A little before the back entrance of the Jos museum, there is a small vegetable market that has been there ever since I can remember. Since you can find zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower, basil, cilantro, and other exotic produce there, it was a frequent stop whenever our mother picked us up from school.  In recent years I’ve gotten to know the young men who help run the shops. They sell vegetables but also love Hausa films and playing in local football clubs.

Read more: Walking around a Jos city block, a day after Democracy Day

On 23 April 2012, the chair of judges for the Caine Prize for African Writing, British-Nigerian writer Bernadine Evaristo wrote a blog post about selecting the soon to be released short-list: “I’m looking for stories about Africa that enlarge our concept of the continent beyond the familiar images that dominate the media: War-torn Africa, Starving Africa, Corrupt Africa - in short: The Tragic Continent. [… W]hile we are all aware of these negative realities, and some African writers have written great novels along these lines (as was necessary, crucial), isn’t it time now to move on?” Her critique of “stereotypical” African stories is similar to those made by other African writers, such as Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina in “How To Write About Africa” and Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole in “The White Savior Industrial Complex.” Her opinion piece also invokes previous critiques of the Caine prize. Last year columnist Ikhide R. Ikheloa wrote, “Aided by some needy ‘African’ writers, Africa is being portrayed as an issues-laden continent that is best viewed on a fly-infested canvas.”

Read more: The Caine Prize, the Tragic Continent, and the Politics of the Happy African Story

From my childhood, my father has always encouraged my writing. He’d save my school essays showing them to me years later, long after I had forgotten I’d written them. It struck me then that all men are trustworthy…. until you give them your stocks or state to manage. Or don’t you remember that only this year a certain male governor was extradited from Dubai to the UK, where it was revealed that he had “executed a fraud of oceanic proportions” using public funds to buy two houses in the UK, another in South Africa, and a fleet of luxury cars among other things? Or don’t you remember another governor, who, though dressed like a woman in London to escape charges for money-laundering, was also a man!? Or the House mostly full of men who periodically “legally” raise their salaries by billions of naira? So what has happened to us, when the very people who should be responsibly fathering our children are busy mismanaging our stocks and cash and government, and telling us who “went to Harvard for a leadership seminar,” all the while helping themselves to your hard-earned savings by buying Rolex watches and mansions in Dubai (and London and South Africa and the United States)? Can it not be absolutely confirmed now that “father knows best”? Perhaps, “it is time to refocus some attention to something we can trust them to do: raising children.”

Read more: Re-imagining Bala Muhammad’s ‘Raise a Child, Not a Voucher!’

Read more: Responses to Fellini, Godard and Training Nollywood