You can belong to any profession and
still be a writer – Abdullahi
On February 17, 20128:34 pmIn
Cultivated Man0 Comments
Denja Abdullahi is a consummate
writer, and Deputy Director, Performing Arts,National Council for Arts and
Culture(NCAC). He was also a General Secretary and incumbent Vice-president of
the Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA). He is currently researching for a PhD
at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on Multicultural Aesthetics in Dramatic
Literature. Here, Denja recounts the story of his journey into the world of
books. By BENJAMIN NJOKU Background I’m Denja Abdullahi, born to the family of
Alhaji Hamid Abdullahi and Hajiya Amina Abdullahi of Agbaja in Lokoja Local
Government Area of Kogi State. I am a little above 40 years . I had my primary
education at St Barnabas Primary School Ilorin and my secondary education at
Govt. Secondary School Ilorin. I got my first degree in English at the
University of Jos in I990 where I emerged the best graduating student with a
second class upper degree. I did my National Service in Katsina State where I
taught at the GGSSS Malumfashi. After that, I proceeded to acquire a Masters
degree in Literature from the University of Ilorin in 1992. I started my working
experience as a lecturer in The Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi now known as Waziri
Umaru Federal Polytechnic where I taught English and literature as well as
managed a theatre troupe(Tashimana Theatre) as an artistic director. Abdullahi
I was in Kebbi for 5 years from 1993-1998 when I transferred my service to the
National Council for Arts and Culture, Abuja, where I work presently as a
Deputy Director, Festivals and Performing Arts. I have been, in between all
these studying and working life, a practising journalist, playwright, director,
poet, literary consultant, culture consultant, UNESCO expert on intangible
cultural heritage, researcher and administrator. I have held several executive
positions in the Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA), the last being the
National General Secretary of the Association from 2005 through 2009. I’m also
the incumbent Vice President of the association. I am presently researching for
a PhD in Nasarawa State University, Keffi. My research interest is on
Multicultural Aesthetics in Dramatic Literature with the plays of Ahmed Yerima
being my focus areas. Childhood My childhood was one of endless acquaintances
with the love showered on me by my parents. My father was a policeman and a
state security personnel in that order while my mother was a hard working and
business-minded housewife. Due to the nature of my father’s work, we traversed
Nigeria as he was moved from one location to the other and we moved with him.
That equipped me with a lot of knowledge about Nigeria and the various people
making up the country. That may also have broaden my horizon, getting me
prepared for future encounters with the multiplicity of this country. I never
lacked anything during my childhood days as my parents provided all I needed
and even more. My parents were also not the overbearing type who set too much
boundaries for their children. My father was a complete gentleman though my mum
may be referred to as a disciplinarian in a loving kind of way. I was allowed,
with all my siblings, all the freedom a child should have to discover himself
or herself. In short, it was a very happy childhood where neither me, my
parents and my siblings had cause to be disappointed in ourselves or on
anything. Life as a writer, civil servant and author You can be anything else
professionally and still be a writer. We have had all sorts of combination of
other kinds of vocations with writing. In this our environment, writing is yet
to become a full time obligation except may be journalism which I know is not
the kind of writing you are alluding to. So you have teacher-writer, medical
doctor-writer, pharmacist-writer, lawyer-writer etc. In my own case, I work in
an arm of the public service where creativity is encouraged and in a department
where we mainly relate with artistes and other people in the creative and
cultural industries. So, I can say I am in a familiar and inspiring environment
to do my writing. Meanwhile I have not left literature since I studied it at my
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. So you can call those of us who studied
the subject at the higher levels of education as first born sons and daughters
of the field and some of us who developed aspiration for writing coming from
that field became natural writers. I have four published poetry books to my
credit; Mairogo:A Buffoon’s Poetic Journey Around Northern Nigeria(2001),Abuja
Nunyi- This is Abuja (2008),The Talking Drum(2008) and A Thousand Years of
Thirst(2011). A writer can be the most patriotic person in any nation. They are
the conscience of the people, they look beyond the ordinary. They see with an
inner eye and such kind of people always want the best for the citizenry. With
a writer worth his name, you can be assured of justice, unfettered freedom
within the ambits of the law and the dictates of humanity. I Why I write I
write imply to express myself, to tell my own stories in the way I can with the
hope that someone out there will read and enjoy my efforts. No one writes to
change the world if that is what you expect me to say. All the same, if someone
reads what I write and decide to change himself or something for good, then
that is welcome. State of Nigerian literature Nigerian literature is as vibrant
as Nigeria, rich in resources, talents and awaiting usage by the nation for its
own human capital development. We have the good, the bad and the ugly in
Nigerian literature but there is more good than bad. Our literature awaits
greater exploitation by other sectors of the society; for example the film
industry is yet to tap into it and neither has government for the purpose of
general education and re-orientation. How literature and books should be
projected in Africa African people must see literature and books as fountains
of knowledge and indispensible in the quest to build a knowledge-based society.
We should move away from our perennial quest for the self and start thinking of
others and our society at large . It is only a broadly and adequately informed
mind that has been nurtured on books that can think in this selfless manner.
Future of Literature in Nigeria The future is bright. The nation should court
its writers with lots of support and invest in intellectualism and the infinite
possibilities of the world of imagination.
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/you-can-belong-to-any-profession-and-still-be-a-writer-abdullahi/
Why I want to lead ANA, by Denja Abdullahi
February 22, 2015
Vice President of the Association of
Nigerian Authors (ANA), Denja Abdullahi, has declared his interest in the
presidency of the association when elections for the body hold this year. He
made the declaration in an interview he granted Jerry Adesewo of the
Abuja-based Arojah Royal Theatre.
“Naturally, I should be interested in becoming
ANA president at the next election, going by my long years of service to the
association,” said Abdullahi in response to whether he had intention to
contest.
Abdullahi added that establishing a
chapter of the association in the early 1990s in Kebbi State when he was
lecturing at the Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin-Kebbi, among other
achievements, makes him eminently qualified to head ANA.
“I moved to a public service
career in 1998 and revolutionised the operations of the association in the FCT
where I have become one of the pillars of the association,” said the author who
has only just been promoted director in the civil service.
The art and culture
administrator, who has since released his manifesto, explained that in 2001, he
was elected into the National Executive Council (NEC) of ANA as an ex-officio
member, and in 2003, was elected assistant general secretary.
“In 2005, I was elected as the
substantive general secretary and returned unopposed for the same position in
2007; between 2009 to 2011 after the expiration of my very eventful tenure as
general secretary under the Dr. Wale Okediran presidency, I reverted to the
position of an ex-officio member by constitutional provision; and in 2011, I
was invited to contest the position of vice president, which I won,” he stated.
He said it was only natural
that he aspires to be the next president, since he has served the association
in so many capacities, making him the longest serving member of the association
in the NEC.
“I have rendered innumerable
services to the association and I have been faithful to the ideals and causes
of the association and it is only natural and a matter of duty for me to offer
myself to serve again at the highest level,” he stated.
In his over 2000-word
manifesto titled ‘It’s All About Service’, Abdullahi said, among other things,
that he would run an all-inclusive administration where every member, at home
and abroad, will be given the chance to contribute his or her talents and
expertise to the development of the association in an atmosphere of sacrifice,
integrity and conviviality.
Cooperate and advocate with
other creative associations for the establishment of the national endowment
funds for the arts, so that the creative sector can access funds for viable
programmes and projects, and internationalise the operations of the association
by collaborating with other writers’ unions across Africa and the world.
Abdullahi’s intention is also
to return ANA fully to its fundamental objectives of being a writers’ craft
union committed to the advancement of the interests of its members, repackage
the developmental objectives of the association and make the staging of
workshops, seminars, conferences, going on local and international residencies
and hosting celebratory activities routine activities.
ANA elections will hold this
year to elect officials into the national body for writers in the country.
ANA structured to assist upcoming authors –Denja
Abdullahi
Denja Abdullahi, the National President of
Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has described the association as a
platform for upcoming authors to test their creativity and also forge a
mutually beneficial relationship with established authors.
Abdullahi stated this over the weekend in an
exclusive interview with SECURITY MONITOR’s Special Correspondent,
Rowland ‘Shuwa in Ilorin.
According to him, “The structure of ANA itself
is designed to assist upcoming authors as it is a platform for upcoming authors
to come test their creativity, forge relationship with established authors and
get the needed mentoring towards becoming assured in their crafts. A lot of
writers who later became popular and great cut their teeth in ANA or were put
up for showcase in ANA.
“Many upcoming authors were also first
published in ANA in anthologies, journals and reviews. Some were even singly
published by ANA. Beyond that ANA has existing mentoring scheme such as Teen
Authorship and the Young Writers Mentoring Schemes. ANA also does a lot of
literary agency works for upcoming authors.”
Abdullahi who faulted the popular notion that
Nigerians have apathy to reading explained that a lot of reading is done by
Nigerians both traditionally and online. He however queried the context of the
reading done.
He said, “A lot of reading is been done by
people traditionally and on-line with the advent of the digital age. What we
may query is the kind of reading being done. People read a lot of junks online
these days and the good old reading of books for leisure and general awareness
is what has gone down. But that can be improved upon if we migrate good stuff
to where people are reading and re-introduce the primacy of general interest
reading into our schools.”
The ANA president who is also a Director of
Performing Arts at the National Council for Arts and Culture, Abuja however
lauded for its impact and contributions to raising the level of consciousness
for books in the country.
According to him, “In its 36 years of existence
ANA has been the most consistent literary association in Nigeria that has done
a lot to develop Nigerian literature.ANA is a household name so to say with its
outreach programmes to schools and the larger society over the years.
“Daily I receive calls from young and old
people trying to find out how to join the Association and benefit from its
programmes. Among our numerous programmes, we have been awarding literary
prizes all these years and we have not failed to organize a yearly convention
rotated across Nigeria and dwelling on germane literary issues of the day for
the past 36 years.”
Giving his scorecard for the past two years,
Abdullahi said his administration has strengthened communication with the state
chapters. “We have uploaded a lot of documents on our revamped website for
membership development. We have strengthened communications with the chapters
and we have given visibility to a lot of our chapters through the traditional
and social media.
“The ANA/Yusuf Ali nationwide literary
awareness project that has been on since the year 2012 has greatly enhanced the
visibility of our chapters as they regularly receives grants from the project’s
fund to carry out activities in their domains. We have also encouraged
democratization in the leadership of our chapters and they are stronger than
before.
“I have fulfilled my major campaign promises.
If you go back to look at my campaign document of 2015 called “The Pragmatic
Deliverables” vis a vis my scorecard for the near two years I have been on the
job, you will discover I have achieved with my team, not less than 70% of what
I promised.
“Some people have even told me, after reviewing
our Scorecard which is already a public document on the social media and on our
website that we have done too much for just two years. I will certainly be
re-contesting for a final term of 2 years.”
On the forthcoming convention of the
association which will be taking place in Makurdi between October 26-29, 2017,
the president disclosed that some new features at the event will be the
flag off of the A-Book-A-Child campaign by the wife of the Imo State
Governor, Nkechi Nneoma Rochas Okorocha who is the Key Facilitator.
“There will also be the presentation of a book
arising out of the Arrow of God@50 Celebration which took place in 2014.There
will also be award of fellowship to three distinguished members of the
Association, Prof Sam Ukala, Prof Akachi Ezeigbo and Prof Idris Amali. Of
course we will invest two new patrons of the Association in person of the host
Governor himself, Dr Samuel Ortom and a member of the House of Representatives,
Hon Jerry Alagbaoso.
“Beyond all these the Makurdi Convention is
being packaged to be culturally thrilling and hospitality will be the best the
State got to offer. We shall be showcasing new books and some other new
projects to be embarked on by the Association in 2018.”
We are set to make more writers
millionaires
— 14th October 2017
Denja Abdullahi is saddled with the task of shepherding Africa’s largest
writers’ guild, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). In this interview
with HENRY AKUBUIRO in Abuja, Abdullahi, who has been at the helm of
affairs for two years, responds to some critical issues in the Nigerian
literary community, especially the omission of writers from the recent federal
government-sponsored creative industry summit, the new Nigerian Writers Series,
the non-award of ANA prizes in some categories this year, developments in the
ANA Writers’ Village and the preparedness of the association to host this
year’s convention in Makurdi later in the month.
What’s the state of affairs regarding
the hectares of land belonging to the Association of Nigerian Authors? One is
wondering whether it won’t be better to sell part of the land to raise money to
develop a writers’ village rather than giving it to a land developer. Which do
you think serves a better purpose?
The current agreement we have with
the developer is something similar to what you have just said. In development
agreement –it is a common thing in Abuja –if you have land but lack the
resources to develop it, you can get a developer, who will come into the land,
and, with the funds that you lack, help you develop the land and give you the
features and the structures that you want in return to some of his own interest
where he will recoup his investment. All along, the land had been fallow
because of the lack of resources to even do anything on it. And the agreement
the association signed five years ago was to give the association structures
that were definable with sustainable profit regularly for the developer’s
interest in terms of recouping his investments by using some parts of the land
for his own investment. So, it is a bit better than selling the land off.
The problem we have is that we don’t
have the resources to go in directly to start building structures; we also lack
the expertise in the association. Even if we have the expertise, we still have
to engage them in commercial terms, because they won’t work for free. So, you
have to engage somebody who is already into that. However, emotional responses
have been ongoing concerning the ANA land for years, with some thinking some
people are profiting from it. But all these are not true. Before the present
developer came into the land, we couldn’t even enter the land, because we had
no resources to clear the bush. Recall that ANA first entered into an agreement
with a developer in 2001, who couldn’t deliver, and we had to take that
developer out of the place. We only succeeded in getting him out of the place
in 2012. With the present arrangement, ANA can have assets that can generate
income for it so that our basic operation can be taken care of from the income
we make rather than over dependence on sponsors, donours and insignificant dues
members pay.
The Nigerian literary community has
expressed dissatisfaction over the recent Creative Nigeria Summit organised by
the Ministry of Information. What accounted for this omission?
When I saw that summit on financing
the creative industry and I didn’t see ANA being represented anywhere, I was
taken aback. I was thinking, had they redefined the concept of creative
industry in Nigeria to the exclusion of writers? From what they were doing,
which I watched on TV, I saw that they had broken it down to film and music,
and the writers were excluded. My first thought was that they might have some
other programmes for the writers after devoting this to Nollywood and the music
industry. Does the federal government think the literary arts doesn’t need any
intervention to encourage literary creativity? To produce a film, you must
first write a movie script. If you don’t engage professionals like creative
writers to write the scripts, the films won’t come out well. Again, when you
study most film industries in the world, their basic foundation is the
adaptation of great literary works. Nollywood started like that. Bollywood
started like that. Every film industry begins by adapting outstanding novels,
plays and poems into films. The classical films we have today are adapted from
works of fiction. If you look at some of our members in the film industry in Nigeria,
they are producing fantastic films. Tunde Kelani has collaborated with writers
like late Adebayo Faleti and Prof Akinwumi Ishola, among others. Don’t forget
the adaptation of Chimamanda’s Half of Yellow Sun into a block buster.
When you are talking of the creative
industry, the writers are at the centre of it, because they are the concept
makers; they are the ones who conceptualise what goes into film and music. Ours
may not be that showy –Nollywood can easily appeal to most people because of the
direct impact they make on the society –but I must tell you writers produce
books that appeal to the intellect and promote our culture, and most of what we
do stand the test of time. A film can also reign for a few months or years, but
a good literary work can endure more than thirty years. Again, most of the
people they paint on buses today as Nigerian icons are writers: Professor Wole
Soyinka, Professor Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie. These are people known
all over the world. We have many of them respected all over the world. Why
should government not pay attention to support this industry so that writers
will write books that our children will read? If you want to reorient the
society, writers are your best bet. I think the government should not leave out
writers if they want to redesign programmes for the creative industry unless it
tells us there is another programme for the writers different from what they
are doing. If you are financing the creative industry and you are only
financial music and films, who, then is financing the art galleries? Who is
financing the theatre? Who is financing creative writing? Though writing is a
solitary thing, to get the work published and out to the public, you need
financing.
The inability of judges for this year’s
ANA literary prizes to announce shortlists in some categories has continued to
generate heat. What’s your reaction to the hullabaloo that the money meant for
some of these categories of prizes has been diverted, which accounts for why
there are no shortlisted writers for the affected categories?
(laughs) I am also worried about
that. I have noticed some regularities in terms of what comes from the
adjudication panels for some two, three years now. The judges have consistently
maintained that some entries for some categories are not good enough to be
awarded. The most recurrent is that of the children’s literature. The judges
have been complaining that the writings for children today are not making any
mark. They have criticised the shoddy storyline, the lack of imagination, and
poor production output. NLNG did the same last time by refusing to award
the children’s literature prize.
But, in those days, unpublished
manuscripts used to win some of these prizes…
I will come to that. For the prize
for critical works, the judges who adjudge this category are also scholars who
write critical works for publication, and they have not been too impressed with
the essays being submitted. The same thing happened in the NLNG. Apart from the
prize won by Professor Isidore Diala, the prize hasn’t been awarded, yet our
scholars publish beautiful articles in international journals. What I suspect
is that Nigerian scholars don’t enter for this category of prize, because they
feel it of no use; what they are after is to gain promotions, so they prefer
publishing in reputable journals where they will be applauded. But I think they
should redirect some of these essays to the ANA Prize to encourage our
creativity.
It is not deliberate that we did not
have shortlists in some categories of the ANA prizes this year. We don’t
influence the judges in anyway so that the integrity of the prizes will remain.
Maybe we have to redirect some of these prizes. ANA prizes, at the beginning,
were meant to encourage new voices. That is why in the old manual, there was a
provision that, if the a known author, a published text, is going neck to neck
with an unpublished author and unpublished text, the prize should be awarded to
the new author. This is the philosophy of ANA prizes. We have not changed this
philosophy. That is why sometimes manuscripts do win some of these prizes. But
we have come to a stage where we can upgrade on our prize philosophy. Those who
criticize these prizes need to find out the philosophy behind these prizes so
that when they are announce, you don’t go all the way to say something untoward
has been done. Most times the politics people think are there are not there. It
is basically the preference of the judges.
Two years into your tenure as ANA
President, to what extent have you impacted the writers?
Along with my team, I have done my
best to achieve nearly everything I have promised when I was aspiring to become
the president of the association, and one of it is drawing a development plan
for the association, and we are already implementing the plan as we speak.
Then, I promised to restructure the association on internal governance by
making sure chapters are more democratic, and I have done that by enforcing the
conduct of elections in most of the chapters. I have also been able to do the
documentation of the history of the association. I have also done the second
edition of the Nigerian Writers Series. The latest edition is dedicated to
Children’s Literature. I promised the internationalisation of the association
by liaising with organisations that we can partner with some projects and
programmes. I have been relation with Ghanaian Writers Association and the Pan
African Writers Association very well, with ANA participating in their
programmes and them, in ours. We encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas with
other countries. I also promised to fast-track the development of the Writers’
Village. Last years’ convention, I took writers to that place, which had never
been done before. A land committee has been monitoring development on that land
on monthly basis, interviewing the developer and accessing what he has done so
far. If you go there now, our structures are coming up.
As I speak to you, the first
completed structure of the association will be ready in the next few weeks. We
asked the developer to give us quickly a prototype office, which we can use as
a national secretariat of the association, pending when the whole land would be
fully developed, and that is about being completed. That was facilitated by the
foundation laying ceremony five months ago where some of those we invited, out
of their own volition (it was not a fundraising ceremony), decided to
contribute some money to help us to speed up things. We got at least I million
from Hon Jerry Alagboso, which I channeled to the developer to use as a seed,
apart from what he had been doing already, that would lead to the completion of
a structure, and he is now about delivering the structure. I have achieved
about 70 percent of what I promised before the election. We can’t achieve
everything due to limited resources and the recession we have found ourselves.
We have achieved what we have done so far due to determination and passion.
The first edition was done with all
good intention and ten titles were published, and schemes were laid out to
ensure those books sold so that the series could be self-sustaining. We gave
the titles to four publishers, who were mandated to market the books. But what
affected it is still the same thing that affected the book industry in Nigeria.
It is a general problem that books don’t sell in large numbers to warrant the
authors getting fantastic salaries. The publishers make some modest sales and
return to us some paltry royalties based on the economics of book marketing and
sales in the country. So, there is nothing extraordinary that happened to the
first edition of the series that should warrant anybody saying he is not
getting royalties. The books are with the publishers, and they are being
marketed here and there. From the sales, they are not that too substantial to
warrant any author receiving fantastic royalties. We spent about seven million
naira on that series, but what we have realised after more than four years is
not up to 300,000 naira. When the money came in, I reached out to the authors
to send their account details. Based on what we had and the agreement with the
publishers to pay 10 percent, their royalties ranged from 5,000 to 20,000
naira. The authors refused to send their account details. They went to the
social media to make all sorts of noise.
However, I am not saying that’s the
picture we wanted with that series. I wanted a better picture were there would
be heavy marketing of those titles; where schools and regulatory agencies would
buy those books in large numbers so that we that invested in those titles,
along with the authors, would smile at the end of the day; but that was not
happening. It is nobody’s fault. Books generally are facing that problem. We
should think of how to solve that problem so that we can smile to the bank. The
way out is for ANA to directly take charge of those titles and market them, or
we can think of innovative ways of marketing books. Despite the lack of
profitability in book marketing, we have seen Nigerian authors who say their
books sell in thousands. When I asked how they did it, they told me they
directly marketed their books. So, if individuals can talk like that, we have
to understudy what they are doing, and ANA that has bigger capacity than
individuals can do better. I have seen a publisher who approached JAMB, and his
book is purchased in millions. The author was even complaining that he got
royalty of 30 million naira. If an individual could strike that kind of deal
with JAMB, why can’t we, as an association, do better?
We chose children’s literature for
the 2nd series, because children’s book, with contents, can sell. We intend to
make these texts sell so we can recoup our investment and also make the authors
get substantial sells in return. I am also trying to use these titles to power
the A Book-A-Child Project nationwide. We are going to collaborate with
individuals and corporate bodies nationwide who are going to invest in the
distribution of some of these works beyond keeping them in bookshops for people
to buy them, and we are talking of sales that will enter the school curriculum.
We have already started marketing these books greatly across the country. We
expect that when these books are maximally distributed, we should recoup our
investment in them and also pay the authors substantial royalties and be able
to permeate the educational psyche of our children, because the works are
talking about ennobling virtues of education, empowerment and gender issues. Of
course, we have a publishing imprint now, NWS Publishers. So, we are directly
taking custodies of the books and its circulation. This is a way of overcoming
the obstacles we faced in the first edition of NWS.
How prepared is the association to
host this year’s convention in Makurdi?
We are very prepared. We have gone
to Makurdi to inspect all the facilities we have in place for the convention:
accommodations and venues. We have also seen an indication of the readiness of
the state government to support that convention in spite of the general
economic problem facing states in Nigeria. In spite of the environmental
challenges currently facing the state; the governor has extended the hand of
fellowship to writers. The Special Adviser to the governor and the commissioner
for Education that is minding our business have assured us of the governor’s
readiness to host us, and the governor has approved some money for the
convention, which will soon be accessed. Benue is ready to showcase their
culture to Nigerians. It has hosted the convention twice in the 1980s and the
last in 2003.
Will you be running again?
In ANA, it is the convention for
midstream election not to be contested. Once a regime has set out and it is
relatively doing well, people would like it to finish the second term before
electing new set of people. Midstream election can only be contested if those
elected have performed below average, but I must say my exco hasn’t performed
before average. And, if our performance has been above average, I am certain
the ANA Congress will give us the full support before passing the baton to a
new set of people.
I’ve derived no personal benefits as ANA president – Denja Abdullahi
Malam
Denja Abdullahi, poet and playwright, has been the president of the Association
of Nigerian Authors since 2015. Ahead of the 2017 convention this October and
his re-election bid, he reflects on his achievements in his first term and his
experiences in office.
Two years as ANA President, how would you
assess your tenure?
In my manifesto titled “The Pragmatic
Deliverables” as at the time I was seeking this office, I had a 14 point Agenda,
and as I speak, I have delivered fully and partially on about 12 out of the 14
, so you can go ahead and score my performance with that. The manifesto I
talked about is a public document within the Association. To ascertain the
truth of what I have said about the deliverables in my administration of ANA,
you can get hold of that document and review it alongside the scorecard of my
tenure so far, which is available on our website www. ana-nigera.com.
I have within a year of my tenure as President delivered
two legacies projects, the ANA documentary film and The Strategic Plan
(2017-2022) for the Association. I have given the Association clear focus, more
visibility, consolidated on the past achievements of previous executives,
democratize its operations, improve on its internal governance and have fast
tracked the development of the writers’ village in Mpape, Abuja. It has been an
eventful and impactful tenure by my reckoning and I have heard people say that
we have done too much within two years.
Why then are you keen on running for another two
years?
It is not a matter of being keen on running, the
constitution of ANA allows me to run for another term of two years which is
final, if I am elected. In the last AGM of the Association last year in Abuja,
the general talk voiced out by some members was that the two year tenure was
too short and that elections were too frequent in the Association.
They were advocating for a single tenure of four
straight years. What do you think was the sub-script behind that advocacy? My
own reading of it was that they are experiencing an administration that has
lived up to and beyond their expectations and they would rather have it stay
its full term. My response to that at that time was that tenure review is a
matter for constitutional amendments. Personally, I believe it is better to
subject people to periodic elections after two years, so that you can validate
anyone working well for the Association and throw out anyone that is not living
up to his or her office rather than being stuck with mediocrity for four
straight years.
To go back to answer your question of why I am
seeking another two years, I still have more to do for ANA as President and
going by the Strategic Plan in place, I cannot exhaust the possible “doables”
for ANA in another two years. I can only do my bits and leave the space for
others to continue.
What have been the biggest challenges in the last
two years?
One of the greatest challenges has been that of
funding which is always not available to cover for all overheads, recurrent and
to execute major proposals or projects. The other is the unavailability
of anyone working for the Association on a full term basis. The administrative
pattern of the Association is based on “ad-hocism,” we are all in it on a
part-term basis and we do it voluntarily (because we are not paid for it) and
that greatly affects the sustainability of most things we do. The status of the
Association currently suggests it is ripe to have a full time compliment
of staff to man its secretariat and run its affairs from day to
day.
Presently, we only have one paid clerk in the
Lagos Secretariat who is there only to receive correspondence and do other
minor tasks. ANA is ripe to have an Executive Secretary and other staff that
will be working for it to follow up on earmarked projects and programmes. All
other challenges to the operations of the Association are tied to these two
major lacks. That is why my administration is concentrating in putting in place
structures that will help ANA overcome these two challenges.
It has been a tradition that half of the EXCO
fall off the grid once elections are concluded. How did you cope with this in
your administration?
It is normal for that to happen. In any committee
of whatever number, you cannot expect everyone to work with optimal capacity.
People seek offices for various reasons. When eventually elected, mostly into
other supporting offices, the tendencies is there for them to go to sleep, get
distracted, engage in needless subterfuge or deliberately refuse to extend
themselves in service for the overriding objective of the collective;
particularly when they cannot see any considerable gains to their persons. I
have been coping because I have deployed my skills as an administrator of arts
and culture at the federal level. I lay out the vision and vital objectives and
work with those ready to give selfless service while I manage others the best
way I can. I also realize that I am the one that must not flag even if every
other person does. I am the leader, the watchman and the servant. If I do not
do my own job and do it quite well, every other thing will suffer. I also know
how to identify talents and deploy them to serve the Association in whatever
capacity. That has helped in overcoming noticeable gaps in our human capital.
Why do you think this always happens both at the
state and national level?
It happens because of what I have said before,
the spirit of “ ad-hocism.” I am not being paid to do it and there are no
resources attached to my functionality so I can do it anyhow or not do it at
all. There are always ready excuses for non-performance and under-performance.
ANA itself needs restructuring to ensure the right caliber of people with
the requisite proven records of service and demonstrable capacity are
elected into offices and there must be operational clauses in the constitution
to ensure measurable performance while in office. ANA also must remove the
bandwagon effect, where people get elected because they have lined up behind
someone.
Everyone seeking office must be scrutinised on
their own individual merit. ANA must restructure in line with modern
requirements of running a not- for-profit NGO. The way ANA is now in terms of
administration, too much strain is being put on the points men, who are the
Chairmen at the state level and the President at the national level. But the
good thing is that the restructuring needed has been factored into our
strategic plan and what we need to do is just to implement the plan.
One of the projects you worked on is the Nigerian
Writer’s Series with the second volume, children stories, released under your
watch. The first series had ten books, this one had three. What happened along
the way?
Lack of resources crept in along the way. We had
N10m to do the first 10 books in 2014. The first 10 books were published with
about N7 million naira inclusive of every other administrative cost of the
project and has to date generated an income of less than N300,000 naira.
This is a project designed to be self-sustainable.
When I came on board as President in 2015, there were no funds in place for me
to continue with the series, so we had to rework the idea behind the series if
it must continue. We decided to focus on children’s literature, which we all
know is a brand that can sell if well packaged. We called for manuscripts and
at the end we got barely 3 worthy of publication out of the 13 submitted. We
had to even wire part of the annual Yusuf Ali grant given to ANA for nationwide
literary awareness campaign to publish the 3 titles.
The writers in the first series complained about
poor promotion of their books and non-payment of royalties. Have these issues
been addressed by your administration especially since you were directly in
charge of this project?
The books in the first series were published by
four consultant publishers and the publishers were to assist in the marketing
and promotion. ANA on its part did some promotion and marketing at our
conventions, and in the traditional and social media. We have been relating
with the publishers since that time and they have been doing what they could,
given the peculiar operating environment of the book industry.
The individual authors too have done their bits.
ANA, during my tenure, even had to take custody of three titles from
Jemie Ventures( after the CEO of the company died) and moved them to AMAB books
for promotion and marketing under a new contract.
On royalty payment, we have records of every
single book sold under that series, as provided by the publishers, and we have
in the past asked the authors to submit their bank account details for royalty
payment. Some of them refused to send across the details we needed because they
felt the royalties involved were negligible. We can only pay for what has been
sold and from what we have received from the publishers; that is the stark
reality.
What measures have you taken to ensure that the
writers in the second series will not suffer the fate of the first?
The Second Series has been designed to be
self-sustaining and marketable. We have tied a nationwide project around it
called A-Book-A-Child project which is expected to cause the massive
distribution of the texts across the country. We are already seeking
individuals, government agencies and private corporations to partner with us on
the project.
The wife of the Governor of Imo State, Ugo Nneoma
Nkechi Rochas Okorocha has accepted to be the key facilitator and brand driver
of the first phase of the project to be flagged off at our forthcoming 36th
Convention this October in Makurdi. We have other schemes tied up to drive the
sales and distribution of the books under the second series of NWS and so the
books will go places and the authors will get their due recompense. We are
directly in control of the books under the NWS publishers, an imprint of ANA.
While declaring your ambition to run for a second
term, you mentioned that the job is a thankless one. Why then do you still want
to run for the office again?
It is thankless because you work and get nothing
material in return. Rather, what you get is needless abrasive criticism from
some quarters for putting your daily job, time and personal resources on line
to serve the Association. ANA has no material resources to give anyone in its
service because there are none lying anywhere for anybody to gobble up in
self-aggrandisement.
You work hard to whatever you bring into the
Association. If you are not ready to hard work, you should be ready to have a
commensurate mediocre and uneventful tenure. What you get from serving ANA is
intellectual fulfilment and the satisfaction in seeing some of your visions and
dreams for the literary and cultural community achieved. I am running again
because of this; I want to leave my own indelible legacies of service to the
Association and my nation by implication.
What new things do you think you can bring on
board that you haven’t in the last two years of your administration?
There are many things still undone. We are
creative people, our ideas are boundless. Go check our Strategic Plan, it is
also available for download on our website, you will see that there are so many
projects and programmes yet undone. I cannot finish those laid down objectives
even in another two years. I have many new things to offer the Association in
another tenure of two years but what I will focus seriously on in the next two
years, if elected, is to deliver a fully built Writers’ Village in Abuja within
my tenure, a dream we have been nursing for the past 30 years. We have started
by laying the foundation and commencing real development this year. It is a
project that is big and land marking enough to devote the next two years to.
As an individual, what benefits would you say you
have derived as ANA president?
Nothing material but intellectual and spiritual
fulfilment for the fact that I have the opportunity to serve at the highest
capacity. My books are not selling more than others because I am ANA president,
neither do I have more time or resources to write because I am president. I do
not earn any salary or allowance as ANA President and ANA does not in any way
pick my daily bills or family obligations. I have often joked with people that
the only thing you benefit as ANA President is being given the best suites or
hotel rooms at ANA Conventions, meetings or activities; where you hardly even
get two hours of peace or sleep because of the countless matters and meetings
you have to attend to. I may have gained more visibility by being ANA
President, but that is also due to what I am able to bring to bear on the
office. The office of the President of ANA does not confer anything on you, as
it is, you have to make the office visible and relevant.
You say one of your achievements is the
development of the ANA land in Mpape. How is this project being financed?
The project is being financed through a
development agreement entered into since 2012 with KMVL, a real estate
development company. We are working within the laid down agreement; the only
thing is that we are fast tracking the whole thing through proper monitoring
and by ensuring that the developer adhere to newly laid out project timelines
as given by the ANA Land Development Committee.
Do you think the plan of developing this land as
it is a feasible one? If yes, when do you think this project will be completed?
Visit the land presently and you will see that it
is coming to reality. It is very feasible and we are on course. As we speak, a
temporary ANA National Secretariat Office is being roofed. That will serve
until the whole project complex is completed. From January 2018, our address
will change to Mamman Vatsa Writters’ Village, Mpape, Abuja. The whole project
has been phased in our strategic plan. We are on phase one entering into phase
two. By the end of 2019, the project should have been completed or near total
completion.
Your home chapter, ANA Abuja has been embroiled
in controversy leading to attempts by members of the EXCO to remove the
incumbent chairman. What is the state of affair presently and as president what
interventions have you made?
Every chapter of ANA sometimes throws up its
peculiar leadership controversies. To stem that or nip them you have to adhere
to rules as enshrined in the constitution. If you play by the rules in
sincerity and honesty, you will not have any long drawn problem. The state of
affair in the chapter is not unusual and I have waded in by meeting with the
parties in the conflict and I have directed them to sheathe their swords and
reconcile. They are doing as directed as we speak.
During your campaigns the first time, you
promised to reinvigorate ANA at the state level. If this has been done, it
hasn’t made much difference because many of the state branches have been
redundant. What do you think went wrong there?
I disagree vehemently with you on this.
Leadership in ANA chapters nationwide has been re-invigorated with new
executives elected into offices in most chapters, even in places where
elections have not been held for years. The Yusuf Ali annual grant has ensured that
every year since 2012, chapters are challenged to come up with novel
activities. ANA has viable chapters in 34 states of the federation including
the FCT. Chapters do organize regularly activities, readings and many outreach
programmes. I have just asked chapters to turn up report of their activities
for 2017 and many of them have done that with photographic evidences.
Some of these chapter activities I have been part
of with many of my national executive council members. There may be two or
three chapters not fully functional because of some peculiar constraints but on
the average ANA chapters have been effective and impactful within the very
limited resources at their disposal. ANA Katsina just recently held a
successful Northern Nigerian Writers’ Summit with the theme “Literature and
National Integration: The Role of Writers as Bridge Builders” and ANA Kogi just
held last friday the Grand Finale of its Literary Competitions among secondary
schools in Kogi State. These are just two examples of independent programmes
and projects that our chapters execute quietly in their domains nationwide. My
administration has given the chapters a renewed vision and we work closely
together with them to deliver on objectives.
You promised to make ANA conventions more
vibrant. In what way would you say you have done that and how much different
would the upcoming convention in Makurdi be?
The 35th Anniversary Convention held in Abuja
last year was unarguably the best in recent times in terms of organisation,
innovation and corporate buy-ins. The forthcoming convention in Makurdi this
October will witness more remarkable innovations in terms of organisation and
highlighted events. The increasingly harsh economic climate may tamper some of
our drastic plans to overhaul convention organisation but I can assure those
that are planning to attend the convention that they will experience something
new and thrilling. Some few weeks backs, I led a team of my National Executive
Council to visit Makurdi for facilities check and review of strategies
connected to convention organisation. This is to ensure we improve on our
convention each time and if sustained, I can tell you in years to come, ANA
Convention will be very different from what we know it to be today.
Denja Abdullahi: What makes you a writer are the books
you write
By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim | Publish
Date: Apr 10 2016 5:00AMSince his election as President of the Association of
Nigerian Authors, Malam Denja Abdullahi has had to contend with a number of
issues including the furore over the purported death of the Nigerian Writers
Series, accusations of sexual molestation leveled against a member of the
association and dealing with dissenting voices within the association. Daily
Trust sat down with the poet and playwright to discuss the challenges facing
the association.
Grappling with the beast of ANA and
“unbundling” its convention
We met in a bookshop in Garki. Surrounded and hemmed in by shelves loaded with books, it seemed a fitting place to discuss Nigerian writing and writers with the president of the Association of Nigeria Authors, ANA. Denja Abdullahi, tall and imposing, has been occupying that position in the last few months, since he was elected at the association’s annual convention in Kaduna last November.
Many people expected Denja’s administration to hit the ground running. He has been the vice president of the association in the last four years and the Secretary General in the previous four. He knew exactly what he was getting into when he threw his hat into the race to lead the association established by the likes of Chinua Achebe, who happened to be its first president.
“It has been very challenging,” Denja Abdullahi said, “this is an association that doesn’t have a stable source of finance because to do anything at all, you need to sacrifice your time and resources and put on hold your personal affairs.”
Booming voice fills the bookshop as he spoke for the next hour or so about the state of the association, the politics that has characterized and stifled it, allegations of sexual molestation brought against one of its members with another member thrown in jail for defamation while another is battling a film producer for allegedly stealing her story.
Denja did not shy away from these issues, taking them head on with gladiatorial verve. Perhaps it was this energy that most members expected to see when the new executive was elected in November. Denja Abdullahi is all too aware of this.
“At least this first year there must be a sign that we can deliver. We have to hit the ground running,” he said.
As a cultural administrator of many years standing, he knows that the success of any project will be hinged on the ground works, and this is what they have been working on, he said.
Already, he said, they have constituted a National Advisory Council, something that the association’s constitutions provides for, but which had never been utilized by previous executives.
The council has three former national presidents of the association and two “elder statesmen.”
Alongside these, they have set up a Strategic Planning Committee, whose objectives would be the review of ANA’s strengths and weaknesses, and come with a rolling plan for the next years.
“In the second quarter of the year, when we have funding, they will kick the ground rolling,” Denja said.
While running for the president of the association, Denja had proposed to “unbundle” the association’s flagship event, the ANA Convention. I asked him what he meant by that and he was quite clear of the answer, even if the details are still not clear.
“What we mean by unbundling the convention is that we are going to pull out some programmes from the convention because they have become difficult to sustain. The convention is usually choked up with events that some of them are not done properly. The plenary session is one of the ones we want to take out of the convention and see the possibility, maybe next year, if that is not possible this year, of holding a major conference to be held by ANA maybe in partnership with some universities - that will focus on contemporary realities of writing in Nigeria and Africa, or that will draw attention to critiquing Nigerian writers by diverting attention to the newer writers. So we are trying to pull that plenary session to stand on its own as a conference of Nigerian literature to be held annually,” he said.
The plenary session, which has always drawn academics from across Nigerian universities to present papers on literature, will not be the only one to go. Denja has grand plans for the convention drama as well.
“We hope to take the prize winning play, which will be staged and taken round schools or to different cities. These are ways of promoting contemporary writers and making the convention a purely writerly event,” he said.
The ANA Awards Night too will become a stand-alone event, where Denja hopes to draw sponsors to fete the writers like other prominent prize awards.
Making the convention a writerly event is key. The mix of politics and a tradition spanning some thirty-five years have conspired to make the ANA convention fairly predictable and consequently boring. There is drama every other year when the writers try to outdo the politicians as the association’s election come by.
The rise of international literary festivals across the country and the continent may have exposed writers to other ways of doing things. Denja Abdullahi realizes that though ANA needs to maintain its traditions, it will still have to make changes to remain relevant.
“We will not go the way of the literary festivals because I believe there should be varieties. ANA will maintain the fundamentals of the convention because we are an association and it is also a group devoted to promoting the writers’ welfare. What they do is also important because it glamourizes literature. Whatever we see that works with these festivals, we will also do it,” he said.
The plan is for these changes to kick off at this year’s convention. Denja knows it is a daunting challenge but one he is committed to. “We have started work on the convention; we won’t wait until August and September. We are trying to make those changes this year and if we can’t do it all, we will do most of it because this will be the 36th convention. It will no longer be a choked convention because we want this to be a convention that will celebrate the writers and the books that are available,” he said.
Documenting ANA’s history
Alongside these, are plans to premiere a documentary on the history of the association, which is being filmed at the moment. The lack of any historical account of the formation of the association is something that Denja is worried about.
“We are already doing a documentary on the history of ANA because we have discovered that no one has really told the story of ANA. Filming on the documentary has already started and we plan to premiere it at the convention,” he said. There should be a record of ANA, maybe even in a book form where people can know where the association started from, and where it is going. The book form may take a while so we have gone the audio visual way.”
On intellectual theft.
In December 2015, a few weeks after Denja took over the reins as ANA Chairman, a member of the association, Ify Asia Chiemeziem, took to social media to announce that Nollywood producer Reginald Ebere had stolen her work and adapted it into a film without her consent.
This caused discomfort within the writing sphere and many members felt that ANA didn’t come out to lead the charge on Chiemezlem’s behalf.
Denja Abdullahi disagrees, saying they have done a lot and they are still doing more.
“When this case came up, I quickly got in touch with her and said ANA will gladly take this up and I gave her links to intellectual property lawyers and have given her advice as to what steps to take and she has been doing that,” he said.
Beyond this work in the background, Denja said ANA will be going to war on the writer’s behalf. “The case is going to court very soon and what we will do is to join in the case to help see it through and insist on a judgment that will be of benefit to writers.”
The association, according to Denja is building relations with copyright bodies to protect the works of its members and ensure they get justice when there is an infringement.
“At the level of ANA, there should be a copyright committee where authors can lay formal complaints so that when members write in to notify us of any copyright infringement we can take it up.
“We are constantly in touch with the copyright commission. Only a few weeks back they wrote in to say they want to amend the copyright law and they sent us the draft. I gave it to our legal adviser who read it and wrote back more than 40 or 50 pages in response and they wrote back to thank us for our contribution,” he said.
It will be interesting to see this scenario play out and how far ANA is willing to go with this. What is important is that for the association to be relevant, it has to stick its neck out for its members who feel cheated.
And then there was sexual molestation
There are others too who need protection and they felt ANA couldn’t do that for them. When poet Chijioke Amu Nnadi was accused by a retinue of girls of sexual molestation, ANA towed a cautious line.
“We were conscious to avoid victimizing anyone,” Denja said.
It was important to be cautious in approaching the case which created quite a storm within the writing community, but perhaps it was this line of thinking that the victims had when the issue happened. This much Denja admitted.
“According to the report by the Whole Woman Network, which investigated the allegations, when the girls were asked why they didn’t report the molestations to ANA, they said they were afraid of patriarchal tendencies that may offer protection to the person commiting the crime than the victims.”
But he assured that the case has necessitated that ANA took another look at itself and made proper provisions for such eventualities while protecting younger members of the association.
“In the ANA constitution, there are disciplinary procedures and any one accused of misconduct would be investigated and measures will be taken. If such an allegation comes to us we would investigate it. Two or three years back, we were thinking of bringing out a separate code of conduct but we realized that the constitution has already taken care of this even if not fully. With the development of this case, it is an opportunity to put in place a code of conduct, even if to regulate the interactions between us, the public and the government,” he said.
But that does not imply that the association will sweep these allegations under the carpet. The report from Whole Woman Network has been formally submitted to ANA and Denja said the association will take measures, starting with sending the report to Mr. Amu Nnadi and asking for a response from him.
“When the report comes back from the accused, there is always a disciplinary committee that will sit down and recommend what needs to be done to sanction him if found guilty. If there are no sanctions, there must be justifiable reasons for not having them. We are not a law court but we must find ways to caution ourselves, discipline ourselves.”
Is the Nigerian Writers Series dying?
One other controversial issue that has been trending with regards to the association is the Nigerian Writers Series, inaugurated by the last administration. Under the series, ten novels by first time Nigerian writers were published by ANA in collaboration with four publishing houses with grants from the Niger State government.
There is no fund to run a second batch and Denja Abdullahi had in a separate interview indicated that the faith of the series is up in the air. This caused a furore among writers who wanted clarification from the president.
Denja said, “What happened was that when I took over, we contacted the publishers and asked them what the picture is like since we have saddled them with the responsibility of marketing and distributing the books. They wrote back formally and listed the copies ANA collected, the copies given to the authors and the copies that were sold. When the numbers came in, I saw a situation that is precarious if the series will be self-sustaining. If we use, say five million, to publish 10 books then we should make seven million or at the very least make our five million back for the business to be self-sustaining.
“So when they wrote back, the figures were nothing to write home about. We got back figures from two out of four publishers and what we have seen from the figures that have come in is that it is not sustainable unless we find ways of boosting sales, either by doing more for book promotion or getting the books on the syllabus of schools.
“The Nigerian Writers Series is not going moribund because the books are still there. They can still be sold so we can make a return on investment. When we are doing a second phase, we will have to reassess the model and possibly consider other genre. And we have been advised to go into something that is lucrative, which is children’s literature, which is easier to market.”
One thing the authors published under the series complained about was that ANA hadn’t done enough to push the book into the market. Denja realized this, but also admits that since ANA was not set up as a publishing house and doesn’t have a compliment of full time staff; it is quite a challenge to do that. But the realization that the association may not make its money back from the venture might be the push it needs to do more to promote these books.
What the debate about the Nigerian Writers’ Series threw up was the existence of a faction that intends to demand answers from the current executive. This is clearly a fall out from the acrimonious campaign that resulted in the emergence to the Denja Abdullahi-led administration with the elections.
“There was a public extension of goodwill and we intend to extend a hand of fellowship so that everyone will know that the time of politicking is over. There is no way we can work without involving everyone because this is voluntary work and we must work together to move forward.
“There is no point having someone who is competent and then deciding not to work with him because you don’t like his face. You have to work with the best hands.”
Denja said, “And those who didn’t win the election should also reciprocate when we reach out to them with hands of fellowship to accept and work with us because in ANA once elections are over, we come together to work. That is the pattern we expect. We also expect constructive criticism. What we don’t like is the trend that some people will form themselves into an opposition to actively oppose this administration. When Jerry Agada lost to Remi Raji four years ago, did he constitute himself into an opposition? He didn’t and his supporters kept their peace and allowed the government to work. But those who want to oppose me or oppose my administration, if they do that are only wasting their time. I know I have work to do for the association, and we are going to do it.”
One thing you can’t take away from ANA is the prevalence of politicking, sometimes at the detriment of the craft, of writing and promoting writing, Denja acknowledges this as well.
“People that think too much of politics may not even know what is happening in the association because if they do, they won’t be doing what they are doing. Being the president of ANA doesn’t mean it will have any direct bearing on my writing or that I will get a lucrative publishing deal or that I have huge resources at my disposal. People just want to attach portfolios to their names.
“In the end, what makes you a writer is the book you write so if you put politicking ahead of your craft, it will show in your work. If people read the association well, there won’t be any point in fighting.”
We met in a bookshop in Garki. Surrounded and hemmed in by shelves loaded with books, it seemed a fitting place to discuss Nigerian writing and writers with the president of the Association of Nigeria Authors, ANA. Denja Abdullahi, tall and imposing, has been occupying that position in the last few months, since he was elected at the association’s annual convention in Kaduna last November.
Many people expected Denja’s administration to hit the ground running. He has been the vice president of the association in the last four years and the Secretary General in the previous four. He knew exactly what he was getting into when he threw his hat into the race to lead the association established by the likes of Chinua Achebe, who happened to be its first president.
“It has been very challenging,” Denja Abdullahi said, “this is an association that doesn’t have a stable source of finance because to do anything at all, you need to sacrifice your time and resources and put on hold your personal affairs.”
Booming voice fills the bookshop as he spoke for the next hour or so about the state of the association, the politics that has characterized and stifled it, allegations of sexual molestation brought against one of its members with another member thrown in jail for defamation while another is battling a film producer for allegedly stealing her story.
Denja did not shy away from these issues, taking them head on with gladiatorial verve. Perhaps it was this energy that most members expected to see when the new executive was elected in November. Denja Abdullahi is all too aware of this.
“At least this first year there must be a sign that we can deliver. We have to hit the ground running,” he said.
As a cultural administrator of many years standing, he knows that the success of any project will be hinged on the ground works, and this is what they have been working on, he said.
Already, he said, they have constituted a National Advisory Council, something that the association’s constitutions provides for, but which had never been utilized by previous executives.
The council has three former national presidents of the association and two “elder statesmen.”
Alongside these, they have set up a Strategic Planning Committee, whose objectives would be the review of ANA’s strengths and weaknesses, and come with a rolling plan for the next years.
“In the second quarter of the year, when we have funding, they will kick the ground rolling,” Denja said.
While running for the president of the association, Denja had proposed to “unbundle” the association’s flagship event, the ANA Convention. I asked him what he meant by that and he was quite clear of the answer, even if the details are still not clear.
“What we mean by unbundling the convention is that we are going to pull out some programmes from the convention because they have become difficult to sustain. The convention is usually choked up with events that some of them are not done properly. The plenary session is one of the ones we want to take out of the convention and see the possibility, maybe next year, if that is not possible this year, of holding a major conference to be held by ANA maybe in partnership with some universities - that will focus on contemporary realities of writing in Nigeria and Africa, or that will draw attention to critiquing Nigerian writers by diverting attention to the newer writers. So we are trying to pull that plenary session to stand on its own as a conference of Nigerian literature to be held annually,” he said.
The plenary session, which has always drawn academics from across Nigerian universities to present papers on literature, will not be the only one to go. Denja has grand plans for the convention drama as well.
“We hope to take the prize winning play, which will be staged and taken round schools or to different cities. These are ways of promoting contemporary writers and making the convention a purely writerly event,” he said.
The ANA Awards Night too will become a stand-alone event, where Denja hopes to draw sponsors to fete the writers like other prominent prize awards.
Making the convention a writerly event is key. The mix of politics and a tradition spanning some thirty-five years have conspired to make the ANA convention fairly predictable and consequently boring. There is drama every other year when the writers try to outdo the politicians as the association’s election come by.
The rise of international literary festivals across the country and the continent may have exposed writers to other ways of doing things. Denja Abdullahi realizes that though ANA needs to maintain its traditions, it will still have to make changes to remain relevant.
“We will not go the way of the literary festivals because I believe there should be varieties. ANA will maintain the fundamentals of the convention because we are an association and it is also a group devoted to promoting the writers’ welfare. What they do is also important because it glamourizes literature. Whatever we see that works with these festivals, we will also do it,” he said.
The plan is for these changes to kick off at this year’s convention. Denja knows it is a daunting challenge but one he is committed to. “We have started work on the convention; we won’t wait until August and September. We are trying to make those changes this year and if we can’t do it all, we will do most of it because this will be the 36th convention. It will no longer be a choked convention because we want this to be a convention that will celebrate the writers and the books that are available,” he said.
Documenting ANA’s history
Alongside these, are plans to premiere a documentary on the history of the association, which is being filmed at the moment. The lack of any historical account of the formation of the association is something that Denja is worried about.
“We are already doing a documentary on the history of ANA because we have discovered that no one has really told the story of ANA. Filming on the documentary has already started and we plan to premiere it at the convention,” he said. There should be a record of ANA, maybe even in a book form where people can know where the association started from, and where it is going. The book form may take a while so we have gone the audio visual way.”
On intellectual theft.
In December 2015, a few weeks after Denja took over the reins as ANA Chairman, a member of the association, Ify Asia Chiemeziem, took to social media to announce that Nollywood producer Reginald Ebere had stolen her work and adapted it into a film without her consent.
This caused discomfort within the writing sphere and many members felt that ANA didn’t come out to lead the charge on Chiemezlem’s behalf.
Denja Abdullahi disagrees, saying they have done a lot and they are still doing more.
“When this case came up, I quickly got in touch with her and said ANA will gladly take this up and I gave her links to intellectual property lawyers and have given her advice as to what steps to take and she has been doing that,” he said.
Beyond this work in the background, Denja said ANA will be going to war on the writer’s behalf. “The case is going to court very soon and what we will do is to join in the case to help see it through and insist on a judgment that will be of benefit to writers.”
The association, according to Denja is building relations with copyright bodies to protect the works of its members and ensure they get justice when there is an infringement.
“At the level of ANA, there should be a copyright committee where authors can lay formal complaints so that when members write in to notify us of any copyright infringement we can take it up.
“We are constantly in touch with the copyright commission. Only a few weeks back they wrote in to say they want to amend the copyright law and they sent us the draft. I gave it to our legal adviser who read it and wrote back more than 40 or 50 pages in response and they wrote back to thank us for our contribution,” he said.
It will be interesting to see this scenario play out and how far ANA is willing to go with this. What is important is that for the association to be relevant, it has to stick its neck out for its members who feel cheated.
And then there was sexual molestation
There are others too who need protection and they felt ANA couldn’t do that for them. When poet Chijioke Amu Nnadi was accused by a retinue of girls of sexual molestation, ANA towed a cautious line.
“We were conscious to avoid victimizing anyone,” Denja said.
It was important to be cautious in approaching the case which created quite a storm within the writing community, but perhaps it was this line of thinking that the victims had when the issue happened. This much Denja admitted.
“According to the report by the Whole Woman Network, which investigated the allegations, when the girls were asked why they didn’t report the molestations to ANA, they said they were afraid of patriarchal tendencies that may offer protection to the person commiting the crime than the victims.”
But he assured that the case has necessitated that ANA took another look at itself and made proper provisions for such eventualities while protecting younger members of the association.
“In the ANA constitution, there are disciplinary procedures and any one accused of misconduct would be investigated and measures will be taken. If such an allegation comes to us we would investigate it. Two or three years back, we were thinking of bringing out a separate code of conduct but we realized that the constitution has already taken care of this even if not fully. With the development of this case, it is an opportunity to put in place a code of conduct, even if to regulate the interactions between us, the public and the government,” he said.
But that does not imply that the association will sweep these allegations under the carpet. The report from Whole Woman Network has been formally submitted to ANA and Denja said the association will take measures, starting with sending the report to Mr. Amu Nnadi and asking for a response from him.
“When the report comes back from the accused, there is always a disciplinary committee that will sit down and recommend what needs to be done to sanction him if found guilty. If there are no sanctions, there must be justifiable reasons for not having them. We are not a law court but we must find ways to caution ourselves, discipline ourselves.”
Is the Nigerian Writers Series dying?
One other controversial issue that has been trending with regards to the association is the Nigerian Writers Series, inaugurated by the last administration. Under the series, ten novels by first time Nigerian writers were published by ANA in collaboration with four publishing houses with grants from the Niger State government.
There is no fund to run a second batch and Denja Abdullahi had in a separate interview indicated that the faith of the series is up in the air. This caused a furore among writers who wanted clarification from the president.
Denja said, “What happened was that when I took over, we contacted the publishers and asked them what the picture is like since we have saddled them with the responsibility of marketing and distributing the books. They wrote back formally and listed the copies ANA collected, the copies given to the authors and the copies that were sold. When the numbers came in, I saw a situation that is precarious if the series will be self-sustaining. If we use, say five million, to publish 10 books then we should make seven million or at the very least make our five million back for the business to be self-sustaining.
“So when they wrote back, the figures were nothing to write home about. We got back figures from two out of four publishers and what we have seen from the figures that have come in is that it is not sustainable unless we find ways of boosting sales, either by doing more for book promotion or getting the books on the syllabus of schools.
“The Nigerian Writers Series is not going moribund because the books are still there. They can still be sold so we can make a return on investment. When we are doing a second phase, we will have to reassess the model and possibly consider other genre. And we have been advised to go into something that is lucrative, which is children’s literature, which is easier to market.”
One thing the authors published under the series complained about was that ANA hadn’t done enough to push the book into the market. Denja realized this, but also admits that since ANA was not set up as a publishing house and doesn’t have a compliment of full time staff; it is quite a challenge to do that. But the realization that the association may not make its money back from the venture might be the push it needs to do more to promote these books.
What the debate about the Nigerian Writers’ Series threw up was the existence of a faction that intends to demand answers from the current executive. This is clearly a fall out from the acrimonious campaign that resulted in the emergence to the Denja Abdullahi-led administration with the elections.
“There was a public extension of goodwill and we intend to extend a hand of fellowship so that everyone will know that the time of politicking is over. There is no way we can work without involving everyone because this is voluntary work and we must work together to move forward.
“There is no point having someone who is competent and then deciding not to work with him because you don’t like his face. You have to work with the best hands.”
Denja said, “And those who didn’t win the election should also reciprocate when we reach out to them with hands of fellowship to accept and work with us because in ANA once elections are over, we come together to work. That is the pattern we expect. We also expect constructive criticism. What we don’t like is the trend that some people will form themselves into an opposition to actively oppose this administration. When Jerry Agada lost to Remi Raji four years ago, did he constitute himself into an opposition? He didn’t and his supporters kept their peace and allowed the government to work. But those who want to oppose me or oppose my administration, if they do that are only wasting their time. I know I have work to do for the association, and we are going to do it.”
One thing you can’t take away from ANA is the prevalence of politicking, sometimes at the detriment of the craft, of writing and promoting writing, Denja acknowledges this as well.
“People that think too much of politics may not even know what is happening in the association because if they do, they won’t be doing what they are doing. Being the president of ANA doesn’t mean it will have any direct bearing on my writing or that I will get a lucrative publishing deal or that I have huge resources at my disposal. People just want to attach portfolios to their names.
“In the end, what makes you a writer is the book you write so if you put politicking ahead of your craft, it will show in your work. If people read the association well, there won’t be any point in fighting.”
In Conversation with Denja
Abdullahi: “I will lead ANA to sustainable prosperity.”
Denja Abdullahi is a poet and
dramatist, and the outgoing vice president of the Association of Nigerian
Authors. A long-standing member of the Nigerian literati, he talks to Praxis’ Emmanuel
Dairo about his views on literature and his ambition to pilot the affairs
of ANA for the next four years.
What does literature mean to you?
Literature is life; a lifelong
engagement and a preparation ground for the multi-layered encounters of life.
Literature re-enforces the truth that nothing really new can be found under the
sun. No matter the situation: tragedy, happiness, treachery, chicanery, perfidy
and what have you, it has happened before. You only need to go into books to
see them described. And if you are fortunate enough to have read enough books,
you will discover that no situation catches you off guard and people are easily
readable. They must have their foils or counterparts in some books somewhere.
You count as one of the few Nigerian
writers of any repute who have dabbled into drama in recent times. What do you
think is responsible for the decline of dramatic works in Nigerian literature?
Drama is not in decline; what is
absent is a lifelong commitment to the art as it used to be with the first and
second generation Nigerian playwrights and theatre practitioners. Drama as a
genre demands a measure of cultural fidelity and authenticity. It is a genre
tied to dialogue, action and performance and needs artistic discipline to
distil out its beauty. How many of our later-day playwrights bother to quarry
into the mythical, the legendary and the extraordinary aspects of culture that
ennoble a dramatic text or performance? Drama as a genre has a longer gestation
time than the other genres. You muse on a dramatic situation first, work out
the dialogues. conflicts, actions and scenery and then allow it to simmer
before shaping all within the framework of a stage, even before finalising it
as a published text. The process takes years and the logistics of dramatic
creativity is not easily circumscribed. That may be why it appears there is a
decline but I can tell you we have many playwrights writing a lot of beautiful
plays today. The problem is the inability of many of them, mostly not due to
their own faults, to get their works produced on stage.
You have degrees in English and
Literary Studies from two Nigerian universities. Do you believe that writers
who have studied literature have creative advantages over those who have not?
At the risk of being accused of
literary chauvinism, I will say yes. In the course of undergoing such studies,
you are taken through all kinds of writings and the motives and methods
underpinning them. Sometimes you are even taught the principles of creative
writing. If all these spark off an interest to write in you, you will be doing
that from an informed position and there is a slight likelihood that you will
write better or be more impactful as a writer than someone who just stumbled on
the art in the search for a hobby or pastime. Not all who studied English and
Literature write well; many even do not write at all. Inbuilt talent and
disciplined practice also play a great role in fashioning a good writer. Of
course, there are examples of writers from fields farther from literature who
write very well.
Much of your work addresses social
and political issues in different Northern cultures. Do you write for the North
or merely about the North?
You cannot write entirely outside
your lived or acquired experience. I am from the North, from an ethnic minority
and from a region that still struggles to enter into the mainstream of national
literary discourse. As a writer, the first subjects that attract are those of
direct impact on my life. That should not be seen as pandering to low-hanging
fruits but as an attempt at being relevant and useful to my immediate
environment. I do not write for the North by way of being a mouthpiece but I
write about the North often in a critical manner. Sometimes what you call
writing for the North or about the North is just by way of setting; the
creative world depicted in most of my works can be transposed to any other part
of the world and it will still be a good read. Good literature and canonical
texts, no matter how local they may be in their referential world, are
eventually salvaged by the universality of their subject matter or form.
You’ve been in the executive council
of ANA, in various capacities, since 2001. With the benefit of hindsight, what
aspects of the association’s structure do you think are in need of overhaul?
The Association’s administrative
structure is still too fluid and perfunctory and is no longer working well in a
world that is fast becoming constrictive to associations that survive only on
avowed passion. No one really minds, as a full time job, the affairs of the
Association. As a result, ideas take longer to come to fruition and are at the
mercy of someone somewhere willing to make personal sacrifices. Opportunities
for greater achievements are daily missed because there are no set targets and
things are done without proper planning. Modern associations are no longer run
successfully in such a way. The Association has to work towards overhauling its
administrative structure. Introducing some permanency and regularity to some of
its basic operations would be a step in the right direction. It must also begin
to learn how to set achievable targets and design blueprints towards their
implementation. Most importantly, the Association must acquire physical assets
and rework the financial commitments of its members towards ensuring its
sustainability.
Denja at UNESCO EXPERTS’ workshop
There are whispers in some circles
that there was a gentleman’s agreement for you to be the next president of ANA
before your opponent threw his hat in the ring. Can you elaborate on this?
You are dead right in this
assertion. There was even indeed more than a gentleman’s agreement on that
matter. My service to the Association has been unwavering over the years. I
have held, with popular acclaim, nearly all the important executive positions
in the Association. I have discharged all my duties in a most effective and
selfless manner. While others who are throwing their dubious hats in the ring
now abandoned the Association at some points to pursue their individual private
objectives, Denja Abdullahi has been steadfast. Members of the Association
realised this and as Vice President, they have all reconciled themselves to my
becoming President. Even my opponent recognised that I am far ahead of him in
tangible and widespread service to the Association. That was why he had been
singing it to my ears in both private and public spaces for over two years now
that when I become President, he would like to be my Vice President. I have
evidence of where and when he made such assertions in public. I also have
documented private correspondences we shared up to as recent as April this
year, where we muted on a possible team in my presidency with him as Vice
President. I and many others, including the people he now calls his supporters,
were thus taken aback when he started sending surreptitious text messages about
his aspiration for presidency. I got a barrage of calls from all over Nigeria
wondering what was amiss between me and him when his text messages got to
people’s phones. They all expressed anger and consternation over his attempt to
violate codes of friendship, camaraderie and logicality. When quizzed about his
motive, he usually resorts to the denial of a gentleman’s agreement (I am not
surprised about this as people do this regularly on national political space,
particularly when naked ambition and lust for power are the shadowy premises)
and a rather vague Machiavellian game theory.
But I suspect his real reason may be
the feeling that I do not want him as Vice President or the futility of his
succeeding to become my Vice President as he would have to face the congress
who may decide that with Denja as President, his Vice has to come from a
different region. A spin master around him may have intoned “common man, your
best bet is to challenge this fellow for the ultimate position, who knows, you
may just succeed in dislodging him.” Some people have read his coming into the
picture as good for the sake of contest by telling me “Denja, it is good you
are challenged so that your eventual emergence will not be a form of coronation
and your victory will be sweeter that way.”
Why do you need to be president
before some of the ideas contained in your manifesto can be implemented? As the
vice president for four years and the general secretary before that, couldn’t
you have tabled them before the previous presidents for implementation?
This question can be compared to
asking President Obasanjo what he came back to do as President in 1999 and
President Muhammad Buhari why he had to contest four times for Nigerian
Presidency when he had been at the helms in 1983. Times evolve and do change
things and different times require different approaches. I have said somewhere
else that ten kings equal ten different milieus. I have never been President of
ANA and you can never compare that to any other position in the Association.
Agreed I have been General Secretary for 4 years in the past (2005-2009) and
had the power and indeed implemented many good programmes and projects for the
Association in line with my vision then. I have also been Vice President and I
have not been found wanting in any way in helping this present President to
achieve his objectives. The fact remains that there are many things still
undone and approaches that have not been utilised. I have my manifesto with
well articulated and achievable objectives that I intend to pursue doggedly
with presidential affirmation if elected.
There is nothing in your manifesto
that overtly addresses the plight of writers in indigenous languages. Does it
mean that your vision of ANA is inclusive of only those who write in English?
I disagree with that as all the
developmental objectives in my manifesto in reference to Nigerian writers are
inclusive of writers who write in the indigenous languages. A writer is a
writer regardless of the language in which he writes. We should actually stop
this artificial segmentation we have in Nigeria as a result of our devaluing
our indigenous languages. I, as General Secretary of ANA, oversaw the
celebration of two indigenous language writers (Abubakar Imam and Adebayo
Faleti) with a colloquium for each in Kaduna and Ibadan respectively. As
President, definitely, I will design programmes for writing in the indigenous
languages, encourage translations from one language to the other and creatively
integrate writing in our indigenous languages into the mainstream of our
activities.
A sizeable number of Nigerian
writers are domiciled in the Western hemisphere. What is your campaign position
with respect to the creative diaspora?
I will make use of their talents and
reach to assist and develop Nigerian literature. I have been part of several
schemes in the past to bring them home regularly to interface with the literati
here. I will reach out to them as individuals and as a group for them to
identify tangibly with what we do back home. The problem at hand is that we
hardly reach out to them with any tangible scheme that can elicit their
interest and participation. What we do as a pastime is to denigrate them for
pandering to the West in their writings and for having it all while we sweat it
out in the impossible and mediocre situation back home. In my Presidency,
Nigerian writers at home and abroad, should be ready to be called upon to
contribute their talents, resources and expertise to the development of
Nigerian literature and our literary spaces. There is no other way and real
progress and development cannot co-exist with biases, prejudices, sentiments
and other like baggage.
The Nigerian Writers Series, one of
the initiatives kick-started by the outgoing ANA executive, is, in its current
format, slanted towards the publication of fiction and creative non-fiction. If
you emerge the next president, should we expect to see similar initiatives
established for drama and poetry?
I coordinated the series and was
largely instrumental to those books being eventually published. This is the
fact, against those who go about ascribing collective achievements to their
narrow self for envisaged political gains. I know how we arrived at publishing
fiction and creative non-fiction at the series’ first outing. As president, the
series next outing will either be drama or poetry, depending on the decision
taken, and this will be achieved within my first year in office.
You have often spoken of a need to
divest ANA of government funding. Is there a way to make Nigerian literature
more attractive to private sponsors?
Nigerian literature is already very
attractive. In the past, corporate sponsors like Cadbury, Chevron, NLNG,
Spectrum, Literamed etc. did sponsor one activity or the other for the
Association. Discontinuity came by way of economic recession that affected
those sponsors and ANA’s sheer inability, after some years, to maintain and
cultivate relationships with private sector sponsors. I intend to reverse this
trend by rethinking and refocusing our relationships with the corporate world,
grant giving foundations and agencies, literature loving individuals of means
and even the governments at all levels. I have it in mind that if elected I will
lead ANA to sustainable prosperity. I will not joke with that objective and it
involves a lot of work.
Thank you for your time, sir.
Denja Abdulahi’s re-election in ANA : Major challenges
he must tackle
Oct 30 2017 - 11:02am
By Ademola Adegbamigbe
The country’s body of writers, known
as the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has re-elected Denja Abdulahi as
its President. That was at the 36th Delegates Convention, in Makurdi, Benue
State last Saturday.
However, as he mounts the saddle for
another period of two years, he and his executive members must tackle some
major challenges: Funding, administrative “ad-hocism”, royalty for writers and
others.
Indeed, Abdullahi has a lot to do
for ANA, based on the association’s startegic plan. Moreover, he has to tackle
the major challenges facing the association, the worst of which is funding that
will help them carry out major projects and take care of recurrent expenditure.
He is also expected to address the
issue of adhoc staff since every official is there on part time basis. As the
President himself told a Nigeian medium before the election, “The status of the
Association currently suggests it is ripe to have a full time compliment of
staff to man its secretariat and run its affairs from day to day.” He added:
“Presently, we only have one paid clerk in the Lagos Secretariat who is there
only to receive correspondence and do other minor tasks. ANA is ripe to have an
Executive Secretary and other staff that will be working for it to follow up on
earmarked projects and programmes. All other challenges to the operations of
the Association are tied to these two major lacks.”
However, Abdullahi has a lot of
achievements to his credit in the first term. First, he delivered two legacies
projects, the ANA documentary film and The Strategic Plan (2017-2022). He told
Daily Trust: “I have given the Association clear focus, more visibility,
consolidated on the past achievements of previous executives, democratize its
operations, improve on its internal governance and have fast tracked the
development of the writers’ village in Mpape, Abuja. It has been an eventful
and impactful tenure by my reckoning and I have heard people say that we have
done too much within two years.”
Apart from the President, half of
the executives were, according to a press statement by the association,
returned unopposed to run the affairs of the association for another two-year
term.
The new executive members are: Denja
Abdulahi, Camilus Ukah, Ofonime Inyang, Ikechi Owabie, Anaele Ihuoma and Issac
Ogezi who were returned unopposed as President, Vice President, General
Secretary, Financial Secretary, Auditor and Legal Adviser in that order.
Denja Abdulahi came into office in
Nov. 2015 for two year tenure, and given his relection now, will be there till
2019.
The press release goes further:
“However, the positions of Assistant General Secretary, National Treasurer, PRO
North, PRO South and ex-officio members were keenly contested. But the result
of the election produced Maik Ortsega as National Assistant Secretary, Mrs.
Farida Mohammed as Treasurer, Col. Oladele Babajamu as PRO North, Wole Adedoyin
as PRO South, Isah Dan Musa, Lambert Ototo and Ernest Onuoha as ex-officio
members.
“The re-elected President, Denja
Abdulahi, in his speech after the election thanked members of the association
for their support assuring them of his team’s commitment to lift ANA to an
enviable height in Nigeria and Africa.
“He said his first major assignment
will be to empower members through educative programmes as highlighted in the
Association’s Strategic Plan document and to ensure that every member of the
association occupies strategic position in the country’s creative industry
sector.”
http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2017/10/denja-abdulahis-re-election-in-ana-major-challenges-he-must-tackle/
Arts Endowment Fund overdue –Denja
Award-winning Poet, Essayist and
Culture Technocrat, Denja Abdullahi, is the National president
of the association of Nigerian Authors ANA).
In this interview with the Director, National Council for Arts and Culture,
Abdulhafeez Oyewole, he talks about ANA’s programmes for the year, Senator Shehu Sani’s Art Endowment Bill, among others.
What activities/programmes does ANA
haver for Nigerian authors and writers and how do you intend to go about them?
We have already started implementing
our activities for the year. We started with our inaugural National Executive
Council (NEC) meeting in January where we came up with a communiqué and a memo
directing our chapters on what they should focus on this year.
We have started implementing our
A-Book-A-Child Project nationwide.
We will be having a workshop on innovations in literary awareness campaigns/our meeting with chairmen and secretaries of chapters next month.
We will be having a workshop on innovations in literary awareness campaigns/our meeting with chairmen and secretaries of chapters next month.
In May, there will be the Authors’
Groove at the Nigerian International Book Fair in Lagos and in June, we will
hold our maiden National Conference on Criticism of Emergent Nigerian Literature
with Federal University, Ndufu- Alikwe Ikwo in Ebonyi state, now Alex Ekwueme
Federal University.
In October, we will have our
convention in Lagos entitled Literature: Mega Cities and Mega Narratives. All
these are aside from our routine programmes and projects at the state and
national level.
And most importantly, we are concentrating on the development of the Writers’ Village in Mpape, Abuja. Note that we had moved our national secretariat from Lagos to Abuja on March 1, 2018.
And most importantly, we are concentrating on the development of the Writers’ Village in Mpape, Abuja. Note that we had moved our national secretariat from Lagos to Abuja on March 1, 2018.
What activities are you doing with
the Yusuf Ali grant?
We will use the grant for the
workshop on Innovations in Literary Campaign programmes involving 15 chairmen
of ANA chapters, who have been outstanding in the implementation of the Yusuf
Ali grant since 2012.
We will also use the grant to do a
media supplement on the Yusuf Ali project implementation by our Chapters since
2012.
What do you intend to achieve with
the workshop?
The workshop, which is going to hold
in Ilorin, Kwara state, is like a review of the implementation of the project
since 2012. It will empower participants with tools to use in creatively
re-designing and re-focusing the implementation of the ANA/Yusuf Ali Literary
Awareness Campaign in later years.
We want the workshop to help us mark
up the execution of the project in line with contemporary trends of ‘selling’
literature to schools and the larger society.
What’s the future of the
A-Book-A-Child project?
It will continue, and we will
continue to source for funds to provide books enmass to schools across the
country. We are in the first phase of distribution of the Nigerian Writers’
Series children’s titles to schools.
We are going to print more of those books to continue the nationwide distribution.
We are going to print more of those books to continue the nationwide distribution.
What’s the criteria for awarding
Annual International Convention hosting right to states?
We have a template with which we
measure a state’s preparedness to host our conventions. Host states are
expected to be very vibrant and with quality membership, that can harvest
support from all sectors for the convention. It is either the state can
mobilise financial and other kinds of support from the private or public
sector.
Hosting conventions have become very
expensive in recent times because of the subsidy we extend to participating
members in the areas of accommodation, convention materials among others.
So, to host a convention, a state needs to mobilise a minimum of N20 million. That is, apart from what we spend at the national level.
In the near future, the subsidy will be removed and much of the burden on host states will be reduced and transferred to attendees.
So, to host a convention, a state needs to mobilise a minimum of N20 million. That is, apart from what we spend at the national level.
In the near future, the subsidy will be removed and much of the burden on host states will be reduced and transferred to attendees.
What should Nigerian writers and
authors expect from this year’s convention?
We should expect a smart convention
in which there will be some form of load shedding of the traditional activities
to make room for a totally writerly convention in a mega city such as Lagos. A
female scholar will be the keynote speaker.
Since, the 2002 convention in Asaba,
Delta state, Lagos state offers a lot of new inputs into the convention and we
will test some new things we will bring into the convention there.
Apart from Yusuf Ali grant, how does
ANA fund its projects and activities?
We rely on dues paid by members
which is insignificant in comparison to our activities. We get funds by
designing good projects and writing to sponsors for grants. Most times we do
not get good response but we relying on our private resources and earned
expertise in the creative management of men and material for maximum impact.
How does ANA protect interest of
creative writers/authors, especially its members?
ANA is basically an association set
up in 1981 to protect the interest of writers and enhance the business of
writing they do. All our programmes and projects over the years have been
geared towards that. We wade into the violation of our members’ rights, the
freedom to write and the copyrights to their works.
In January, we established an
intellectual property protection and advancement committee to crystallise how
we are going to robustly protect and advance our members’ rights.
What is ANA doing for upcoming
writers and authors?
The Nigerian Writers Series was set
up to publish upcoming authors. Ten titles of fiction were published in 2014
and three children’s literature were published in 2017 under that series.
We also have a scheme called Young
Writers Mentorship, which caters for nurturing young potential authors in
aspects of literary empowerment and productions.
We have other routine projects such
as literary workshops and outreach programmes for upcoming authors.
What’s your take on Senator Shehu
Sani’s Arts Endowment Bill?
The country is overdue for an
endowment fund for the arts which the bill is all about. The Endowment Fund
when enacted will be a warehouse for funds that will be mobilised to facilitate
creative activities in the arts sector.
It will surely benefit every
constituent organisation in the arts and culture sector. That is why we will
give our full support to the bill and be part of the lobby towards its passage
and enactment by the Nigerian government.
What is your advice for Nigerian
writers and authors?
As writers and thinkers, we must not
abdicate our duty to our nation to write ennobling things and be part of those
contributing to the reformation of our society.
Nigerian authors to give each school child
book on nationalism, patriotism
Date: 2016-04-11
The Association of Nigerian Authors
(ANA) says it has concluded plans to write a book on nationalism, patriotism
and to ensure that each Nigerian school child gets a copy. Mr Denja Abdullahi,
the president of the association made this known during his welcome remark at
the association's 5th National Executive Council meeting on Saturday in Ilorin,
Kwara State.
He said that this was to encourage
patriotism among the younger generation. "Young ones are not abreast with
the positive things about the country; schools these days do not inculcate
positive nationalistic values into the younger ones. "This is why they are
not patriotic in most things they do. "The essence of the book is to
instigate patriotism among the younger generation."
Abdullahi said that this could only
be achieved through the collaboration and contribution of the state chapters of
the association. He encouraged state chapters of the association to do more in
ensuring that their activities had positive impact on their communities.
The ANA president also admonished
state chapters to have a complete and comprehensive data base of all its
members. "However, it should go beyond ordinary registration; there should
analogue type of registration where members are to filled membership form and
submit.
"There should also be digital
registration where members are to go to the association's website, fill the
form and submit it. "This will checkmate the issue of fake members or
those who are not committed to the course of the association," he said.
Abdullahi said that the association was supporting one of its members who was
wrongly committed to prison in Bayelsa State.
He noted that ANA would continue to
support and protect the interest of its members and to make sure that their
works brought in the needed royalties. "We shall continue to make the
society an egalitarian society with our works and other activities."
He encouraged strong and committed
members in the state chapters to mentor the younger ones so that they could take
over without any problems when it was the time do so. The ANA president said
that the "International Book Fair" would hold in May month in Abuja
and urged members to get ready with their works to be displayed.
He said added that ANA was planning
a documentary that would involve prominent people across the country. The high
point of the occasion was the presentation of cheques to the state chapters for
the organisation of the 2016 Yusuf Ali Reading Campaign in the states.
The states that got the cheques were
the ones that their proposals were approved by the ANA National Executive
Council. They are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi and Bayelsa States. Others are Benue,
Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, FCT and Kwara State respectively. Other benefiting states
are Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau and Zamfara.
Also each state was given N150,000
cheque. The ANA president however said that those state whose proposals were
not approved could get the grant next year and urged them to put up a better
proposal. He also appreciated Barrister Yusuf Ali for his unquantifiable
contributions to the association for over five years and called on other
Nigerians to also support the course of writers in the country.
ANA Convention to discover new talents
On: In: Arts & Life
In this interview with Edozie Udeze, Denja
Abdullahi, the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) talks
about the forth coming National Convention and what it has in stock for
writers and more.
After 35years,what basic things can you
point to as the main achievements of the Association of Nigerian Authors?
The Association has been able to forge a
sense of unity among Nigerian writers as they speak with one voice on all
issues. A lot of writers have cut their teeth under the tutelage of ANA and the
Association has given birth to several other literary groups and concerns.ANA
has developed core compe-tence in the devising of means to promote the reading
culture in the society and in extending its reach to our schools through
various literary outreach programmes. More importantly, ANA has been in
the forefront of building an egalitarian society in Nigeria. These are just a
few of ANA’s achievements.
People have been expectingANA to be more
proactive since your tenure began. What do you have to say?
My tenure so far has been most active and
methodical. I started by re-examining the operations of the Association with a
view to positioning it for optimum performance. This we crystallised through a
strategic planning workshop which led to the development of a blueprint that
will be unveiled at the coming convention. We are doing an audio-visual
documentary on the Association which will be premiered at the coming
convention.We also recently held in Owerri the first national conference on
teen authorship which was very successful. We are building a digital
database which will be unveiled too at the convention.All these were done
alongside other routine activities of the Association that have been given new
impetus such as the ANA/ Yusuf Ali nationwide literary awareness campaign.
Some categories in the ANAprizes this year
are vacant.What is responsible for this?
Those categories either had very few
entries waning down the compete effectively edge or entries were of poor
quality. The judges have the right not to award any prize and we do not
influence nor interfere with their decisions.
From the entries this year, do you think
the standard of literature in Nigeria is any better?
The standard must be better as we cannot
expect a downturn with all the brilliant efforts being put forth by Nigerian
writers.Going by ANA entries, when we get the judges’ report as they were
the one who had read the books and did comparisons, we will get to know where
our contemporary literature is tilting.
What do we expect from ANA convention in
Abuja come October 27th?
You should expect to see a better organised
convention with surfeit of engaging literary activities. We will be
working with a system that must follow an ordered pattern. We will be expecting
more responsibility from attendees to enable us give them a memorable and
commemorative convention.
http://thenationonlineng.net/ana-convention-discover-new-talents/
