In defense of Oliver Twist (1)

It is refreshing to punch the keyboards once more to get my thoughts put down in what our friends in the IT world call softcopy. Indeed the last few months have been a period of indecision on my part (to be or not to be). However, spurred by friends and colleagues who persuaded me to “run for another term”, I have decided to key in my thoughts once more.

Today, against seeming odds against him, I wish to come to the defense of Oliver Twist as he asks for more.

Every now and then we are reminded that “Oliver asked for more”. This phrase (as used in the popular Charles Dickens novel portrays Oliver daily as an ingrate, who despite being cared for in an orphanage had not only the temerity but also the bold effrontery to do a great disservice to mankind (especially West Africans) by his impudence to ask that more food be apportioned to him.

Before I proceed to defend poor Oliver, I crave your indulgence to permit me take you (once again) through the tortuous route to the saga.

Oliver Twist (a name arbitrary assigned to him) was born in a workhouse by an unknown woman whose greatest desire (at that time) was to see the fruit of her womb and die (this she achieved). The poor boy who struggled to breathe the first few critical seconds of his life was left in world characterized by “systematic treachery and deception”; he was malnourished and starved with no mother to take care of him. He was left to the care of a pauper old woman who herself has lost eleven of her own thirteen children! When he was ten months old, he was transferred to an outstation in an attempt to salvage what was left of his tumultuous infancy.



At the outstation the fat elderly woman who attended to him (and some delinquents) did not only starved him further (as she greedily appropriated little stipends meant for the wards to herself) but also maltreated him. Oliver Twist celebrated his 9th birthday incarcerated in a coal-celler with two other mates, after sound trashing, for “atrociously presuming to be hungry”. By this period, Oliver Twist was described as pale, thin child, and somewhat diminutive in stature. He was taken from the outstation and repatriated to the workhouse where he hitherto started his twisted journey.

Back at the workhouse, things only got worse for Oliver and his companion. According to the novelist Charles Dickens:

Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three months: at last they got so voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy,
who was tall for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for his father had kept a small cook-shop), hinted darkly to his companions, that unless he had another basin of gruel (food) per diem, he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him, who happened to be a weakly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry eye; and they implicitly believed him. A council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist.

From the above, it is explicit, that Oliver was mandated by the “council” to carry out their decision in order to save a life.