Historian, writer, journalist and the Editorial Board Chairman of The Nation newspaper Mr. Sam Oritsetimeyin Omatseye has released a new novel titled Juju Eyes (Sunshot Associates). Omatseye will expose the new work to Nigeria’s reading public with three planned three readings for June 2025 in Lagos. The first reading will hold at Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo on Wednesday, June 11 @11.00am at TETFUND Building, Faculty of Communications and Media Studies. Omatseye’s reading is in partnership with the Departments of English and Media Studies, with the event flyer inviting the public to ‘Come experience the magic of storytelling’.

Then six days later on Tuesday, June 17, Omatseye will read at the Faculty of Arts Boardroom, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos @11.00am and again on Sunday, June 22, 2025, Omatseye will also read at RovingHeights Bookstore, Landmark Event Centre, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos @4.00pm.

Speaking about his new novel, Omatseye said, “Juju Eyes is an intersection of vanity and superstition, and how a rebel in the Nigerian soul wields this intersection often to our own hurt. In every sphere of our lives, we make gods and try to kill them until we realise there is no such thing as divine suicide, or is there?”

In late July and early August, Omatseye will square up with Florida-based Nigerian-born writer and Creative Writing lecturer at University of Florida Uwem Akpan to a reading in selected cities across Nigeria. Akpan will be visiting Nigeria to read for the first from his critically acclaimed and controversial novel New York My Village (Parresia Publishing). Omatseye will pair with Mr. Akpan on his second novel My Name Is Okoro, a work in tune with Akpan’s New York My Village in its exploration of the negative impact of the Nigerian Civil War on minorities of the Niger Delta for whose oil wealth the war was fought in other guises. Sadly, minorities of the Niger Delta bore the brunt of the war as the territory changed hands between the two warring (Nigerian and Biafran) armies with dire consequences to the locals who were made to switch allegiances in the brutal war for their resource rich wealth and daily survival.