The Lekki Headmaster

The Lekki Headmaster (2023) by Kabir Alabi Garba is a warm, episodic novel set in the elite private school world of Lekki, Lagos. It follows Mr Bepo Adewale, a beloved principal at Stardom Schools, through the emotional turmoil of deciding whether to leave Nigeria for a teaching job in London, where his wife and children already live. The story opens with Bepo weeping uncontrollably at the school assembly, bewildering students, staff and parents. Over five days of silence, he finally reveals the cause: pressure from his family to relocate to the United Kingdom.

The novel unfolds as a series of vivid, often comic episodes drawn from Bepo's 24-year career at Stardom. These include the wrongful sacking of an English teacher over a grammar dispute ('Ade as well as Jide comes' versus 'come'), the MD's panic at discovering staff members secretly owned cars, the terrifying night Bepo witnessed a cow being buried alive at a former employer's school, and excursions to Nigerian landmarks such as the Ikogosi Warm Springs, the Gurara Falls and Badagry's slave heritage sites. Interwoven are migration tales from Nigerians abroad, the passport renewal ordeal, and the DNA-test crisis that shattered a parent's family.

The novel builds to an emotional farewell ceremony, Bepo's airport departure and a haunting dream of the Atlantic slave trade, before delivering a surprise twist ending: Bepo returns on the very Monday after his flight, declaring 'I am back! My heart is here!' The students carry him shoulder-high as they sing the school anthem. The novel explores the tension between economic opportunity abroad and emotional belonging at home, asking whether 'Japa' is liberation or a new kind of enslavement.