Failure to pursue one’s dream to fruition

Title: “Pursuing Your Dream” Author: Ruth Ima-Obong Alao Publisher: Sansegs Prints, Nigeria Date of publication: 2016 Number of pages:  28 ISBN: 978-978-955-178-1 Price: Not Stated Reviewer: Shittu Ahmed Obassa Reading through the book titled “Pursuing Your Dream” authored by nine-year-old, Miss Ruth Ima-Obong Alao, simply reminds me of my own childhood. Even though the author […]

Title: “Pursuing Your Dream”

Author: Ruth Ima-Obong Alao

Publisher: Sansegs Prints, Nigeria

Date of publication: 2016

Number of pages:  28

ISBN: 978-978-955-178-1

Price: Not Stated

Reviewer: Shittu Ahmed Obassa

Reading through the book titled “Pursuing Your Dream” authored by nine-year-old, Miss Ruth Ima-Obong Alao, simply reminds me of my own childhood. Even though the author has chosen the character to be a female child since she is a female herself, the scenes in the book could as well apply to a male.   

 She has made an attempt to tell a story which plots the experiences of many promising children who are victims of circumstances in societies such as ours, alluding  to the fact that while pursuing one’s goals in life, certain obstacles and hurdles can stand in the way. They may include insufficient resources, separation of parents, being afflicted by illness or losing one’s parents or benefactor, as is the case with Grace in this book under review. And the role of prayers cannot be overemphasised in the attempt to surmount one’s challenges or brave the odds.

 In this short story, one sees that “Grace Taylor” and her family make it a point of duty to pray first thing in the morning and  last thing before retiring to bed at night.  But, unfortunately Grace, in the later part of her life, abandons this noble practice   as she stops believing in God and turns wayward. And the consequences of such an action are quite instructive.

The book shows that we are who we are because of the type of company we keep and by and large we succeed or fail, owing to the amount of influence friends exert on us while pursuing our dreams.

 In this  book  it is  also  clear that keeping bad company has leads Grace to indulge  in pre-marital sex and in the end gets  impregnated by a boy who is a drop out. Perhaps, Grace would have resisted the lure of sexual relationship if her parents had taught her sex education. But they shied away and left their promising girl-child at the mercy of the larger society where she ran into girls of easy virtue.  

 Grace is third time unlucky by marrying a man and failing to bear children for him. Her barrenness becomes worrisome to the husband’s relations coupled with the presence of a fatherless child in the house. 

 The marriage collapses when the husband learns that Grace had a child out of wedlock before she met and married him.

 The child, whose father denies impregnating Grace, later resurfaces to cater to his needs while living in the United States.

 Ima-Obong put in perspective the likely problems that could derail a young person in his/her drive to make some sense of the happenings around him/her. The character in the book is brilliant and well behaved to the admiration of her parents until death snatches her father.  

In Chapter I of the book under the heading: “Having Passion” Grace’s studious nature and passion for school is admired by her teacher whom she once told “I want to be an artist, a very good one indeed. I have passion for painting and drawing and I find myself doing it with excitement” (pg.6)

In Chapter II, “Demise of her Father”, the narration is  that Grace is always lamenting how she misses her  dad’s encouragement because he is always fond of appreciating …her work and how neat she is as a young girl (pages15-16). This chapter brings to light the challenges of a fatherless girl, as schooling and feeding is difficult for her and the rest of the family and she has to start petty trading just to survive and pay her school fees.

 Chapter III, “Focus is the Answer” talks about her determination to further her education against all odds. She continues with her petty trading to keep her going in her schooling but she does not find it easy to combine the two. Since it’s what she( is) determined to do she scales through.(pg.17)

 Chapter IV, “Her Hope Increased” talks about  the attention and favour Grace enjoys due to her neatness and academic performance which earn her scholarship from her teacher and gives the mother a relief .

 The teacher has this to say “I came to know the parents of such an intelligent young girl”.(pg.21) and having been so impressed  the teacher  takes up the responsibility of  sponsoring  Grace’s secondary and university education(pg.22). 

 Chapter V, “Grace’s Sponsor Died” depicts the character’s life at the peak of her schooling, having passed her exams and enrolled in the university with the help of her sponsor. But this joy is short-lived as her sponsor dies and Grace returns to square one. And so devastated she is that she chooses to drop out of school and begins her petty trading again.

This second tragedy shatters her and in the end she becomes sick and dies.

 What a sad way to end a story about the struggles of a young girl who wants to achieve certain goals but falls by the wayside! 

This book could not have come at a better time than now for the reading pleasure of young boys and girls aspiring to be in the limelight. 

Part of the moral lessons in the book is that engaging oneself in wrong doings that are prevalent in present-day Nigeria will not lead anyone to the top of the social ladder but rather hard work, discipline, perseverance and spiritual devotion often do.

 In driving home the moral lessons in the book, the kid-writer deliberately simplifies the narrative while adding some elements of dialogue at some points. 

 Although an adage says “You don’t judge a book by the cover” the cover of this book has a way of telling you that this writer is not the-run-off-the-mill type, hence her portrait adorns the cover so as to stir your curiosity as a prospective reader.

 After reading the short story, I want to believe that the author has a lot of potential and that “ it is morning yet on creation day.”

 Shittu Obassa is a journalist and a writer.