Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has received grant for the 2019 edition of its ANA/Yusuf Ali nationwide literary awareness campaign for its, The group has said.
Named after its donor, an Ilorin-based renowned legal luminary, author and philanthropist, Yusuf Ali(SAN), Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN), the campaign is in its 8th edition.
“The association received the sum of N3,000,000(Three Million Million Naira) on the 7th of January,2019 for the 2019 project from the donor, Yusuf Ali(SAN), an Ilorin-based renowned legal practitioner, author and dedicated philanthropist, whose son Dr Yusuf Olanrewaju Ali recently wedded Barrister Hasiya Altine Nagode in a well-attended Nikkah wedding ceremony in Ilorin on the 29th of December,2018,” the group stated in a statement signed by ANA Publicity Secretary (South), Wole Adedoyin.
It would be recalled that the grant was first secured by ANA national executives in 2012 and all state chapters of the association received sub-grants of N150,000 at various times between 2012-2014 for local literary awareness campaigns involving secondary schools across the country. “In 2015, the grant was applied by the then ANA national executive council to host a workshop on fiction writing in Abuja in which about 25 students, drawn from tertiary institutions across the country via a competitive process, participated.
According to the statement, in 2016, the Denja Abdullahi-led administration took the literary awareness campaign a notch further by focusing on innovative literary awareness campaign among tertiary institutions across the country through the States’ chapters. Chapters submitted proposals on envisaged activities based on which they were assessed and sub-grants finally awarded to 16 Chapters that met the provisioned requirements.
“The competitive process was introduced to ensure greater compliance to the overall project vision and to improve on the process of monitoring, evaluation and reportage of the implemented activities. The grant was used in 2017 to publish three (3) children’s literature titles under the Nigerian Writers Series(NWS) which have been distributed to chapters of ANA Nationwide to power ANA ‘s A-Book-A-Child nationwide project that was flagged off at the ANA ‘s 36th International Convention which held in Makurdi, Benue State in October,2017 and the phase two of it launched by the wife of the Governor of Ekiti State,Erelu Bisi Fayemi, at the 37th International Convention of the Association held in Ikeja, Lagos in October,2018,” it read.
For the year 2018, the grant was deployed to facilitate a comprehensive media supplement on the projects executed with the yearly grants over the years since 2012 to date and an intensive workshop for 15 selected chairmen of ANA chapters focusing on ‘innovations in contemporary literary awareness campaigns’ to deepen the execution of the project in the coming years. “This year 2019 grant will be devolved to select state chapters of the association to carry out innovative and cutting edge literary awareness campaigns in their domains as learnt in the capacity building workshop held in Ilorin in 2018. Ali, who in 2015 promised to sustain the annual grant to ANA for life, is not only a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, but also an associate lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ilorin.
“Ali reputation in the Bar has been balanced by a deep interest in literature which has seen him supporting ANA Kwara State Chapter and serving as an editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Bar Journal. Ali in 2017 presented a book “Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria” to the public in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He has also been consistently hosting ANA NEC members and chairmen and secretaries of chapters in his office during their annual meeting in Ilorin since 2012. We thank Yusuf Ali (SAN) for his consistent and yet-to-be matched generosity in supporting literary awareness in the country and we call on other well-meaning Nigerians to emulate his gesture of support for the literary arts,” the association stated.
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