Chike Ameobi

Chike is one of the principal protagonists of Welcome to Lagos. When the novel begins, Chike is an officer in the Nigerian Army, but he abandons his post after his colonel orders his men to burn a village full of innocent civilians. Chike's military experience makes him a natural leader for the ragtag group with whom he travels to Lagos, and he makes many important decisions for them, about where to stay, for example, and what to do with Sandayọ's money. On the bus en route to Lagos, Chike meets Oma, and over the course of the novel, they fall in love.

Chike is a character with a great deal of inner conflict. His father died when he was a child, and his mother consequently invested all of her hopes and dreams into her son. After he has left the army, Chike feels unmoored, at a...