About the book

Mr. Bepo Adewale — 'Principoo' to his students — has led Stardom Schools in Lekki, Lagos for over two decades. Pressured by his wife Seri, a nurse already in the UK with their two children, and enticed by tales of life abroad, he resigns to 'japa'. The novel follows his visa battles, the school dramas he leaves behind, a three-day farewell that stirs memories of the slave trade, and a twist ending: at the departure gate he screams 'Noooo!' and never boards the flight, returning to the school gates on Monday morning declaring, 'My heart is here!'

Setting

Stardom Schools, an elite private school in Lekki, Lagos — with flashbacks to Beesway Group of School, the Badagry slave-route heritage sites, passport offices in Ibadan, and a family life split between Lagos and the UK.

Chapter-by-chapter

1. 1. Dusk

   Bepo's last day: after more than two decades, his resignation to relocate to the UK is accepted tearfully — the dusk of an era at Stardom Schools.

2. 2. The Enticement

   How the decision grew: Seri moved to the UK with Nike and Kike; Mrs. Ignatius offered visa help; colleagues joked about £3,600/month versus his ₦400,000; Bepo dreaded abandoning his Invention Club and excursion programme.

3. 3. Migration Tales

   Stories of Nigerians abroad — lecturers driving Uber, architects cleaning offices, thriving nurses. Bepo fears becoming, as a returned doctor put it, 'a nobody trying to become a somebody.'

4. 4. A Case of Visa Denied

   Bepo's first visa is denied because the officer cannot believe he would abandon his career; a second application succeeds. Meanwhile Bibi's nightmares force Mr. Ayesoro's transfer.

5. 5. Snake in the Roof

   The MD discovers 17 staff cars hidden behind the school. The cooperative's N95 million — over N50 million out as loans — draws suspicion; the board caps staff loans at N250,000.

6. 6. Ade as Well as Jide COMES vs. COME

   Open Day: Mr. Guta storms out over a sentence in his son's notebook and the MD orders Mr. Fafore sacked. Bepo calmly proves 'as well as' takes a singular verb — Fafore was right all along.

7. 7. Ritualists

   Flashback to Beesway Group of School: Mr. Egi Meko buries a live cow on campus at 2:51am; Bepo is struck and threatened. Years earlier, Mr. Ogo's enrolment 'ritual' offer was refused — Ogo later made the news for murder.

8. 8. Missions Unaccomplished

   Loose ends Bepo hates to leave: the Banky–Tosh feud (rooted in Chief Didi Ogba's detention over a N2.5 billion contract) and the Invention Club's five-year Breath Project phone initiative.

9. 9. Laughing Waterfalls

   A celebration of the excursion programme: Owu Waterfalls (120m, West Africa's highest), Ikogosi Warm Springs, Erin-Ijesha, Gurara, Yankari — and Badagry's slave route, where Bepo first draws the parallel between the slave trade and japa.

10. 10. Passport Pains

    The renewal ordeal: COVID-era delays, Japa-swelled queues, an Ibadan trip, agent Tai charging N100,000 against the official N70,000, and NIN validation glitches that nearly wreck his travel date.

11. 11. Point of No Return

    Three-day farewell: staff beat students 3-2 in a biasedly refereed match; SSS 3 win the arts-vs-sciences debate citing Soyinka's 1986 Nobel; the Canoe dance plunges Bepo into a slave-trade nightmare ('Noooo!'); Mrs. Gloss gifts a $10,000 cheque — Stardom's largest ever.

12. 12. ...Dawn

    At the airport Bepo dreams of slaves marched to the Point of No Return — a white man points: 'Enter!' — and he screams 'Noooo!' without boarding. Monday morning: 'Principoo!' rings at the gate as students carry him shoulder-high. 'I am back! I didn't go! My heart is here!'