 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. We're going back to the year 2013 to talk about what happened this day May 14th and in this same history the book Americana is published by renowned Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ongozi Adiche. This book won her the 2013 US National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. It was Adiche's third book after she had published, you know, others including a half of a yellow sun. Now Americana, you know, deals with lots of themes, you know, that, you know, basically crosses the intersection of like Nigeria and other parts of the world. We're talking about race, nationalism, colonialism as well, African-ness, you know. So the book critics praised the novel for talking about different aspects of society and how it reflects global tensions and it basically centers around two main characters, Ifimelu and Obinzi and how, you know, they had ideals of what it was like to live and exist in the West and then they left Nigeria for greener pastures, for education in, you know, from Nigeria to the US and to the UK and just what they encountered, how they, the experiences, you know, were somewhat different, how, you know, back here in Nigeria, they never had to, you know, struggle with what it meant to be black, but going over to those countries, how they had to, you know, really, you know, basically struggle with those concepts. You know, it was just talking about the post-war in the US as well for Obinzi and for Ifimelu. So the book was selected as one of the 10 best books in 2013 by the editors of the New York Times book review and we know that in 2014 there was an announcement that David O'Yellowo and Lupita Nyong'o will start in a film adaptation of the book and for Chimaman Nongozia-Dichie as a writer, we know the quality of her writing and how she just has that ability to draw you into her world and make you really feel the words from the paper. She's written fantastic books. I enjoy reading her, especially Half of a Yellowstone. I haven't personally read Americana but I've watched lots of book reviews about this and read reviews about the book as well but talking about my experience reading her work from other books that I've read, I mean, the reviews are just there. Chimaman Nongozia-Dichie is one of the best things that have come out of Nigeria. We appreciate her for her work and even though there's lots of controversy with her stance regarding feminism, but we do know that Chimaman Nongozia-Dichie is one African author to be celebrated always. Absolutely. We celebrate her and looking forward. I've never got to read it. Shame on me. Never got to read it. I think it started at Popohaibiscus and only got like 10 pages in and lost focus. I didn't lose interest, I just lost focus. Anyway, that's for that and now let's also talk today in history in 2013 on this day from our President Gulag Jonathan in his bid to rid the country of insurgency and terrorist made, gave an order, of course, declaring a state of emergency in three states in Nigeria. He'd allowed soldiers of course at this time to arrest people at will and take over buildings suspected to house extremists in Adamawa, Bernou and Yobes states. An official in Kadena state at that time said gunmen armed with rifles and suspected to be house of fallen Katowheathers killed 11 people in the village there. In Benwe state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed also on headers killed about 12 people and of course the president at that time was left with almost no other option than to declare a state of emergency in these states. The order was issued and of course applied to Bernou Yobes and Adamawa states. He also ordered more troops to be sent to northeastern states. Militants from Boko Haram at that time were blamed for most of the violence which had left about 2000 people dead since the year 2010. He also noted the rise of insurgent violence in states. Other states including Nassarawa where scores of police officers were killed. He cited several recent examples of violence including killing of innocent civilians and state officials, attacks on government buildings and facilities and the destruction of Nigeria's flag for strange flags instead. And so it was on this day in 2013 that a state of emergency was declared in those three states. The level of success of course can be discussed further. How successful was that decision in reading the country of Boko Haram and of course of other insurgent members in that time. But people would always also mention that at the end of 2014 year or sometime around 2014 that the government, Nigerian government and of course security agencies with support from mercenaries and you know other you know security support that they were able to get did a very very good job with almost successfully defeating Boko Haram at that time. It's a narrative that of course has been passed around. Some people agree some people may not. There's also mercenaries who have said that their contract was cancelled right after the current war. That administration lost the election and the administration came into power and they had recorded a massive success in the fight against insurgency back then in 2014 but their contracts were cancelled. But they have been over time numerous steps taken by previous governments and the current administration to win the war against insurgency. Unfortunately we still are dealing with Boko Haram with ISWAP and now with so-called bandits with headers and the likes. Kidnapping of course has also become one of the things that we've spoken about the most in the last couple of years. But well it's always of course a constant move by the Nigerian government by Nigerian people security agencies to ensure that Nigerians are safe across the country either with the state of emergency which has also been mentioned a few times in the current administration as something that we may need to consider with regards northern states in the country. Yes back then you know when the state of emergency you know was declared just so we can you know have a grip on the whole terrorism issue and yes you can argue that the Good Luck administration did you know try some steps and it was one of the things that you know the current president you know rode on in his campaign was going to defeat corruption tackle terrorism but you know they came into power and begin to blame the you know past past administrations I don't know why they keep doing that even governors whatever challenges they say rather than fix it they begin to say oh the last administration left zero narrow and it covers this was what we met but you've been there for four five six years why hasn't it changed in your time you know so I just feel that there's a long way to go and I really hope that the next administration that comes into power in 2023 doesn't say oh this is how we met it but it actually does something to make it better. Well the way things are going there's going to be a lot of blame you know for you know the current administration the way things are going you know there's always going to be some space you know for someone to say oh well you know in the last eight years with with you know the Bora Bora administration these things weren't done well that wasn't done properly that was left unattended to here and then so well like you said we hope that you know whoever it is ignores some of all those things and just focuses on doing the job of fixing Niger and fixing our country. All right stay with us we have our first major conversation coming up we are going to be talking about the need for a national dialogue do we as a country need to have these discussions again we've had one a couple of years ago that was never really implemented and the resolutions from the national dialogue are still you know have been ignored by the current administration so do we need to have another one and is it also important to know if you know we'll get into it after this short break I guess we'll join in us stay with us