MAMMAN VATSA WRITERS VILLAGE: IS IT
REAL OR A SHADOW OF ITSELF
It’s has always being in contention
that the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village hectares of land owned by association of
Nigerian Authors,ANA, was shared amongst past Presidents of ANA. Rumours has it
that the current President of ANA Mallam Denja Abdullahi , is being accused of
not just selling part of the land for his own benefits , also seceding it to
some of his friends.
The reality of the state of the
writers village was brought to bare when Denja Abdullahi invited some ANA Excos
and past Presidents of ANA to come bare witness on the current condition of the
Mamma Vatsa writers village in the high hill top of Abuja.
The Mamman Casta writers village which now has different on going project there
, include the Chinua Achebe International Conference center which is to have a
15,000 multi-purpose hall with different offices for ANA state chapters, while
the fifty blocks of flats would be used as hotel rooms when completed to
generate funds for ANA.
The Denja Abdullahi led
administration of ANA, started this project in-order to secure the Land,and
also give ANA as a body a symbol to look at in the Federal Capital
Territory,FCT.
When the late poet and former minister of the FCT,Mamman Vatsa gave ANA 60.9 hectares
of land around 1985, his aim was for writers to come together to promote the
just course of the society, where issues which is bothering the nation Nigeria
can be well discussed. For many years under the military rule, the land
remained a fallow ground as many past Presidents of ANA couldn’t come forward
to claim the land until Nigeria moved from Military rule to Democratic rule.
The first major breakthrough
on the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village came when the late Abubakar Gimba was
President of ANA, used his might and connection to make sure that the writers
village was able to secure a Certificate Of Occupancy,C Of O,which ANA can use
to claim that the land as theirs.
It was when Professor Olu Obafemi became ANA President that the idea of developing
the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village came in place , and Home securities was the
Land developer contacted at that time .After being awarded the contract, Home
Securities refused to develop the Land , and when Wale Okediran became ANA
President, pressure was being mounted on Home Securities to go develop the
writers village and they still refused to go, rather Home Securities called in
Denja Abdullahi to offer him bribe so as to retain the contract of the writers
village . Abdullahi words to Home Securities were nasty ‘you don’t sell a
public property, if you do your brothers will come chasing after you.’It was at
the ANA Congress in 2007 that Home Securities agreement was revoked, when he
refused to show up at the convention.
For a way forward over the Mamman Vastsa Writers Village, an Land developer was
contacted .ANA decided to engage Korlie Mobs Ventures Limited,KMVL who still
remains the current developer of the Land. During this period the land had
shrinked from 60.9 hectares to 36.9 hectares because part of the land had being
taken by the FCT, because ANA refused to develop it for almost thirty years.
On January 24 2013, a major breakthrough was recorded on the Mamman Vastsa
Writers Village , as the first ground breaking ceremony was being done, under
the Professor Remi Raji led administration.That day a lot security officials
were hired to make sure that the event becomes successful , as encroachers had
already occupied the land. It was a fight to finish and ANA won. That remained
the state of the writers village until the Denja Abdullahi led ANA decided to
build on the success of the past Presidents .
One of the first thing Denja Abdullahi did when he became ANA President was
work with ANA Excos to implement the mandate given by the congress of the
Association at the 2015 convention to constitute a land development committee.
This was done at the inaugural meeting of ANA Excos January 2016 in Abuja where
they also asked the present developer to present a brief on the prevailing
status of developments on the land.
The land development committee on the Mamman Vastsa Writers Village was then
led by one of the past President of ANA, Dr Wale Okediran. Initially , Dr
Okediran wanted to run away when he was called upon to take the mantle in
ensuring that the writers village is being put to use. But on a second thought
he summoned the courage to carry on the work.
The ANA Land committee met later
that year with the developer and initiated a monitoring system to fast track
developments on the land. All these initial activities of the Executive Council
and the land development committee culminated in a Foundation Laying Ceremony
that was held on Friday 26 May, 2017 to announce to the world that the period
of actual development on the land towards realizing the dream of Vatsa and that
of all Nigerian writers had come.
Actual development eventually took off around August 2017 with a view to
realize the projects as laid out in the MOU between ANA and KMVL entered into
in 2013 to give ANA on a five hectare land, a national headquarters complex, a
50 Room Hotel, residency chalets,500-Seater auditorium, conference centre ,
E-libraries, ANA State offices complex, archives and depositories and many other
facilities befitting a writers’ resort.
The strategic plan which was between 2017-2022, was developed by the Denja
Abdullahi administration in 2016 with buying- in from ANA stakeholders.
In order to keep an eye on progress made on the land and fast track possible
developments, ANA National Executive Council from the donations of N1.5m
received at the foundation laying ceremony in May, 2017 from some friends of
ANA who attended the event, gave out the sum to the developer for the building
of a temporary national secretariat for the Association to enable ANA move the
national headquarter from Lagos to Abuja. The National Secretariat of ANA was
effectively moved in March, 2018 from the National Theatre Complex Iganmu.
In the last four years, the ANA Land committee has met at various times with
the developer, alongside the monitoring system regularly and religiously
carried out and have copiously reported with the national executive council
about developments on the land to the congress of the Association at ANA
Conventions AGM.
The dream of Denja Abdullahi is to complete at least the first phase of the
Mamman Vastsa Writers Village, though November 2019 is very close by, the time
when he would hand over the Leadership of ANA to the next elected President in
the ANA Convention, but those that has come to bare witness to the development
of the Mamman Vastsa Writers Village are really impressed with it’s current
state.
Daughter of the late Mamman Vastsa , Hadjia Aisha Casta,poured a lot of
encomium on Denja Abdullahi, noting that her father would be proud of him, if
he was alive.Her sister-in-law Hadjia Aruna Vastsa thanked ANA for keeping her
Father-in-law’s legacy.
