Ifeoma Okoye reads today at UNILAG

Enugu-based Mrs. Ifeoma Okoye, author of The Fourth World, a novel that depicts extreme poverty, the sort inflicted on a hapless citizenry by insensitive governments that cripple youthful aspirations, will read to university students today, February 28, 2018.

Venue is the third floor, Faculty of Arts Boardroom, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos. Time is 11am.

The reading is at the instance of the Department of English, UNILAG, and the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA).

Okoye is excited she would be reading her definitive 2013 novel in Lagos for the first time.

One thing foremost in her mind is how she employs her writing to change straying minds unto the right path so they become masters of their destiny.

“I write to change lives,” she told The Guardian two days ago. “I want people in such situations as those in The Fourth World (at the extreme, bottom end of the social ladder) to do something for themselves. If I can help people through my writing to look for ways to help themselves, then I will be happy.”

Okoye agrees that social conditions in the country are far from what they should be, but she is optimistic, saying, “I know of some people who haven’t given up on themselves. I don’t think we are getting there yet. People are spending more on food.

People are going into agriculture; rice is getting cheaper. Things will improve with time.”

However, Okoye said she was appalled by the standard of learning in schools, especially the mastery of English language among students of both secondary and university levels.

“The standard of education has gone down, has been going down long before now,” she noted. “My area, English, has gone down a long time now. Although it didn’t happen overnight, but we pretended over it. Most of our teachers are not doing enough.”

She has therefore come up with a self-help handbook titled Go for Gold with Your Writing, which she said is “to help students write better, improve their writing.”