ANA Nasarawa Elders on ANA Crisis (2)

ANA NASARAWA ELDERS ON ANA CRISIS (2)

Prof. Idris Amali has always lived up to the billing as the worthy patron of the ANA-NASARAWA Chapter at its critical moments. This intervention is a case-in-point, and couldn't have come at a better time.

2. I have found myself at crossroads: a conflict between my conscience and respect for my student. I have agonized over the partisan involvement of this chapter in some national affairs of the association without state congress's prior approval. But, because my respectable student is my Chairman, I have been reticent. Why? My duty is to guide rather than publicly condemn my student.
3. I very much share the sentiment of the chapter as aptly enunciated by the Patron that this chapter need not needlessly jump from one crisis to another given that the chapter had a good track record at inception which enabled it to organize successive reading campaigns and robust literary activities to the applause and acclamation of the national body warranting its winning the best prize of the national reading campaign in the whole country in 2015. Am appalled by the ignominious descent of the chapter from the Olympian heights to the valley. The concerns expressed by the Patron and other well-meaning members on this platform deserve serious attention.
4. To be sure, this chapter had no business teaming up with desperate chapters to indulge in the theatre of the absurd.

5. Prior to the ill-fated Enugu Convention, I had enjoyed the respect of the three of the four or five contenders to the national presidency who made personal contacts including visitation to me. Despite my interest, I had to be fair to them all. But, one thing I stressed to them was the need to respect the association's unwritten agreement to rotate the presidency between the North and South. I made this position known because of the tough battle we had fought in the past to ensure the emergence of the first ANA President from the North, Alhaji Abubakar Gimba, for it had always been a Southern affair beginning with its founding President, Chinua Achebe, whom I had the privilege of meeting almost at inception of ANA. To give all parts of the country some sense of belonging, I moved for the unwritten rotational presidency between the North and South. However, if at a properly organized ANA Convention the delegates thought otherwise and elected a Northerner to succeed a Northerner, I would go for it but, my principled stand would have been known. If tomorrow a similar situation arises where a Southerner wants to succeed a Southerner, I will rise against it but the Convention is free to do as it likes. I will comply.

5. It was during my chairmanship of this chapter that the Committee of State Chairmen and Secretaries was established as an informal body to strengthen the bonding of members of ANA across the chapters. *Not for usurping the powers of the National EXCO or Convention* .

6. Following the botched Enugu Convention last year, the Electoral Committe (ELCOM) whose membership was nominated by the presidential candidates announced *at the convention venue* that it would consult with the Committee of Chairmen and Secretaries (CCS) on the next move. At the lacklustre dinner held *outside the convention venue* without the usual fanfare of the annual award of prizes to the best writers in different categories, the ELCOM spokesman, Remi Raji, announced that elections would hold at a later-determined venue within 180 days (roughly six months). Beyond consultation with the CCS to determine the period within which to hold the elections, *no mandate was given by the Convention to the CCS to organize the elections* as it has been claiming in the news media. So it was surprising that some outgoing chapter chairmen with or without their secretaries had an emergency meeting at the behest of ANA-Abuja chapter sponsoring a presidential candidate to go to Abuja and endorse him and his camp as the newly elected National EXCO of ANA. *The Convention-approved ELCOM was conspicuously absent at the meeting* . To rub salt to injury, that contentious EXCO has been parading itself in the news media with impunity proclaiming itself as the authentic national body. Has this controversial body considered the implication of its actions? Does it think that it has the monopoly of indiscretion? What if other presidential candidates surreptitiously mobilize some phoney ANA groups to secretly organize their own "elections" and declare themselves as duly elected ANA EXCOs? The association will be embroiled in needless crises.

7. At the Enugu Convention I told ANA-Nasarawa delegates to unite and vote for all candidates of the chapter seeking election irrespective of their camps.

8. Given the calibre of the membership of ANA-Nasarawa chapter, it should be seen to be above board, and not compromise itself by being thought to have been pocketed by some desperate 'monied' candidates.

9. In the light of the above, I fully endorse the position of the Patron but with reservation on leaving out the so-called big names to promote only the relatively unknown names.

10. In all big events like music or boxing, you invite big names as a bait to introduce the small names. For instance, if ANA-Nasarawa decides to host a special public reading of Prof. Idris Amali as DVC, FULafia, many people including academics, publishers, sponsors, news media, etc will be present. If you then introduce few "unknown" names like Mohammed Ohitoto, Mrs Mercy Enwongulu, Benjamin Mba-Orji, Dr Blossom Otto-Agede, Dr Chika Agbo, Benjamin Torlafia, Umar Yogiza, Ruth Akwanga, Arusuola, Professor Joey Anzaku, Dr Moses Joseph, etc. who read their works, it will be a major breakthrough for them. For, the audience will instantly recognize them, and possibly start looking out for them. It is a promotional strategy to use "big" names to introduce "small" names. Along this line, if we wear our thinking caps by avoiding distractions, so many different literary activities will be woven around the ANA-award-winning writers like Sule Egya, Isaac Ogezi, Sumaila Umaisha, etc to draw large and important audiences to introduce the equally talented but lesser-known names. To diversify, the literary events can be organized based on the specialities of the big names: novel writing/­presentation for Egya, drama writing/­presentation for Ogezi, literary press coverage for Umaisha, etc. We use what we have to get what we want.

Thank you for your patience.

Mallam Al-Bishak