The Great Game of Scruples: Masterpiece of Post-colonial Doublespeak

The greatest game is one where the victims are convinced they are playing against themselves.

THE GAME IS RIGGED. THE DEBT IS A GHOST.

THE DELETE KEY IS WAITING.

Mamadou Cissé is a “Janitor of the Labyrinth.” As a senior analyst in a shadowy ministry in Dakar, his role isn’t to clean floors but to oversee The Algorithm. This centuries-old financial software translates human life into interest rates and sovereign resources into “Structural Adjustments.”

Since the Berlin Conference of 1884, the rules of the Great Game have remained unchanged; they’ve simply become more refined. In this sharply humorous and intellectually ruthless autopsy of the world order, you’ll realise that:

• Conquest has been rebranded as a “Handshake”.
• Extraction is now called “Transparency”.
• The “Scruples” of the global elite are merely the grease for a machine designed to keep entire continents on a perpetual Debt Treadmill.

The “Berlin Buffet” is still being served. From the mahogany tables of the 19th century, where borders were drawn like carving a turkey, to the digital battlegrounds of 2026, the theft remains absolute.

But when the Algorithm glitches during a looming global crisis, Mamadou discovers a “Variable” the Syndicate never accounted for. Now, he must choose: continue serving the machine that harvests his people’s future, or join the Parallel Pulse—a decentralised underground of “New Architects” ready to hit Delete on a world where the spreadsheet is no longer king.

“We have spent a hundred years running on a treadmill built in 1884. This book isn’t just a story; it’s the escape hatch.”

The Great Game of Scruples is a masterpiece of post-colonial doublespeak that proves a well-crafted lie is more powerful than a thousand bayonets. It is a story of how the martyrs of the past become the fuel for the roar of the future.

The Game is over. It’s time to reclaim the garden.

THE LIBERTY GARDENER

The Garden is Overgrown. It’s Time for a Trim.

For seventy years, the man known only as “The Gardener” has worked for the world’s most powerful landscaping firm. But his job isn’t to plant seeds — it’s to decide which ones are allowed to grow.

From the copper mines of Chile to the oil fields of Iran, he has spent a lifetime pruning “weeds”: the democratic movements, stubborn leaders, and national identities that threaten the aesthetic of the global market. To him, a nation is not a collection of people, but a patch of land to be managed. If a country grows too tall, it is topped. If its roots extend into “private” soil, it is poisoned.

In this brutal and witty odyssey, Oluwatayo Jide Shoneye takes us behind the curtain of the “Hollow State”. Following the Gardener from the shadows of the Cold War to the engineered blackouts of Venezuela in 2026, the novel unveils a chilling secret history where:

• “Stability” is just another word for concrete.
• “Humanitarian Aid” is the fertiliser for extraction.
• “Regime Change” is a calculated liquidation sale where the Gardener is both the auctioneer and the only bidder.

Part secret history, part terrifyingly plausible field guide, The Liberty Gardener is the ledger of a man who paves the world so that shareholders can enjoy the view. From the “Plywood Era” of the 1950s to the “Digital Era” of near-future Caracas, discover how nations are turned into vacancies and why a “failed state” is often the most profitable harvest of all.

If the grass looks greener on the other side, it’s probably because the Gardener has just finished paving it.

THE MINISTRY OF FAILED PROMISES

Step into a world where integrity is a “processing fee” and democracy is a theatrical performance in The Ministry of Failed Promises, a sharp political satire that maps the anatomy of a collapsing state with surgical precision.

In this country, the “Grand Highway to Nowhere” is paved with shiny brochures and billions in missing funds, while the “Ministry of Illumination” specialises in selling the absence of electricity. From the Oxygen Tax that monetises every breath in dilapidated hospitals to the Electoral Alchemists who use vanishing ink to ensure the dead vote early and often, the system is a masterpiece of “Functional Collapse”.

But a failed state is a delicate ecosystem that requires a perfect balance of hunger and hope. When the “Architects of Rot” push too far, they ignite the Antidotes:

• Mama Ngozi: The market woman who tracks the nation’s decay by the rising price of a tomato.
• The Digital Underground: A rogue network of IT specialists using “Mesh-Net” technology to map corruption and tag “Ghost Voters” in real-time.
• The Ghost Teacher: A rebel educator running secret night schools to teach the “Real History” the Ministry tried to erase.

The Ministry of Failed Promises is more than just a critique — it is a narrative of the “Hunger Cycle” coming to an end. It follows an unlikely resistance as they realise a smartphone can be more dangerous to a tyrant than a rifle.

“The light only stays on if you are watching the meter.”

Ideal for fans of Animal Farm and The Last King of Scotland, this novel is a witty, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful examination of what unfolds when people finally refuse to ignore the workings of power.

THE CORPORATE APOSTLES: A PROFIT-DRIVEN FAITH

In the heart of Lagos, faith is a currency, salvation is a cryptocurrency, and the soul is the ultimate commodity.

Welcome to the Mega-Structure—a fifty-storey monolith of glass and chrome where the “Redemption’s Gospel of Exponential Growth” (RGEG) operates less like a church and more like a ruthless multinational financial conglomerate. Led by the charismatic and calculating Pastor Maximus “Maxi-Wealth” Ola, this spiritual empire is built on a simple, terrifying doctrine: “Those who do not pay their tithe are not going to make heaven.”

In this high-frequency market of salvation:

• Grace is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) measured by the size of your investment.
• Prophecies are financial forecasts used to trigger massive liquidity surges.
• The 65% Mandatory Remittance Rule (M.R.R.) ensures that local branches are systematically starved of funds to fuel the Prophet’s global ambitions.

Follow the intersecting lives caught in the machine:

• Tolu, the system’s brilliant architect, who designs the very algorithms of “Tithe-Coin”, while beginning to witness the devastating human cost of her code.
• Kofi, her brother and an engineer, who wrestles with the failing physical infrastructure beneath the shimmering digital facade, finding truth in maintenance rather than prophecy.
• Chike and Bisi Okoro, a struggling couple forced to trade their daughter’s education for a “spiritual share” of a future that may never arrive.

As Maxi-Wealth prepares to launch an immutable Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) to secure his empire forever, a small glitch in the soul—and the code—threatens to bring the entire structure crashing down.

A sharp, provocative work of religious satire and social commentary, The Corporate Apostles examines the volatile intersection of Pentecostal fervour, ruthless market principles, and cutting-edge digital finance. It is a story of debt secured against hope, the cost of poor maintenance, and the search for genuine grace in a world that sells eternity for profit.

In the Lagos High Court, justice isn’t blind—it simply carries a very high “maintenance fee.”

The Gavel & The Gold: A Nigerian Judicial Farce is a sharp, satirical legal drama that follows the journey of Barrister Kunle Adebayo, a wide-eyed idealist who enters the profession believing the law is a shield for the weak.

Kunle’s faith is immediately tested when he encounters the “Grand Bazaar of Justice,” a system where the law acts less like a set of rules and more like a marketplace. His world is turned upside down when he refuses to pay a “Smog Tax” for his client, Mama Ada—a resilient street merchant whose only “crime” was selling roasted corn without a fictitious permit.

This act of individual refusal inadvertently sparks a “Symphony of Resistance”. As Kunle navigates a quagmire of “Documentary Migration” (the polite term for theft of evidence by “Termites of the State”) and backroom deals, he must decide whether to join the corrupt dance or step out of the machine entirely.

HOW DO YOU SAVE A MARRIAGE WHEN THE PERSON SLEEPING BESIDE YOU HAS BECOME A STRANGER?

Sarah and Mark had the “fairytale” start: a whirlwind university romance, a beautiful Manchester wedding, and a future filled with promise. But a decade later, the laughter has been replaced by a “suffocating blanket” of silence.

They share a roof, a surname, and a mortgage, but their lives have become parallel lines that never touch. He is buried in his engineering projects; she is lost in her journalism and private journals. There was no dramatic betrayal or explosive fight—just a slow, “insidious drift” that left them marooned on separate islands in their own home.

Marriage of Two Strangers is a raw, deeply moving exploration of the “loudest silences” in a relationship. It is a story for anyone who has ever felt alone while standing right next to the person they love, and a testament to the courage it takes to break the silence and truly be known again.

Perfect for fans of: Realistic contemporary fiction, emotional domestic dramas, and stories of healing and second chances

Stop Seeking Success. Start Radiating It.

Most high achievers live a “fragmented” life—trying to fix a career while their health crumbles, or chasing deep relationships while their personal growth remains stagnant. This is “Seeking Mode,” a low-frequency cycle of “wanting” that only creates more lack.

Pro Tips for a Seamless, Successful Life is the definitive guide for the modern visionary ready to break that cycle. Rooted in the Law of Integrated Momentum, this book shows that your life is not a collection of separate compartments but a single, spinning ecosystem. When you alter the “source code” of your internal identity, the “User Interface” of your reality—your bank account, your vitality, and your social circle—must follow.

Inside this Global Blueprint, you will discover:

• Career & Success (The Impact): Execute the “Innovation Pivot” to move from a replaceable commodity to an indispensable global disruptor.
• Health & Wellness (The Vessel): Reframe your body as a high-performance business asset using biological “hacks” like the Digital Sunset and Somatic Alignment.
• Relationships (The Radiance): Master the “Mirror Principle” and “Appreciation Loop” to stop searching for high-value people and start attracting them.
• The Identity Audit: Identify and re-code “Old Scripts” that act as silent saboteurs to your international expansion.

Tactical Tools for Rapid Transformation:

• Pro Tips: High-impact actions in every chapter designed for immediate implementation.
• Manifestation Scripts: Practical tools to actively rewire your subconscious mind for “Being Mode”.
• The 30-Day Master Alignment Plan: A day-by-day roadmap that bridges the gap between spiritual manifestation and high-performance execution.

Your external world is a 3D printout of your internal state. It’s time to change the file.

Whether you are a founder aiming to go international or a professional seeking peak energy and radical alignment, this book provides the manual to live your “Wish Fulfilled” today.

In “The Absent Parents” by Oluwatayo Jide Shoneye, the sparkling facade of the “Nigerian Dream” is dismantled to reveal the hollow core of a family connected by fibre optics but divided by a vast emotional void. Set in a sprawling, high-tech mansion in Lagos, the novel serves as a compelling and harrowing warning for the modern age: that provision is not parenting.

The Story

Dele Adeyemi is a corporate titan who measures love in square footage and tuition receipts, viewing his children as “legacy assets”. His wife, Beatrice, the “Mother of the Parish,” uses her public religious devotion as a shield to avoid the messy emotional needs of her home. While they are physically present at the dinner table, their minds are thousands of miles away in boardrooms and digital ministries.

In this “house of present absence,” the three Adeyemi children become casualties of their parents’ success:

• Tobi (15): Feeling invisible, he seeks belonging in the “Obsidian Gate,” a dark corner of the internet where a radicalised figure, called the ShadowKing, grooms him, and he falls into drug dependency.
• Aisha (14): Desperate for focused attention, the “Purity Queen” is preyed upon by a predator named Rex, who exploits her need for validation behind the safety of her bedroom door.
• Kemi (8): The quietest victim, Kemi is raised by a “Digital Nanny”—a tablet that becomes her primary companion, eventually leading her into a dangerous “secret game” manipulated by a hijacked script.

The Reckoning

The family’s world collapses when the “ShadowKing” orchestrates a devastating public exposure during a high-society gala, broadcasting their private shames to the world. Forced into “Status Death” and stripped of their public masks, the Adeyemis must face the ruins of their “Architecture of the Void”.

“The Absent Parents” is a visceral exploration of the traumatic effects of parental neglect and the high cost of a “connected silence”. It is a powerful call to swap screens for souls and to find the “internal light” needed to keep the shadows at bay.

Target Audience: Readers of contemporary drama, psychological fiction, and cautionary tales about technology and family dynamics.

Warning: This novel features mature themes such as digital grooming, substance abuse, and psychological neglect.