By Grace Ego Omoni
Title of the Book: “Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life.”
Author: Ayo, Joan Olatoyosi.
Year of Plubication: 2021.
Place of Publication: Ibadan.
Publisher: Kraft Books Limited.
Cover: Hard Cover.

Reading is meant to educate, inform, entertain, give pleasure and improve the mental health of the individual whether male or female, old or young, of whatever race or colour and has effects on the readers. Unfortunately, in this country, many people have poor reading culture. Books, journals, manuals, magazines and newspapers are meant to showcase the above-listed benefits for man, especially those who are literate and are interested in reading.

Female authors and playwrights are very few in our contemporary times. So this book, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life caught the reviewer’s interest seeing that it is written by an African woman, I mean, a pragmatic Nigerian woman of timber and calibre. The reviewer is not necessarily gender-biased but the content of this author’s autobiography is interestingly amazing, captivating, exciting, informative, educative, entertaining, pleasurable and intriguing.

Summary:

Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is the autobiography of Joan Olatoyosi Ayo. The book is a narrative of her early childhood experiences and exposures through adolescence and its bundles of tasks, mentorship and expectations, to middle and late adulthood with so much hard work, many exciting events, choices, acquiring abundance of features through experiences about family life, spiritual occurrences, courtship, marriage, motherhood, mentorship, friendship, work life, relationships, moral values, leadership skills in her career and various aspects of life. In this stage of life, she acquired and had a better understanding that people could be manipulative, hypocritical, sycophants, evil, loving and that in administration/ management, leaders must be firm, wise, disciplined, observant, honest and sincere enough to understand situations and perhaps, unpalatable challenges in an organization with a view to reforming or changing situations for maximum productivity and the achievement of set goals.

It is a book for all classes of people: students, teachers, public and civil servants, administrators, policy makers, leaders, politicians, Christians, atheists, traditionalists, Muslims, the high, the low, historians, writers, traditional rulers, entertainers, retirees and a host of other people of different ethnic groups and races.

Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life starts from the author’s origin and childhood and meanders through adolescence to adulthood. Her unique interesting and challenging academic experiences from the primary, secondary university levels show that habits are derived through exposures to the social norms, ethical and moral values of the society. For instance, she narrated how she was given a beautifully packed tin box with assorted sweets for attending Carol Night during a particular Christmas season. She narrated how she took some to share with her friends, breaking the sweets with her teeth which was quite unhygienic but quite acceptable to some of the beneficiaries of this display of sharing. Another example is the incident at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka during a particular students’ protest and how she narrowly escaped being arrested by the police by dodging, running, hiding and smartly explaining herself.

Her journey of a small girl brought up by godly disciplined parents from a typical agrarian traditional village called Saki to a cosmopolitan city life took her to the corridors of power and eventually to the apex of her career in the Nigeria Civil Service and the Presidency for she became the first female to be made the Chairman of the Civil Service. Commission.

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Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is a narrative full of experiences and scenarios about relationships with the high and the downtrodden in the society where there is the good, the bad and the ugly including love, honesty, hardwork and the maintenance of work ethics in the midst of pockets of hypocrites, sycophants, blackmailers, traitors, sorcerers, witch doctors, manipulators, the corrupt, and those who run down and set up colleagues in work places to usurp positions not deserved are elaborately documented. Take for instance the story of how she was set up and accused of writing a particular official letter when indeed she was out of the country. It took the eagle’s eyes of her immediate boss to discover that the character of the prints of that letter was from a different typewriter not used in the author office but from another department because as at then, particular types of typewriters were carefully attached to different offices.

The author vividly tells of some characters she had relationships with during her journey of life and how these people helped to shape her life and influenced choices made as a Christian, mother, an administrator and as a career woman. For instance, she narrated her work experiences with high-ranked administrators and seven of our Nigerian presidents three of who were democratically elected at different times!

Lastly, the story ends with tributes and appreciation to an Amazon, Joan Ayo by her children, friends, church members, students, colleagues and personalities of the highest ranks in the Civil Service and the Presidency! The above exposition is of great interest and this prompted the reviewer to give this all -encompassing well-articulated book, the widest publicity by reviewing it.

The Book Cover:

As earlier indicated, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life has a hardcover, with a colourful cover folder. The narrative is written on thick durable quality paper with bold prints making it very legible for readers. The cover has lilac and purple colours with a beautiful graphic picture of a lady’s head in a hat. This hat is decorated with roses of different colours. They are shades of red, lilac, green and purple. To the reviewer, colour is symbolic. Green depicts youthfulness, abundance, growth and freshness, purple stands for royalty, bravery, spirituality and imagination. Red represents anger, challenges, passion, danger and love. Lastly, lilac symbolizes, confidence, tranquility, innocence and youthfulness. It is amazing to discover that these features equally describe the character of the author in her narrative. Show me the colours on the hat and I will tell you who Joan Olatoyosi Ayo is!

The Title of the Book

The wordings of the title are philosophically and intricately chosen. At a glance, the intending reader might be tempted to conclude that it is a research work and not a story book. It is composed in such a manner that only the determined and inquisitive readers are likely to take up the book to read with a view to finding out what Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is really all about.

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However, because of the poor reading culture in our Nigerian society, many may lose sight of this powerful interesting, pleasurable, entertaining, educative informative and expressive treatise of the life of Joan Ayo.

The Theme of the Book: 

Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is the autobiography of an enigmatic, energetic, incredible role model of our time, Joan Olatoyosi Ayo. The book, a super narrative contains a lot of themes ranging from home life, education, politics, innovation, career ethics to religion, national policies, relationship , moral values, socialization and administration. Nevertheless, the reviewer will briefly dwell on four:

Theme of Education: The narrative depicts the importance of education and its impact on man, society and national development. Education is seen in this book as the key to capacity’s building and human development. These are articulated in the life experiences of the author in her journey from primary, secondary to university levels with the determination and willingness to work hard and to achieve without polluting or losing her integrity. This theme exposes the reader to the necessity for the Nigerian educational system to have quality trained teachers with effective teaching skills and techniques, a well planned school curriculum in content and focus for change, reform and innovation to maximally achieve the goals and objectives of education. This thought is manifest in the life of Joan during her early days as a class and subject teacher, principal of both public and public schools and her transition to the Lagos State Schools Service Board and as the Secretary and later to the highest cadre of the Civil Service Commission. According to the narrative, one uphill task she had to face was to re-establish ethical working practices, control and discipline workers, challenges of teachers’ posting, promotion and appointments and their de-stagnation to beef up teachers interest and productivity. Education is meant to motivate, mould, build and train learners to become disciplined and useful individuals in the society.

Theme of Religion: The author gives detailed accounts of her Christian upbringing and commitments to God’s work which shaped her character and successes in life. Her work in the Nigerian Baptist Convention is also narrated in this book such as planting of churches, teaching in Sunday School classes and organizations and settling disputes between and among members, churches and the highest policy making body of the Baptist Convention. Her meeting with adherents of other religions, their beliefs and practices are extensively discussed. An example was her father’s stance and resistance to having a second wife as a prerequisite to ascending the throne being from a royal family in the traditional Saki kingdom. Her story of working with colleagues who were Muslims also shows that different religions ought to complement one another and to commend good things in their faith. Her implicit belief that God has a hand in the affairs of man, her account of situations where God intervened in seemingly difficult challenges are amazing. Through dreams, visions, prophecies and intuitions she expressly shows that spirituality with the mundane do help one to fulfill destiny.

Theme of Moral Values: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life presents packages of experiences in relation to norms, core and moral values of our society which should be cherished and maintained and sustained by all. Her narrative shows that obedience, honesty, diligence, tolerance, friendliness, faithfulness, integrity and goodness by individuals lead to a sane and progressive society.

Theme of Dignity of Labour: As a technocrat, the author based on her work life and one who has held high ranked positions in the educational, public, the Civil Service sectors and the Presidency to name a few, tells the reader in the narrative how management and administration could be run to bring about maximum achievement and productivity in any society, institution or organization. The sycophancy, hypocrisy, conspiracy, manipulation, fraudulent practices, laxity and dishonesty found in the offices are articulately detailed in the book. Her inputs and reforms as a member of the policy making body and implementation in the Civil Service during her service years as an administrator make this work a handbook for administrators. Joan a one- time Chairman of the Civil Service Commission worked with seven of our Nigerian presidents , three of who were democratically elected, directors and permanent secretaries in different ministries as well as International bodies.Thus, this theme teaches the readers practical lessons pertaining to management, work ethics, dignity of labour, relationships among colleagues and foreign nations with a bid to promoting development and productivity.

Theme of Socialization and Integration: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life also recognizes that man is a social animal. Her relationships with her parents, siblings, spouse, children/grandchildren, religious people, colleagues in schools and work places, national and International bodies especially at the higher strata and loyalty to them teaches the reader that success depends on care, love, open-mindednes , obedience, sincerity, honesty, hard work, tolerance, humility, focus and firmness in what you believe in in order to foster peace, joy, tranquility and development in the environment one belongs.

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Author’s Style: The title of the book easily gives away how it is written. Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life has four parts, an Index and an addendum ( tributes).

• Thesis: The book consists of 26 chapters of 504 pages with captivating headings narrating the author’s origin, childhood, growing up, education, work life and relationships with the good, the bad and the ugly. Interestingly, the thesis according to the author connotes the strong positions in early childhood education of an individual, of the habits derivable from the exposure to the social norms and moral values and the inculcation of these, moral consequences vis-a-vis right or wrong.
• Antithesis according to the author is a thesis of opposition, clash of interest between old ways of doing things and the new based on the reality at hand.
• Synthesis is making a whole out of parts and making sense out of distorted antitheses. The author believes that every individual goes through several cycles of life to arrive at his or her theses based on personal convictions.
• Tributes: The tributes in the book are from the author’s relationships to amplify what they know about her. The author for easy identification divided the Index into name and subject Index.

The work has many pictures of the author herself, her siblings, parents, children, husband and group photographs with, colleagues, superiors of national and international strata, letters of appreciation from various sectors and reports from the printed media about her. All these authenticate the genuineness of this all-encompassing narration about her life and the kind of person she is.

Language and Diction: The author has a strong literally background exhibited through her extraordinary bank of vocabularies that are stylishly coordinated and collocated. She uses a lot of various degrees of adjectives in the description of people, locations and events. The language is both simple and complex for the average reader which is the mark of an astute and intelligent writer. The author also makes use of linguistic variations and transliteration. This is a technique whereby English is embellished with the Author’s local language and is usually for focus and emphasis. A lot of Yoruba proverbs, dictions and adages are seen in this narrative such as alakowe ( an educated man), opele ( a tool used by traditional doctors for divination ), ewe oye (a sacred leaf for the installation of a king); o to gee, onibode apomu (enough is enough), ta ba sunkun aman riran bastardized as Sunkumus Riranmus ( funnily Latinized) meaning (one can see, through ones tears) a slang used to mock their Matron’s English and a host of other Yoruba expressions.

Literary devices are equally used in the work such as figures of speech like oxymoron, idioms, simile to name a few, all helping the narrative to be expressivity interesting and attractive to read.

Character and Characterization: There are vivid descriptions of major and minor characters influencing and prompting the reader to easily like or dislike people. The moral lessons on how to live with people in diverse environments are thus manifested. Thus, this work of art , a non- fiction with names of people and places we know in the society, institutions, organizations are realities. Actual accounts of events and occurrences in our Nigeria and in foreign countries at different periods are also evidences of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is a typical autobiography.

Observation

Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is an autobiography of Joan Olatoyosi Ayo based on her life experiences from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, education work life, relationships, political, social, religious exploits well written with accurate events and chronologically arranged. It is undoubtedly a master piece!

However, though the author cautioned that the reader should not search for a “Deux ex Machina,” the reviewer who is not also perfect will humbly not fail to point out a major error in her work. She injected a lot of history of the past about Saki which she must have retrieved from somewhere or from some people. This history is not her personal experience. This description of her origin in chapter 2 from pages 9 to 14 is long and too cumbersome for the average reader. The account of the historical extracts of the Baptist Women Missionary Union Work in Nigeria on pages 389 to 391 is another . These made the narrative to be a bit voluminous. It is an autobiography in the real sense and not history inclined. The inclusion of these long thesis could by implications discourage many readers from reading and finishing this beautiful narrative of an icon in our generation!

Again, since the title of the book is from literary works, a reader might assume that Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is an ordinary research text book instead of a well planned personal account of the Author and might not painstakingly take time to find out what the content entails.

As a former teacher of English teaching learners correct spellings of commonly misspelled words is very important. It is observed that the word “privilege” is misspelt as “priviledged” occurring severally in the work. This obvious error might have been from the typist. Although very minute mistake, it is not a good example to learners of English.

Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is a must read for everyone in this period of our nation where things are falling apart due to various challenges occasioned by bad rulers and bad subjects and future generations for it is an endearing work of art. Almost flawless, it is a treatise , an administrative document and a handbook to teachers, civil and public servants aspiring individuals in all its ramifications. Joan Ayo’s narrative of her life is intriguing, educational, interesting and informative and touches all areas of life, people and places.

About the Author:
Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis of Life is written by Joan Olatoyosi Ayo. This is a woman of many sides: a mother, lover of children, a disciplined socialist, Power Broker, teacher, an achiever, an innovator, a prolific writer, a bulldozer a spiritually humble servant of God and a Deaconess of the Baptist denomination. She is a technocrat and was a Career woman, a high ranked administrator for many decades in the Civil Service, attaining the highest position as the Head of the Civil Service Commission before retirement. She was in the Corridors of affair in this country and had worked assiduously with 7 Nigerian Presidents consecutively including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who incidentally wrote the Foreword the book.
From the tributes of all she has come on contact, Joan Ayo a woman of unusual enviable personality with great qualities worthy of emulation by anyone aspiring to be a great achiever.

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