Written by Chikezie Obayi, A vow in a thunderstorm is dedicated to the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) who spent most of his life fighting corrupt military leaders in Nigeria.

Chikezie Obayi, the author

The author of the 222 pages novel seems to have obtained his inspiration from the life of Fawehinmi. The main character of his story walks the same path as the late activist.

Tijani, a young brilliant boy vowed to spend his life fighting for the rights of the less privileged in his society after he witnessed his father died of tuberculosis, a disease he contacted while in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Tijani promised his father that he was going to study law and use the legal profession for the benefit of the masses and this Tijani actualised despite the hardships he encoutered like the late Fawehinmi.

While in secondary school at the Kings College, Lagos, Tijani rose to the position of clerk in the school informal law court and used that and fought for the rights of the junior students.

A situation that took him to the lower student court where he appealed the judgment of the lower court and at the upper court he was able to win the case and the oppressed students were free.

He later went on to study Law at the University and continued his fight for the eradication of all acts of intimidation and oppression in the community. Tijani is a young man who plays football very well and his love of the game gives him popularity.

As an undergraduate studying Law, Tijani displayed outstanding courage when he exposed the members of NASTO a notorious secret cult operating in his school. Tijani using his courage as a detective in the matter assisted the police and exposed the head of the cultists Prof. Ozia .

Tijani kept the vow he made to his father even in the university days and like the late Fawehinmi, Tijani was determined to face danger in order to fight for justice and the enthronement of truth. Obayi had rightly dedicated the book to Fawehinmi’s memory.

A vow in thunderstorm provides an experience that many of the younger ones have not had before which may also yield them valuable lessons in human relationships and in other aspects issues of life. Obayi takes the reader through villages and the Lagos city to tell his tale.

He makes use of words such as Igwe thereby using his cultural experience and language in the choice of diction, location and the behaviuor of his characters. Although he does not provide a bibliography of words at the end of the story, he leaves the readers to do the interpretation.

Obayi tells his story well as the readers would easily see that his inspiration came from the late Fawehinmi one of Nigerian heroes of human rights advocacy.

In part two of the book, we read about how a notorious syndicate turned the town into a dumping ground for fake and adulterated drugs. Against all odds, Tijani; now a lawyer, stood and fought for his people to get the needed judgment from the law court that set his people free, an attribute which Gani championed till death.

Written in simple language, the author tells his story brilliantly without boredom or unnecessary details and seems to command a kind of magic that keeps one glued to the story.

Obayi traces the story of Tijani’s life to his earliest educational life and shows the readers how the character strives to keep the promise he made to his father by fighting for the rights of the oppressed and the underprivileged.

He borrows from Ibo land immensely in his use of proverbs, similes and metaphors. Obayi writes with clarity, imagination and simplicity that one would find in the writings of great storytellers such as Cyprian Ekwensi or Chinua Achebe.

Furthermore, Obayi’s use of imagination is good as he is able to use descriptive words and much imagery. For example, in his description of the chaotic situation of Lagos city, he writes in chapter seven, “ people were moving in almost all directions and in haste with no-one seeming to care for the other. Here and there, people were conversing in a language he did not understand.