Balogun is affiliated with the University of Benin, Nigeria. In the excerpt below, the critic compares "Vengeful Creditor" with Anton Chekhov's "Sleepy." Noting similarities in the political and social backdrops of the two narratives, the critic also discusses stylistic and thematic parallels, particularly with regards to class conflicts, wealth and poverty, and morality.

In "Vengeful Creditor," Achebe also denounces man's inhumanity to man by exposing the deceit and callousness characterizing the attitude of contemporary Nigerian educated elites towards the poor. Mr. Emenike, a permanent secretary in the civil service, engages Vero as a baby-nurse with the promise to send her to school as soon as his baby grows up. Every morning Emenike's older children, beautifully dressed in uniforms, are driven to school; and each morning Vero is full of admiration and anticipation. She becomes anxious and wants "little Goddy," the baby she is tending, to grow up...