Denja Abdullahi is a culture administrator, technocrat and manager. He is the immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors ANA. An award winning author, playwright and poet, he tells Edozie Udeze in this encounter how the culture and tourism sectors have impacted on the society in the past years. He also takes a broader look at ANA and what the future holds in stock for it. And lots more.
As the year draws to a close what can you say are the main achievements of the culture sector?
I can say that the sector has been able to overcome the setbacks of theCovid-19 pandemic . It was like the pandemic taught the sector the ways to upgrade into operationalizing its activities and programmes along the demands of the digital age. There is now much pressure on the sector to justify its existence in relation to its input to national economic development and general societal well being. That pressure has made those who work in the sector to realign their programming along that line. Therefore, in both the public and the private arms of the sector, we have witnessed an upsurge of well appointed activities, cutting across hosting of all kinds of festivals, visual arts and crafts exhibitions, theatre and dance shows, seminars and workshops, books and literary arts festivals, specialized film and documentary shows, music fiestas and many other cultural events. In short, the main achievement of the sector has been its resilience in its overcoming existential challenges of the day, to foregrounding the fact that culture is the wellspring of any nation’s well being.
As a culture technocrat and administrator,has the players been able to use indices of cultural sentiments to help steady a society going adrift?
You may not be able to readily measure the impact of culture to societal sustenance because much of its components are intangible. Yes, the cultural institutions are there but it is the intangible aspects of culture that are the living parts of culture which are consumed ,which permeate the mental make-up of a people and which are transmitted across generations. The players in the cultural sector ,both public and private,have their various mandates,whether statutorily given by laws or self-appointed. In addressing the various problems presented by the contradictions in the society because of the struggle for power or control of resources, the players in the sector have been trying their best at least in designing programmes and projects that eternally harp at the need to maintain the unity of the country. In the public sector , you hardly see them not inserting the phrase “national unity,” “peaceful co-existence,” “national integration,” “unity in diversity,” “ religious tolerance” and all such salubrious lexicons in capturing the overriding thematic thrust of their activities. You may ask yourself, why do we still need to be talking these after over 100 years of amalgamation and 60 years of independence? Your answer as they say is as good as mine. Private and independent players in the sector may have moved a bit further by asking disturbing questions in their books,films,music ,drama, artistic revues ,poetry performances and dance shows but are the right people listening ,watching or reading? The listening , watching and reading are not just for the leadership class in the society alone, it is for all. Cultural activities designed to set the society aright will achieve their purposes only if the society hearken to them.
There has been so much hurrah about the headquarters of the Association of Nigerian Authors in Abuja. Some of the structures speak volumes in terms of developments. What exactly is the size of land in ANA control now?
Much of what you are asking to know about are already in the public domain. In my time as president, I gave innumerable interviews and press conferences on the matter . There is a 45 minutes documentary on the association called “ The Dancing Mask” which fully addressed this matter and which is available on the association’s website and on Youtube. Also on the website,you can find a 15 minutes documentary narrated by me on developments on the land as at 2017 when I was still president. I remember inviting you and other journalists to a major media tour and press conference on the developments on the land just some few weeks before I left office in 2019. You have also been at all the national conventions held by the executive that succeeded me since 2020, the last two which were held in Abuja on the land in 2021 and 2022. The present executive must have presented adequate updates to everyone on the current situation on the land in the various congresses and meetings. . I believe you and others who should know have the information you need to know at the moment.
There are insinuations that parts of the land have been taken by some people within the writers body. As a former president, can you clear the air on this?
This insinuations are largely unfounded and they seem not to go away in spite of the wealth of information readily available because people insinuating are not looking in the right direction or are not reading between the lines. They should go read thoroughly how ANA came about that land and the efforts of each succeeding executives of ANA on that land. They should also know that it was only around 2001/2002 , for a land given in 1985,that ANA made some real attempt at physical development. That 2001/2002 development agreement ANA purportedly signed with a developer called Home Securities was expressly terminated by the ANA Congress in 2007 at the Owerri convention when the details of that agreement were read to the house by me as the then General Secretary. That led to a long-drawn court case against ANA instituted by that developer over breach of contract that lasted for 5 years ,ending in ANA’s favour in 2012. Ahmed Maiwada ,appointed by the executive in which I was General Secretary was ANA’s counsel in that case and I was ANA’s sole defence witness through out the duration of the case ,so I know the facts of the matter. In 2012, ANA engaged the present developer,KMVL, with a new MOU, which is still subsisting till now, in spite of the time-bound clauses governing it and the passage of time. There was no development on the land until I came on board in late 2015. On my coming to office, i put in place ANA Land Development committee , as statutorily mandated by the ANA congress at the convention which held in Kaduna in 2015. Through out my tenure , that committee ,headed by Dr Wale Okediran, past ANA President, and consisting of other members with the right expertise and mandates, interfaced directly with the developer and strictly monitored developments on that land.I remember I led the ANA congress on an excursion during the Abuja 2016 convention to a bare empty land and afterwards at the AGM the land committee declared the developer in their report as lacking the capacity to deliver for ANA on the land. The committee however suggested to the congress that rather than terminating the contract with the developer which may lead to another long drawn court case, the developer should be given a marching order to get some other developer with the capacity to come on board to help him deliver or go get the capacity in any way he can. It may interest you to note that in the the first meeting which the ANA Land committee had with the developer in early 2016 which was meant to review the subsisting MOU, a member of the committee ,who is a qualified estate management and development expert, exclaimed disappointingly after going through the MOU: “ why has ANA fallen into the same pit for the second time?” The first pit ANA fell into was the agreement signed with Home Securities in 2001/2002 which took us about 10 years to vacate and the second deep pit was the MOU signed in 2012. Deliberately or coincidentally, that person who exclaimed never attended any subsequent meeting of the land committee. The second interesting thing that happened at that meeting was that the national legal adviser of ANA at the dispensation in which the MOU was signed ,sealed and delivered and who was part of the land committee, quickly ruffled through the MOU and declared that was not what he prepared for ANA to sign. It was a photocopy that was circulated at the meeting ,stating that it was prepared by him with his signature and legal stamp. He demanded to see the original to establish that was the same document he signed. I took the original to his chamber the next day and he could not disproved it and the matter ended there. I have narrated these incidents to let you know that ANA often does not do due diligence or look out for itself with expert eyes when dealing with businessmen ,developers and the likes and at the end allows wicked insinuations to float about or make same against themselves. You should recollect that during the ANA 2019/2020 crisis that it was those who were at the forefront of not ensuring due diligence done for ANA in its contractual affair due to reasons best known to them that were all over the place making trouble and making wicked insinuations about ANA land against innocent persons. We even recently got reliable information that an entity ,deeply interested in ANA not having any solid presence on that land,funded heavily the main party that created the problem at the Enugu convention and afterwards. Are you surprised how the party that declared themselves elected went with ease to occupy the Association’s property in Mpape, which was in the effective custody of the developer, after their sham election in Abuja in March 2020? The access to our property was thrown wide open to them by the developer who had not received instructions from the Board of Trustees(the legal entity in custody of the property) and the National Advisory Council that was in charge of the Association’s affairs at that time. People should please connect the dots and lay the blame where it lies. Remember this same ANA land was the cause of the whole hoopla and endgame struggles that made elections impossible in Enugu.
I said to some close persons when I came into office in 2015 that the ANA land can be likened to that cow in the Igbo proverb that has escaped but which the owner in determination decided to hold on fast to the tail so that he can tell people nostalgically that he once owned a whole cow. Much of what would have accrued to the Association from the vast land donated to it by Vatsa in 1985 has long been vitiated through the sloppy,opaque and lopsided MOUs ANA have been signing with so-called developers over the years without due diligence and without taking them through clear approval of the congress and the BOT in some cases. I was determined during my time to hold on fast to the tail of our missing cow, so that we would not totally lose out and that was why I and my executives and the land committee insisted on actual physical development. We read the riot act to the pussyfooting developer who apparently did not want any fast development and he did a lot to slow down the pace of development. We forced him to commence development in 2017 and I particularly maintained an unrelenting position of ït- is -either- development -or -nothing . My intention with the strategic plan done in 2016 was to complete the first phase of development before I left office but I could only get to about 70 percent of all existing structures, both completed and uncompleted. With what happened immediately after I left , I got insight into the fact that the developer actually at a point stalled the development to wait out the exit of my executive from office. I was seen as unrelenting and uncompromising in my quest for development on the land by the developer. But I know if I had been hand in glove with the developer or compromising, ANA will not be having anything near a completed structure on that land today.
The present executive is progressing well but it is time to invite the congress and the BOT to take another look at the MOU which I believe is overdue for a thorough review. That MOU in all honesty cannot be said to be in the interest of the Association at the moment nor in the future. There is also kind of singularity governing ANA ‘s relationship with the developer at the moment. Institutional checks and balances into that relationship have to be re-introduced in the form of a Writers’ Village Development/Management Committee and any other possible way of over sighting that relationship. Lack of necessary oversight will create more problems for the future rather than the expediency of solving some current issues by papering them over. This proposition is something that has been there in one form or the other before but which is no longer there. This proposition is in Odia Ofeimun seminal essay on the ANA Land “From Idea to Realisation” and it is also in some past ANA constitutions. ANA members should not be lulled to sleep because of the completed structures on the land now: it was vigilance and institutional checks and balances that got us to this point and to ensure that what is left of our cow is firmly within our hands and within our control ,that vigilance must continue. We should be mindful that the already completed structures should be put to full functional use and the rest be completed in good time. We should be interested in what the management relationship will be like,who should be in control of what and what the profit sharing ratio should be like. Also , we should be asking,will ANA be tied to the apron of a developer for ever? Even if that should be the case, in what manner should that be?We should also be concerned about ensuring that the writers village in its entirely should serve the cause for which it was built as a major hub of literary creativity and excellence in Nigeria and beyond. All these solicitations and questions are important to the sustainability of the structures on ground and the general financial health of the Association. Everything concerning that land and the structures there must be put on the table,thoroughly appraised and way forward that will safeguard the Association’s overriding interest must be agreed upon for implementation.
Two posers I will make before I rest this issue on ANA land and to foreground the fact that things should always be followed through if we are interested in doing things properly. At the congress in Makurdi in July 2020 that produced the first tenure of this executive, some motions were moved and adopted. One was to suspend the present developer , the then development and comprehensively reviewed the subsisting MOU. A letter I know was written to that effect but which was never delivered. Why? The second motion was to set up a probe panel on the land from inception till the time of the advent of the present executive. I know a panel was set up with supremely qualified persons with requisite experience for that kind of panel as members. I also know they did a thorough job and interviewed everybody connected to that land including all past presidents and the developer. Where is the report of that panel and what was the outcome? Has that report informed whatever is happening on that land at the moment? I have narrated all the above, and there is more but for want of space and time, to foreground the fact that if anyone is looking for where any missing land is , the place to look is not with any writer in ANA or outside it, whether living or dead. ANA should look for any supposedly missing land in the hands of the developers it has signed MOUs with, fair and simple.
You were seen on social media of recent gallivanting around Bauchi State showing some rich cultural and tourism sites. What are those places and what do they symbolize?
I was at Gubi water dam for just a cursory afternoon visit and people were expressing wonders at the scenery and the beauty of it all. That shows that there is beauty all over Nigeria which can power our tourism sector,generate income for the country and the local populace. I was also at the less known but equally interesting Sumu Wildlife Park in Kaffin Madaki, about 40 kilometres away from Bauchi. The more renowned wildlife park in Bauchi is the Yankari Games Reserve. But Sumu ,though not as big as Yankari, contains interesting wildlife of all kinds of local and exotic animals imported from other climes. The ambience is as good as Yankari and could be further developed to receive visitors,campers and play host to regular safaris. I think all that our scenic sites and places in Nigeria needs is marketing, connecting infrastructures, sustainable programming and regularity of usage in line with the thematic thrust of the last meeting of the UNWTO held at the National Theatre in Lagos in November 2022, which was about linking tourism sites to culture and the creative industries. That means when you visit a tourist site, you should also experience the culture of the place through dances,performances,buying crafts souvenirs,eating the local food, watching films and documentaries about the places and experiencing the creative talents on offer.
Tell us what roles a storyteller plays as a catalyst?
Achebe has said it all. The storyteller must survive all odds to narrate and transmit vital messages to succeeding generations. In the story is the essence and strength of the people. The story encodes the aspirations of a people and it can be framed and re-framed to power some needed actions in the quest for their survival. Achebe also said no story is innocent and that means we must be critical of all the stories we hear and get properly attuned to why they are being told. The story adds to the beauty of life as it allows necessary embellishment and flight of fancy. The story itself is life.
