LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY, OJO.

NAME

BAJELA OLUWATOSIN ENIOLA

MATRIC NUMBER

180910056

FACULTY

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

DEPARTMENT

JOURNALISM

COURSE CODE:

MAC 211
COURSE TITLE:

CRITICAL WRITING

ASSIGNMENT TITLE

REVIEWING AND CRITIQUE: WE ARE NOT A

MURDERERS

LECTURER IN CHARGE
DR. GANIYAT TIJANI ADENLE
 REVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF WE ARE NOT A MURDERERS BY MWADA
NDACHANA
BOOK REVIEW
Book title: We are not murderers
Author: Mwada Ndachana
ISBN: 978-978-967-534-0
Pages: 65 pages
Cover design: maranathagraphics@gmail.com
Copyright: © 2018 Mwada Ndachana

We are not murderers, is a book that is authored by Mwada Ndachana, a graduate of

economics from ESPAM Formation University, Cotonou, Benin Republic, he is a writer and
entrepreneur with diverse of acquisition skills including chattered marketer, research
enthusiast and a business developer. He is an indigene of Kuburmbula, Chibok Local
Government, Bornu state. This book which talks about a Muslim community in Gamboru,
situated at Maiduguri in Bornu State. In this book Abdul and Aisha who are the children
activist/provost that are against the killing of their fellow friends and refused to join the so
called killing of Christians and bombing any building that was built by them. They had other
group members like; Goni Mai, Fati, Falmata.

Abdul who had a dream of becoming an engineer and Aisha who had a dream of becoming a
teacher, the dreams was robbed off their mind and they became shattered in a twinkle of an
eye, they couldn’t do anything, rather than talk the children who are part of the bombing out
of it. Churches, hospitals, schools etc were burnt to aches because of the fear of Christian
taking over the community. In this book we saw how a father killed his wife and daughter
because they were not in support of killing of Christian, but in other case the parent of Abdul
and Aisha were in support of what their children were saying, but there was no way they
could help them stop the killings of their friends.

The Purpose of the book: The book conveys the message with the aim of passing the
message that, not all Muslims had hands or are in support of the bombing of churches and
killing of Christians and kidnapping of students.

The book is very straightforward, the storyline is very perfect and it’s a book a reader will
want to read again because of its interesting writing style.
CRITIQUE:
We are not murderers is a 65 paged book, that illustrates the misconceptions of terrorist
groups “Boko Haram” which major people of the Northern state thinks is part of Islam’s
norms all in the name of “Jihad” which means (when a Muslim community is threatened by
an unbelieving community) in other word called “Holy War”. The said group killed so many
Christians all in the name of the misinterpretation of the religion norms.

The book is reader friendly, interesting but in every critique, it is either written in a
constructive way which is (a criticism that always offer suggestions for how things can be
done better) or a destructive way which is (a criticism that merely pulls people work down)
these are the major types of critique. But in every work of art, there is always a “Pro”
Positive side and “Con” Negative side of every work of art.
Pros of the book
1. The book is well written, with the usage of simple English: The joy of every
reader is to read a book that is easily broken down without he or she looking for
dictionary to interpret the grammar which might make the reader lose interest. The
English in this book is straight forward even for layman.

2. The font size is bold and has a reader friendly page: To get an attention of readers
nowadays, the author might require writing a story that is legibly written with short
pages that will make the reader stay glued to it until the last page. The book’s font
size is nothing less than (14 Points) which makes it easier to read unlike struggling to
read a tiny font books.

3. The book depict the wickedness of our politicians and even our clerics: The story
became more meaningful when the author related the story to the atrocities
committed secretly by many position leaders, he stated that “We are not murderers,
the murderers are out there! They are in government’s houses and offices embezzling
and stealing money meant to provide facilities and infrastructures to make life better
for us. They are in mosques and churches, preaching hate messages to make us kill
each other”
Cons of the book
1. Grammatical errors: The author made a grammatical error which seems fair but it
can’t be left unsaid. The error on page 18 of the book states that “why you are
outside your home despite the troubles brewing…….” Instead of “why are you
 outside your home despite the troubles brewing…….”. I believe in book review
process, there should be thorough checks and rechecks before the book is being
certified good for publish by the author.

2. Usage of other languages without interpretations: The author made use of some
Islamic and Hausa words and didn’t provide meanings they include “Maghreb” and
“Wayo”. The usage of other languages makes story more interesting but its meaning
should be provided because of readers who might not understand the language but
with the meaning it makes the reader digest and might also learn a new word if
interpreted by the author.

3. Wasting of pages: From page 40 to 52, the author wasted the book pages illustrating
how Abdul and Aisha were being questioned by their parent about their decision to
fight against the terrorist, but why waste close to 12 pages when he can easily
summarize that Abdul Aisha’s parent both support their intentions to fight against the
terrorist in nothing more than 1 page.

Suggestions to the Author on how to improve:

 He should make his story concise instead of repeating almost the same old scene in
the new one.
 Always provide meanings to all other Languages he adds to his book so as to make
readers understand better.
 He should always make sure the Editor(s) correct all grammatical errors and also
proofread over and over again to eradicate mistakes in his works.