Questions below are based on Bolaji Abdullahi's "Sweet Sixteen" The writer tried to point out religious intolerance in his book, by

Analyzing the question: This is a literature-in-English question on Bolaji Abdullahi's Sweet Sixteen. It asks how the author shows religious intolerance in the story.

Recalling the text: Aliya, the main character, is a Muslim girl in a school where she is among her peers. In the novel, a classmate (Mary/a Christian classmate) makes derogatory remarks about Aliya's religion and her hijab/way of worship. This is a personal, character-level incident, not a society-wide or institutional one.

Evaluating the options:

• A. Discussing how society believes certain religion is better: The book does not give a broad social discussion ranking religions. It shows an individual incident.
• B. Using one of Aliya's classmates to condemn her religion: This matches the text. A classmate's open condemnation of Aliya's faith is the way the author dramatizes intolerance.
• C. Religious institutions forcefully imposing beliefs: The novel does not portray institutions forcing beliefs on people.
• D. Painting Islam as more righteous than others: This would be religious bias by the author, not a portrayal of intolerance, and the book does not do this.

Answer: The author uses a specific character, a classmate of Aliya, to show intolerance toward her religion.

Exam tip: In JAMB literature questions about "how the writer shows" a theme, look for the option that points to a specific character or incident in the story. Options with broad claims such as "society," "institutions," or "forcefully" are usually distractors unless the text clearly supports them.