ANA Niger Report - 2016 Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Campaign

ANA NIGER REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2016

 

We give glory to our Creator for the year 2016, for His power and mercy over our lives and all the activities carried out this year. It has been a fruitful year for us in Niger State, for in spite of constraints here and there we commenced it on a good footing by organising the first ANA Niger- A NIGHT OF LITERARY ENCHANTMENT on 9th January, 2016 and was well attended by government officials, such as Chief of Staff of Niger State, Hon. Mika’il Al-Amin Bmitosahi, Hon. Commissioner of Education, Hajiya Fatima Madugu, Chief Whip of Niger State House of Assembly, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Directors National and State Libraries and other dignitaries in the state.

“A Night of Literary Enchantment” is about celebrating literary art and creative writers in the state. We all know creativity is about a writer and his vision which is peculiar to him or her. It is also about commemorating writers’ originality and their might and admitting the grandeur of the Almighty Creator who is the initiator and giver of inspiration to us writers.     

This is why ANA Niger used this forum to bring the people of Niger State together, so as to charm them with ground-breaking ideas that when embraced can bring about meaningful development. This is because when a people are clothed with the freshness of an imagined world which they perceive they could have as their own, there ultimately is a rebirth of an innovative and egalitarian society which we yearn for as citizens in a global literary world.

As Africans we are not oblivious of the inequaty that exists between the western developed countries and African countries which are the developing ones owing to deprivations and poverty. The contrast between the developed world is better imagined than experienced. Apart from snatching our wealth, the developed countries have snatched our cultural values so that a majority of us are living and writing their cultures. To this end, ANA Niger has created a programme that will help our young ones wage war against inequality in and outside Africa, creating an enabling environment for investment and intellectual capital development, empowerment, employment opportunities, stable economy—in short, issues bordering on good governance for a progressive and egalitarian state.

Also, the age-old ASCAFS brings together students of secondary institutions for an annual creative fanfare and intellectual fair. This platform provides students with the opportunities to display their talents in creative writing, drama presentation, quiz, painting, song rendition, cultural display, craft and photography. Besides engendering a platform to showcase their talents, the programme exposes the students to indigenous creative writings that focus on topical issues. These have indigenous as well as multicultural relevance in a world tainted with conflict. More prospective than the Book fair in Cape Town South Africa, ASCAFS through this exposure, creates in us the expectation that the child in Niger State in the nearest future may keep, protect, and project our beauty, self respect, image, culture and identity.

In the area of helping writers in our midst achieve excellence or run away from flaws, ANA Niger in 2016 has organized three Literary Spells. As a mind refresher, it is known that Literary Spell consists in a writer submitting his manuscript for criticism and cross fertilization of ideas so as to put the book on a better pedestal. There is refreshment and entertainment and perhaps the acting of the work. 

In grooming young writers’ clubs to be fitting to join ANA and other established literary fora in the future, ANA Niger helped Fati-Lami School of Legal and General Studies Creative Writing Club organise and present a Writers Spell and a manuscript launching to raise money for publication. Among other dignitaries, it was attended by Permanent Secretary Arts and Culture, Niger State.

Miscellaneous matters consisted in helping publish such works as Undesirable Burden by Danladi Mamman, Conflict of the Oracle by Emeka Okonkwo, and Visionary Voices by Simon Luka Karau, the recent and celebrated books in Minna. Under our TeenAuthorship Scheme, we helped Asiya Rabi’u (Abo The Wicked Girl) and Maimuna Shehu (The Most Successful Election in Nigeria) put up their books and launch. Our young author, Maimuna Rabi, wrote a political science book in which she appraised the 2014 General Elections and a peaceful handover by President Jonathan to President Buhari and she was highly acclaimed by the dignitaries who graced the occasion, going to the glory of ANA. In fact, 2016 has been a year of Harvest of Wonders as we themed it. 

To spice it all, the ANA/Yusuf Ali Reading Campaign which is slated for 30th September is billed to attract a constellation of writers and youths and schemed to test the various programmes undertaken by the Branch. We thank the National President and his active EXCO for the co-operation and spurring us to do a lot.