The Battle Front

INTRODUCTION

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The title to the book â??The battle frontâ? comes about when the author imagines such terrible place like the war front. A place where there are struggles, agonies and threat. Every battle front breaths casualties, tears and calamities. A field where the heat of the day and the chill of the night heap torment on the warriors. In fact, mere cold and tensed heat of the day are common evils amidst the chronic ones at the battle front.

It is a forum for the survival of the fittest; where the sick, the wounded or injured ones appear as if healthy. This is demonstrated by the attitude of Henry in the story:

â??Henry and his brothers watched him finished, they made no response again. Henry managed himself to lift Ken from the ground. He stretched him on his back with the assistance of his other brothers. They dragged themselves up stairs and washed their wounds.

They applied iodine and attached wool on their sores. Ken was first attended to. Subsequently, they laid him gently in their arm-chair to rest. Henry tied his wounded knee with bandage quickly and look fit in readiness for possible revenge and continuity.

â??Come on boys! Letâ??s go!â? he ordered the rest of his brothers out without delay.â?Â 

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As an imaginative piece of writing; Stephen x-rays the division, the die-hard attitude and the consistent war of self-interest within the political circles in the country. More so, he carefully relates the situation of struggles, wanton destruction of capital intensive infrastructural installations and chaos at the Niger Delta over the natural endowment that the mother-earth has in preservation for the country. Aligning the typical situation of the civil war of 1967 was also of importance on this allegorical overview. When there was division in the political interest of the nationâ??s leaders. The then Igbo leaders wrestled to secede the eastern region. At the inception of this struggles, the Yoruba leaders had nothing against this idea, though, neither did they support it. They had only believed it was going to be of advantage too if their neighboring clan (Igbo) could succeed in the struggle. But somehow along the line, the Yoruba leaders broke faith to give the chief of the Hausas the battle strategy it required to overpower the Igbo army when the deceptive promise of making the next president out of them (the
Yoruba leaders) immediately after the battle, enticed the key member of the leadership.

This character is seen in Sam who chooses to stay closer to Dave in those trouble times before the enticing promise of making him the new class captain leads him to break faith with Dave, considering Henryâ??s offer:

Â â??Henry looked down with discontent, counting the toes of his feet. He had thought Sam would help him once he made the request.

His eyes were suffused with tears and, agony of revenge seized him. â??So, Sam! Youâ??ll not, you will not help me. I swear if I do not announce you the new class captain on Monday, if only you can help me.â?Â Â Â Â Â Â 

â??The new class captain on Monday?â?? he inquired confirmedly. â??Yesâ?? Henry affirmed â??if youâ??ll help meâ?

â??emmh! No problem,â? Sam remarked, â??but Iâ??ll not have to go out with you against him anyway!â?

Samâ??s disposition brought liveliness into Henry.

â??That is no problem! Henry snatched quickly. You just stop them â?? stop them! Tell them no thorough fare again.â?

â??No, Henry!â?? Sam objected, â??this is what youâ??ll do.Â  Take this padlock to our pantry and lock their small gate with it against them. Then, motivate your brothers to climb their little fence after you. Thereafter, you bombard them.â?

Henry did not allow Sam to rest his lips when he ran out of doors with the padlock, shouting his brothersâ?? names.â?

Henryâ??s lamentation when his brother fell wounded reveals the grief for friends and loved ones who in the course of the war lost their lives at the battle front.

The attitude of the war commanders who in one way or the other lost many troops in their attempts to counter their opposition or opposing forces is displayed by Henry. Obviously, Henry had to go back to the drawing board to seek better strategies against his opposition before he could re-mobilize his brothers for the second face of the struggles.

The plot of the story is well formulated. Steve aligns his story to project certain event of civil war and internal battle for resource control within the country, which he skillfully portraits to reveal the pains and damages of self endowments. The farm land represents the oil wealth of the Niger Delta upon which there is persistent restiveness. Similarly, the popular Bakassi Peninsular, which attracts decades of conflict between the Nigerian government and her Cameroonian counterpart. This is related because as long as Dan is alive; so long Mr. Kenneth will not cease to make consultations and file litigations; the struggle on the farm land shall know no end. In the same light, the cruelty of Henry against Dammy clearly displays the spiteful attitude of the Hausas or of the then Nigerian Army against the helpless Igbo people. These innocent people of Igbo land are left at the mercy of molestation after their Chiefs and war-lords who ignite the battle had flown their immediate families abroad to save their own heads. Â 

Complete lack of moral and home training is unleashed in Henryâ??s character. His behavior is a reflection of his background and up-bringing even before he professes it, when the boys ask him:

â??He said whatâ??s your father?â?? Sam reminded him.

Â â??My Dad, he is a member of National Union of Road Transport Workers.â? He works in the garage, and my mum is a market woman. She involves itinerant businesses that make her travels often. So my parents are always on the road and whenever they are away, Iâ??ve the whole world to myself at home . . .â?

This recap explains the cause of Henryâ??s wayward living and unguided behavior.

Steve skillfully differentiates the upbringing of Dave and Henry; the message is quite comprehensible when Henry said:

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  â??But this â??onesâ?? â?? Dave and his Junior; funny a thing, their parents save them as money whenever they are not at home. They dare not come out; otherwise, that callous man would beat them as fine as dust.â?

Another cleverness is shown when the difference between the attributable genes of children from same parents is depicted through Johnson and Daveâ??s character; Johnson unlike Dave takes no non-sense from his peers.

From another point of view, Steve exposes the dark nature of manâ??s heart, where greediness and covetousness are displayed by Mr. Marlot and Mr. Newton. This callosity is put to act when Mr. Newton shuns Mr. Kenneth at the court gate:

â??No! no! no! no! no!â? Mr. Newton said sharply, shaking his head in disagreement as he moved away to catch up with a lawyer friend on the stair way beside the hall.

â??I must be let out of this family thing!â?? he continued â??no, no, no . . . I donâ??t want to interfere.â? This abandonment displays how Mr. Newton recompenses evil for the good the young manâ??s mother did to him. His quest to sustain his greed attains unimaginable height when he finally betrays the truth publicly before the judge.

Wickedness, they say, precedes spitefulness. This is buttressed when the masked Marlot reveals his true identity at the sea. The crew turn Pirates and there is nowhere for Mr. Newton to hide himself from the ferocious judgment of the sea-jungle.

â??Marlot! Marlot! You? You mean youâ??re the person behind this. Oh! My goodness.â? Mr. Newton shouted regretfully, biting his lower lip fast and consecutively. â??Drag him up! Mr. Marlot ordered, letâ??