Authors Meet In Ilorin, Discuss Developmental Literature

 

AUTHORS MEET IN ILORIN, DISCUSS DEVELOPMENTAL LITERATURE

 

By EDOZIE UDEZE On Mar 20, 2022

 

Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, came alive for literature penultimate weekend. It was the gathering of members of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) where the national executive council and the state chapters chairmen and secretaries held sway. The topical issues of discourse centered mainly on how to deepen literature and then pay proper attention to the development of children literature. EDOZIE UDEZE was there.

 

Penultimate weekend, in Ilorin, Kwara State, literature came alive.  Literature resonated in many ways to ignite the town and set writers on the road to write more.  It was a moment of intense literary razzmatazz when the national executive council of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) met to deliberate on ways to widen the grip of literature on the society.

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State chairmen and secretaries came from different states and locations.  Their aim was clear – to look into the annual programmes and see how to set the ball rolling.  The objective this year is to concentrate on the development of the literary minds and the reading acumen of children.  ANA president, Camillus Ukah put it more succinctly. “It is to catch them young and not necessarily to make each child to aspire to be a writer, but to have the keenness about reading, about studying, grasping the essentials of education right on the dot of time”.

And so it therefore became much easier to tag the project a child a week a book project.  The target is to ensure that books are made available to schools in states where the project is in operation this year.  About a hundred books per secondary school in which case that by end of one year, a child may have been able to read at least 52 books.

It seemed a tall order.  But it worked before and ANA hopes it will continue to work, so that the new crop of secondary school children will have a rethink about books, about scholarship and enlightenment.  Apart from the reports by the members of the national executive council of the association concerning the state of literature in Nigeria and beyond, state chairmen and secretaries were in cheering good moods about efforts to keep prospering literary awareness at the grassroots.  In the throes of it all, Kwara State chapter of ANA, as usual, was tagged the doyen of ANA executive meetings.  This is so because in the past years, even when it seemed unfathomable, the state had hosted these meetings.

This year’s was also done with pomp and pageantry amid great hilarious acclaims by writers.  Hosted at Usman Mustapha’s Imodoye Writers Enclave, located at Fate-tanke, Ilorin, the cozy, quiet ambiance was apt.  Even the usual Ilorin hot weather, intense this time of the year, did not deter writers.  As the sun blazed at its highest height, the atmosphere inside the hall remained intellectually charged as authors sat in clusters geared up for the business of the day.

Three issues preoccupied their minds more.  The first was the children book project which took more time to thrash out.  Oh yes, states were given cheques to handle the project and to also monitor it to its logical conclusion.  And because more states than was envisaged showed interest this year, the amount of money allotted was made to go round, serving the same purpose.

So, the schools are taken as the pilot schools.  Reports from states showed that former exercises in this regard have fared well.  While some states have done far too well, others were chided to improve upon their past records.  But generally, it was clear that this project occasioned by Yusuf Ali’s (SAN) yearly monetary largess to ANA has come to stay, has come to make literary acquisition by children a reality, a plausible option to illiteracy.

The second issue was the state of ANA writers village, Mpape, Abuja.  This was clearly tied to the 40th convention anniversary of ANA last year.  Briefings from those closely connected to the issues gave kudos to ANA members for the huge success of the 40th anniversary.  Yet, it was clear that part of the structures at the centre have been altered.  Where it was supposed to be writers chalets, it has now been turned into hotel rooms.  Ukah said, “You know hotels yield revenue fast.  And we need more money to continue to fund the project.  Once the hotels are completed and in use, we begin to realize revenue from it for ANA”.

Amid this, it was time to thank the members who endeavoured to attend.  Ukah put it this way: “I thank you all for the efforts to be here in spite of the general insecurity in the land.  The times are difficult, but to you all, literature must thrive, authorship has to be given a priority attention.  Therefore, we are here not only to discuss the business of writing, but to also see to it that this association is totally devoid of constant rancor and avoidable divisive tendencies.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/authors-meet-in-ilorin-discuss-developmental-literature/

In Ilorin, ANA Kickstarts 2022 Reading Campaign

 

IN ILORIN, ANA KICKSTARTS 2022 READING CAMPAIGN

 

By Henry Akubuiro

 

It has become a yearly ritual. Each year, the national leadership and chapter chairmen of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) converge on Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, to deliberate on the future of the association and literature and also pay obeisance to Yusuf Ali, SAN, who has been financing the association’s annual reading campaign since 2012. But this year’s pilgrimage to Ilorin had a bonus.

 

On the eve of the 10th ANA National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the national body, last  Friday, March 4, donated one-thousand (1000) books to Queen Elizabeth’s School, Ilorin. ANA President, Mr Camilus Ukah, handed over the books to the Principal of the junior section of the School, Alhaja Rihanat Sholagberu, who received them with gratitude.

Addressing the management of the school, Mr Camilus Ukah said the 1000 free books given to the school were the works of thirteen different authors drawn from poetry, prose and drama genres.

Mr Ukah, an award winning writer, specified that each student of the school  was expected to read thirteen books in thirteen weeks, for thirteen weeks made up of a term in the elementary school.

He stressed: “Each student is expected to finish a book in one week, four books in one month, and fifty-two books in one year.” He enjoined the students to use the books to better their lives and shine as stars always.

Lending his voice, former Kwara-ANA Chairman and Founder, Imodoye Writers’ Enclave, Dr Usman Oladipo Akanbi, urged the students to cultivate the habit of reading good books, noting that “reading makes one a complete being.”

The ecstatic Principal of Queen Elizabeth’s Junior School, Alhaja Rihanat Sholagberu, thanked ANA for the gesture, while promising that their students would make judicious use of the books to fulfill the association’s purpose of ensuring and promoting reading culture in foundational schools in the country.

Accompanying the ANA President on the visit were Kwara-ANA’s Chairman, Mr Babayemi Opeyemi; Secretary, Mr Braimah Abdulrazak; Financial Secretary, Mrs Rofiat Abdulkareem-Seidu; and Auditor/Ex-officio II, Mr Abdulhafeez Oyewole.

The doll-out books were part of the A-Book-A-Child project of the Association under the Nigerian Writers’ Series, powered by KMVL.

Lest we forget,  Yusuf Ali, SAN, last month, donated 3 million naira to the national body to prosecute its reading campaign, a gesture he has been doing to Nigerian writers since Dr. Wale Okediran, former ANA President, convinced the book-loving barrister to fund the annual reading campaign 10 years ago.

Little wonder, the ANA entourage visited the legal luminary at his Ghalid Chamber, Ilorin. In his statement, Ukah qualified the senior advocate as a rare shining star, recalling that, as a young boy, he used to see the sky dotted with stars and also read a poem about twinkling little stars, which were hard to find these days.

He thanked the SAN for what he had been doing for the association over the years, reiterating that it was a solid investment, because it was an Investment in development. “The development of the mind which the literary awareness campaign facilitates is the best development that can happen to us now. It also extrapolates to national development,” he said.

He informed the legal luminary that, this year, the focus of the literary awareness campaign would be on A-Book-A-Child-A-Week project, and the fund donated by him would be utilised to that effect.

He explained further, “The whole idea is that, for a child to develop mentally, a child needs to read one creative literature book every week, four every month and two every year, and, if a child is able to do that, the child will shine as a star, and not like a star, because it’s assumed a child would have become a star.”

In his response, Yusuf Ali said it was a rare honour and privilege to partner with ANA, and was delighted that the association had thrown its leadership crisis behind it, and was moving forward. The famous lawyer joked that the crisis only went to show that writers were also humans with foibles.

He commended the writers for getting over the problems as quickly as possible for the continuous existence of the writer’s tribe, stressing “that’s the only way our country will make progress.”

He thanked God for helping him to meet up with his commitment of funding the annual reading awareness campaign all these years. He promised that, God helping him, he would keep on sponsoring it.

The SAN said he was committed to developing young minds himself, given his investment in their education. He remarked that not everybody was gifted to be involved in money making businesses, and creatives should, therefore, understand that theirs was a major, important work they were doing for the development of the nation.

This year, 14 ANA chapters benefitted from the 2022 Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Grant, including ANA Kogi, ANA Osun, ANA Kwara, ANA Abuja, ANA Imo, ANA Abia, ANA Oyo, ANA Kaduna, ANA Rivers, ANA Benue, ANA Ebonyi, ANA Edo, ANA Nasarawa and ANA Niger.

The NEC meeting, which was the major business of the day, was hosted by the Imodoye Writers Enclave (IWE), Ilorin. Flanked by Mrs Farida Lawan, the Vice CHAIRMAN of ANA, during the meeting on Saturday, February 6, the association’s president handed over cheques to all  the beneficiaries.

The convergence reviewed what the national body of ANA had done so far since last year’s meeting in the Kwara State capital, where it was resolved that the 40th anniversary of the association would hold in Abuja, which was successfully held; as well as the 10-city tour across the country, which was also done.

The association, however, noted that what it wasn’t able to achieve among the set targets last year was tidying up membership data, which the meeting had taken as a new assignment this year before the forthcoming convention in Abuja.

The NEC meeting stressed the importance of writers understanding their callings at a critical period like in Nigeria with mounting socio-political problems. The emphasis should be on creating a new state, as the readers had had enough of lacrimal writings. Writers, the meeting added, should concentrate on experimental writing, tales of how they want the country to be.

The chairmen and secretaries of the chapters, who relate with writers in their domain, were charged to go back home and spread the news, for “this is the time for writers to take their art seriously.”

It was echoed that science and technology depended on creative ideas, and those ideas stemmed from the exploration of imagination, so writers must concentrate on fruitful exploration of the imagination.

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/in-ilorin-ana-kickstarts-2022-reading-campaign/