In 2010, billions of naira were spent to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence since 1960. More naira are to be spent in 2014 to commemorate the centenary marking the nation's birth in 1914 from an amalgamation of diverse group of peoples, languages, cultures and expectations. As the conscience of the nation, writers are calling for a deeper introspection. A hundred years after unification, the most populous African nation has oscillated from being great to being fickle,...

Winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for African literature. E.E. Sule's debut novel, Sterile Sky, presents a community wrecked by religious conflict and a young boy hunting for a better future.On the day that Murtala comes of age, violent riots break out in his home city of Kano – leading to unspeakable tragedy within his own family. While chaos threatens to erase everything he holds dear, Murtala is stalked by monsters both real and imagined. A...