By ontological determinism, and by cosmetical manipulations, wo/man is condemned to being in chains. The thesis of the phantasmagoria of freedom underscores the entire corpus of Michael Bassey Eneyo’s book: The Noble Chain. The requirements of nature, compounded by existential necessities, appear to have irredeemably placed wo/man in a position where her/his “choices” are sufficiently limited. Michael Bassey Eneyo expounds the doctrines of natural law, and wo/man-made law in this book. While conceding to the fact that wo/man is no less constrained by natural designs in her/his actions, the book The Noble Chain laments the regrettable situation where wo/man-made chains and yoke are deliberately imposed upon the society. Every human society is saturated with customs, rules, principles, traditions, laws, ethics, etiquette, and norms that regulate transactions, dealings, and interactions with one another. This cluster of aforementioned requirements is what is referred to herein as wo/man-made chains. These cultural requirements are actually meant to make human relations easier, since by nature, human interests are variegated. However, in the State of Kitoto – a fictitious name for Nigeria – because of the level of mental development of both the leaders and the led of Kitoto, the citizens have saturated themselves with foreign cultural norms, which are suffocating them because the foreign norms are uncongenial with the cultural space of the State of Kitoto. But most fundamentally, the purveyors of these foreign-imposed norms and traditions have no altruistic motives, as their covert intention is the expropriation and looting of both the natural and human resources found in the State of Kitoto. The author herein refers to them, for good reasons, as golden vultures. Both for religious and material assets, Michael Bassey Eneyo warns very sternly that the citizens of the State of Kitoto need to be wary of foreign impositions, for a vulture simply comes to devour.
The primary focus of the book The Noble Chain is the education sector of the State of Kitoto. The author canvasses the position, and correctly so, that education is the bedrock of development in any society. In the State of Kitoto (remember it is a euphemism for Nigeria), the leaders have jettisoned and relegated education to an item of little or no priority. Most of Kitoto’s leaders barely have significant education. In fact, it is even the law of the land as enshrined in the grundnorm of the land, and as interpreted by the apex court, that leadership does not require much education. This perception of education by the leaders of the State of Kitoto is an anti-thesis to the need for quality and supreme education for leaders as espoused in The Republic of Plato, the originators of democracy, which the State of Kitoto pretends to practice.

Philosophy Department, University of Calabar, Calabar,
ASUU Chairman, University of Calabar Chapter,
Cross River State, Nigeria.
In the State of Kitoto, because of the insignificant value attached to education, the sector is practically comatose. Children of the rich are not sent to public schools in the State of Kitoto, because their parents know that the schools are not in a good state. The libraries are archaic, and while the laboratories are empty, the lecture theatres are infested with rodents and reptiles. The staffers in the public schools are paupers and walking corpses (represented in the character of Akana in the book, and though the teaching profession is a noble one, the teacher in the State of Kitoto is in a chain – The Noble Chain), and there is a general infrastructural decay in public schools. No parent who can afford quality education outside the State of Kitoto, or in a private institution within the State of Kitoto, would wish to send her/his child to Kitoto’s public schools.
Michael Bassey Eneyo, like many other Nigerians – the author of this book is a Nigerian – sincerely yearns for the liberation of the soul of education from the shackles of leadership oppression. He identifies two basic reasons why the incessant struggles by the teachers unions in the State of Kitoto have not yielded results: insincerity and lack of commitment on the part of political leaders in the State of Kitoto, and the attitude of the leaders of the teachers unions in the State of Kitoto. It is really regrettable that education is being trifled with by leaders of this society, it is unfortunate and pathetic. Michael Bassey Eneyo calls for a total liberation of the teacher in the State of Kitoto from the chains of pauperism, compromise, and by tackling dearth of infrastructure, and improved working conditions.
I sincerely commend this author for his bravery and courage. I commend him for finding time to go into publishing, for this is among his numerous books, in spite of being a public servant in a non-education sector. I commend the author for exposing the laxity on the part of our leaders to prioritise education. This book is easy to read and comprehend, as the author has presented his arguments in a very simple fashion.
Edor J. Edor PhD
Philosophy Department, University of Calabar, Calabar,
ASUU Chairman, University of Calabar Chapter,
Cross River State, Nigeria.