The Diamond is Mine

About the Book

This is a work of fiction and not a true story about anybody in particular. It is, however, a story about my people and some of our ways of life. Ours is a beautiful cultural heritage and has its roots in threads of history, legend, and victories of our forefathers. The changing world is affecting our traditions, and the path the present generation is treading seems a dangerous one. Our hope is that the upcoming generation will uphold those of our cultural beliefs that are beneficial and discard those that are detrimental to us and the world at large so that we can make progress. Denise, the heroine of the story, wanted to fight and change the corrupt system of her land. Her attempt to do this failed in college. She could not stop exam malpractices just on her own. So she thought the best place to continue her fight would be at her workplace, the very seat of corruption—the police force. She had chosen a career in the police force in order to do this. Hoping to make an impression on the upcoming generation of policemen, she sermonized to officers in training and motivated them to be exemplary in their duties as officers of the law. It was a good idea but quite ludicrous. The few who paid her any attention were handicapped and could do very little, while the older generation of officers listened to her with some kind of tolerance. Her crusade almost cost her the life of her son, and she had to break one of her most important rules as a police officer—“Do not give or receive bribe.” But to be able to reach where her son was held, she had to give a very large bribe to the underworld. All names in the book are fictitious and bear no relevance to any individual dead or alive. While some incidents mentioned in the story actually happened, the time, place, and how they happened exactly had been completely or partly changed to give the story the required flavor to keep you reading. Sit back and enjoy the story.

About the Author

Olateju was born and bred in Owo, Ondo state Nigeria. She completed both her elementary and high school education at Owo and proceeded to Lagos State College of Education where she studied English and Yoruba Languages at National Certificate of Education (NCE) level. She later attended Ahmadu Bello University Zaria where she obtained her first degree in Language Arts. Olateju worked as a teacher in some Federal Government Colleges before leaving for England. She had a very rewarding and eye-opening experience at the Family and Children Services Camden, London where she worked briefly while pursing her Masters in Social work at the Southbank University London. Olateju has a dream of a better society for her country and hopes that one day Nigeria will become a better place for her people to live, raise good children and retain millions of her well talented and able body men and women scattered all over the world. Olateju hopes that in time Nigeria will be a place where her citizens will find and enjoy safety and contentment so that our children will chose to remain home to build a healthy society rather than lose them to other countries of the world yearly as is the case currently. She hopes also that in time, more foreigners will find our country livable and would want to come and sojourn there and build with us. This is her first published book.