WAEC Literature in English 2025 Theory — Question 3

Model answer

The novel's central theme is xenophobia and bad governance and how these affect the characters. Nii Tackie, a Ghanaian-born graduate working at Exbank in Ghana whose parents are from Nigeria, is separated from his sister Mama Orojo for fifteen years. Paleo is the immigration officer in charge of about ten recruits assigned to put aliens in check; he is a fat, tall, respectable-moustached officer who arrests Nii and Aaron and takes them to Ilere to work on his farm. When Paleo arrests Nii he does not send him back to Ghana but remands him in his own house in Ilere, Lagos, then makes Nii live in Miliki House with some degree of freedom, affording Nii the opportunity to work in Paleo's house environs, where Nii meets Marshal and Tom Monday who connect him to Mama Orojo, enabling him to eventually search for and meet his sister.