An Enemy from Within

This is the story of Samuel Efe Omoruyi, a teenager with an interesting combination of zeal, intellect, and a carefree attitude. He is a young man motivated by the life he must lead, by the responsibility he must see through and by the blood that runs through his veins. But then, he is a young adult who, like most young adults, is laden with emotions; emotions that easily make them victims of circumstances in which they find themselves.
Samuel's life is flooded with ironies and contradictions. He is someone who speaks out against corruption, yet he includes the names of his three siblings in the university payroll. He is keen to advocate justice for the downtrodden, yet weak in defending victims of injustice. Above all, he is the classic nerd in search of meaning and fulfilment amidst the harsh conditions which the state has imposed to retard the flowering of its most promising citizens.
The eventful story of Samuel begins in the ancient city of Benin. It opens with the story of his return to Nigeria after four years of exile for being on the list of "most-wanted criminals" by the government.
The factors that facilitate his later actions are revealed. First, he is marked down in the University Matriculation Examination but could not get justice in his bid to get his score reviewed. His Father is cheated out of an opportunity for a course abroad because he refused to give bribes to his superior. He is subsequently made to retire from the army with little or no source of survival for his large family.
In a bid to help in saving his family from poverty, Samuel involves himself in a ghost-worker affair and goes into hiding when his crime was found out. His effort to elude capture forces him into exile, poverty, monotonous living, and a series of criminal acts in a bid to cover up previous crimes. Life abroad is marked with alternating spells of pain and respite, hopes and betrayals. In the end, he is forced back to Nigeria, leaving his children, his wife and his life behind in France.
Samuel’s fate brings into relief questions that have troubled mankind since the beginning of time: Is our life path determined by willful actions and conscious choices, or are we simply pencils in the hand of unseen forces?