Mbok! Don’t Kopa Me Book Review — By Fawziyya
The national youth service Corp was established on 22nd of May, 1972 by the Nigerian Government. It has since seen thousands of graduates through it’s one year lined up programs. This was what the Author of Mbok! Don’t Kopa Me, Badiru Kehinde, tried to describe in this memoir. It’s a description of his service year in the state of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria.
And he fails. Badiru Kehinde tried to do something few people had done and maybe he would have gotten it. But he didn't. The memoir is confusing. It manages to be exceptionally uncaptivating. It jumps dates and has a whole lot of unnecessary details that the Author decided to mark with more days, again. The Author mentioned so many names sometimes writing a name and promising to tell us all about it later. Sadly, he doesn't. This makes it hard for the reader to keep up. It’s hard to see who his close friends were in that environment.
The Author repeats what he felt God was doing for him and directing him to at every good news without necessarily informing the readers thoroughly on what that good news is. He tried to make this book a spiritual one and completely failed in his attempt. He ends up repeating the same words at every juncture he could, giving the readers the hard job of skimming through a whole lot of words that repeat God and purpose. The poor editing was a glaring issue, one that was itching to be fixed. The only good thing about this memoir is that I understood the last two chapters and I think it’s because the author managed to synchronize the dates and therefore the story fell into place. The Author does a good job of trying to describe Akwa Ibom and its feel for us. It doesn't vividly paint the picture but it is apt.
Unremarkable. This was an unremarkable memoir. Maybe next time, Badiru Kehinde.
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