I Did Not Come for Peace; Problems, Always!

In the relentless energy of Lagos, peace is a luxury no one can afford. Maria Oluwabukola Oni's debut collection delivers seventeen razor-sharp stories that plunge straight into the chaos, gossip, ambition, trauma, and dark comedy of contemporary Nigerian life.

An outspoken apprentice tailor—known as Amebo Mary—cannot resist inserting herself into everyone else's business and pays the price in laughter and exile. A young woman navigates the suffocating gap between not being happy and sliding into grief after a baby's fall. University friends execute a "pepper action" prank that spirals into something far deadlier than they imagined. Across the book, characters wrestle with infidelity, diaspora expectations, cultural absurdities, hidden traumas, and the daily absurdities of survival in a city that never sleeps.

Written with unflinching honesty, mordant humor, and a keen ear for Lagos street slang, Yoruba idioms, and Nigerian Pidgin, these stories refuse sentimentality. They show life exactly as it is—messy, vivid, often hilarious, and always complicated. Oni offers no easy resolutions, only the clear-eyed recognition that problems, always, are the true constant.

For readers who relish the raw vitality of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the dark wit of Teju Cole, or the street-level insight of Sefi Atta, I Did Not Come For Peace is an essential, unforgettable collection.