maybe could be. He said to himself. But no, not so with his certainty about his desire for peace. He quickly retorted.

There was nothing uncertain about the fact that he wanted peace, and very badly too. No! He said to himself. There was nothing uncertain about that. No! There was nothing uncertain about the fact that the peace that he desired was not the kind of peace that the grave yard knows. No. It was not like the silence of the grave that would endure through to eternity. He wanted peace that was peace all the