I think it is important to get a few things out of the way first: it is not part of my job to judge whether Angelo Agrizzi is guilty of any crimes that he has been charged with, and whether he is a genuine whistleblower or not. Mine here is to give my honest opinion about his latest book.
In his second book titled, Surviving the Beast- The Ugly Truths About State Capture and Why They Tried to Kill Me, Agrizzi narrates not only his painful experience in prison in 2020, and the subsequent events that saw him fighting for his life, but he once again recounts stories of how the Bosasa executives captured powerful politicians in order to capture the state.
Perusing through the pages of this book, Agrizzi- as he has done at the state capture commission, easily drops the names of powerful people- who some were bribed by the company for government favours, and some who played a role in helping Bosasa steal from the public while he was in its employment for 19 years.
Disappointingly he, in a well-orchestrated manner, tries to exonerate himself from all the shenanigans of Bosasa by blaming everyone, particularly his then boss, Gavin Watson except himself and his friends’ role in the whole saga.
While he provides some evidence for some of the claims that he is making (which is commendable act for a book of this nature), however, I got a sense that this book is a PR exercise for Agrizzi to once again try to gain public sympathy and project himself as someone who was just following instructions during his time in that corrupt company- after all this is self-published work, where biasness can easily be a factor.
Surviving the Beast is a contentious book that will make you- the reader, angry about Bosasa’s corrupt activities, corrupt politicians, how state capture steals from the poor, and it will definitely make you question Agrizzi’s role in those activities.
After I looked at the cast of people that Angelo Agrizzi mentioned in the opening pages of this book, two thoughts came into my mind.
First, half of the people he mentioned in the book deserve to be in jail for what has been reported about them in the media for years.
Second, he should expect some of the people he mentions in the book- who some are still in powerful positions in both government and in the ruling party, to sue him or try to take his life as he had claimed.
Surviving the Beast is an important book for the people of this country nonetheless, because it reminds us about who were the people who helped this corrupt company to steal from the poor of the poorest.
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