War and Peace: A Life of Arthur Mbanefo

Title: War and Peace: A Life of Arthur Mbanefo
Author: Udu Yakubu
Year of Publication: 2015
ISBN: 978-978-48948-9-0
Pages:541, xv

War and Peace is the story of Arthur Mbanefo, one of Nigeria’s eminent leaders of our time, a man who has distinguished himself in many respects. His story is a critical representation of the struggle and tragedy of the Biafran people during the Nigerian Civil War. Beyond that representation, however, the subject deeply engages the dialectical prognoses of the human self and environment, portraying a thorough understanding of the echoes and changes of his time. This biography thus captures the story of a man who has spent his life contesting some of the malfunctions and miscarriages of the Nigerian nation, and who represents a miniature version of the history of a beleaguered national existence and attempts at reinvention. Yet, like war and peace, it is a story that grapples with its own contradictions in terms of conflicts within self, between self and society, and between idea and lived experience. Within its dialectical engagements, the narrative provides critical insights into the phenomena of local war and global peace just as it bridges gaps between personal and professional ethics, public practice and the advancement of national interest.