Essentially, The Global Villager: Bamanga Tukur is a literary autography as Eddie Aderinokun himself has subtitled it. The literary spices are obvious even in the central narrative. Those literary elements are laced with philosophical musings characteristic of virtually all Aderinokun writings. Nowhere else, perhaps, are these poetic ingredients as pronounced as in the wittiness of the expressions.

Published by Monumenta Communications, the book is a monument in the crafting of life in the family circle where the father is not only the symbol of authority but is also the inspiration for success. That was the story of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and his father, Mahmud Tukur, as Aderinokun himself describes below:

“Mallam Hamman Tukur, Tafilda’s father was an aristocrat and administrator, indeed, one of the finest in the land. There were very few other men that had the kind of wealth of knowledge of Arabic education combined with excellent administrative skills like he did. His excellence at dispute resolution was said to have been legendary.”

The relationship between Tukur and his old man has a place in history, which literary critics usually refer to as time setting. The author writes that the formative years of young Bamanga was about the time the Second World War was over. He recalled that there was a general quest for identity by the various nations.

The story of Tukur is edifying for upcoming Nigerians who intend to make success of public service or business. Bamanga has risen through the ranks at the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to become the Chief Executive Officer and was for three months the governor of defunct Gongola State.

His regime was truncated by the military intervention of December 31, 1983, which inaugurated the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, the government that eventually detained Tukur and other leading politicians for 21 months without trial.

Many now know Tukur as one of the country’s flag-bearers in the various development organs of the African Union (AU). He presided over the African Business Roundtable (ABR) and was a major stakeholder in the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

This is perhaps the first prose work of significance by Aderinokun, the poet of Indigo Tears and Milestones, who has to his credit no less than seven other poetry publications.

Many may be yet to know that the chronicler and the persona have come a long way together as friends. When Tukur flourished at the Lagos port as the indefatigable manager there, Aderinokun was the Editor of defunct Daily Express newspaper. They common interest include sports, tourism, fashion and pan-African activism.

While Aderinokun has been committed himself over decades to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s African leadership Forum as a resource person, Tukur has traversed the most developed nations of the world seeking a better place under the sun for the African, an outreach which brought into contact with Ghanaian-born Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and other world leaders. One of Tukur biggest dreams is to represent Africa in a meeting of the G8.

Adenirokun’s account, unlike any other on Tukur, employs flowering poetic diction, sometimes a recapture of the hemisphere. As in the epic tradition which is usual in the prose genre of heroic content, natural elements heralded the birth of Tukur. On the hero’s early life, the author observed:

“The history of one of Africa’s greatest sons started in September 1935 that time of the year where the volume of rainfall starts to get the very sporadic and unpredictable, temperatures also start to rise.

During the month of September, it is not a very common sight to see lots of stars during the night because it often gets very cloudy. However, on this night, the stars shone very brightly.”

The Global Villageris structurally split in 30 functional parts – 27 chapters, an epilogue, a section named Afterword and a photo section. Each section has a thematic function which he tries to exhaust within its scope with overwhelming success.

All the chapters are sub-titled. For instance, Chapter One is subtitled “Melodies of Gongola” and it deals with the geo-ethnic politics of the defunct Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba states).

The central figure in the politics of Gongola from Aderinokun’s perception was Tukur.

“Bamanga Tukur moved into the fray of Gongola, calmed jaded nerves, assuring his people that the state must be made to work, threats or no threats. And he started by living by examples and not precepts, clocking about eighteen hours daily on state duties.”