ANA BENUE LAUNCHES 2019 ANA/YUSUF ALI LITERARY AWARENESS
CAMPAIGN
By Gwabo Gwaza Godwin
The
Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Benue State Chapter on Wednesday 26th
May, 2019, launched the Association's Literary Awareness and Reading Campaign
co- sponsored by Yusuf Ali (SAN), an Illorin based Legal Luminary.
The
2019 ANA/Yusuf Ali literary campaign in Benue state focuses on Internally
Displaced Persons and Nigerian prison inmates who are expected to participate
in literary completions to earn prizes.
Receiving
ANA Benue officials at the Abagena and Daudu IDP camps, the Executive
Secretary, Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Mr. Emmanuel Shior
called on the Federal Government to flush out armed herdsmen occupying some
settlements in the state to enable IDPs return to their ancestral homes.
Represented
by Information Officer of the Agency, Mr. Dickson Mishi, the Executive
Secretary of SEMA lamented the continued stay of thousands of IDPs at various
camps in the state which has overstretched the resources of the state and
appealed to the Federal Government to make the land safe for the people to
return home and continue with their farming.
He
commended ANA Benue State Chapter for taking the Association's literary works
and reading campaign to the camps, saying the gesture would reduce
psychological trauma the IDPs were passing through and equip them academically
to achieve greatness in the society.
On
his part, ANA National President, Mallam Denja Abdullahi represented by
National Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Maik Ortserga, encouraged the IDPs
not to lose hope in their present condition and take the reading and writing
exercise seriously to document their plight in a story form.
Earlier,
the State Chairman of ANA, Dr. Charles Iornumbe had explained that the Literary
Awareness and Reading Campaign which is supported by a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, Mr. Yusuf Ali and National leadership of ANA was aimed at promoting
literary works and reading culture among the people especially those in prison
and IDP camps for this year.
According
to Dr. Iornumbe, the exercise was also to enable the IDPs to write their own
stories especially challenges in camps to create awareness and actions taken,
he urged them to take the exercise seriously in order to benefit from it.
The
ANA Chairman and other officials presented writing materials to selected IDPs
to enable them write short stories about their experience at the camps and
submit to ANA for publication and selection of the best to recommend for
sponsorship for higher education while relief materials were also presented to
the camps.
