For seven years, the annual book festival in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was a rallying point for writers not only in Rivers State and Nigeria, but world over. In this interview with Edozie Udeze, Uzo Nwamara, Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in Rivers State, states how the festival helped to prosper the fortunes of writers in the state and what he has done in the last three and half years to build on those legacies
RIVERS State is noted as one of the most vibrant places where the fortunes of writers thrive a lot. It is one place where a former state governor had enough time for books and where writers were encouraged to write and live on their works. In those days when Port Harcourt book festival was agog, it became an annual pilgrimage to the garden city. Today the fate of writers in Rivers is still fresh and hopeful. In the state, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is believed to be one of the best in Nigeria.
Uzo Nwamara is the state chairman of ANA in Rivers State. It is a position he has held for close to four years. He was in Enugu State for the last convention where he held brief for the state insisting thereby that Rivers writers can never be subdued or cowed by political or social or economic tendencies as they affect Nigeria today. “Oh yes, we have been having conventions of ANA in Nigeria. We have had bad ones, we have had good ones,” he stated, referring to the state of the Enugu outing last November. “But in all, ANA must continue to uphold its tenets, the tenets of writers, those ingredients that bind authors together as one”, he said.
Nwamara went on: “This Enugu convention is not a bad one. However there is a new experiment by ANA this year. This is that the association as a body will no longer cater for delegates accommodation anymore. This year everybody is mandated to do his own individual accommodation arrangement. This had never happened before. But we thank God everything is going on well here in Enugu. The atmosphere is blissful; there is peace everywhere in the city and within the environment where we have been having our programmes. The only snag now is that the atmosphere is charged. It is an election year. This is an unusual election, to state the obvious. This is so because we have not had this kind of tension during an election. But we still thank God. So far so good everything is going on well”.
Nwamara described ANA election as an intellectual tug of war where writers struggle positively to create the necessary environment for healthy competition.. “This is an intellectual tug of war, even when it seems it is heated and charged. We are men of intellect and we fight with our brains, not our hands. That’s where the difference lies. It is a kind of you push me, I push you, we are doing with the brains here in Enugu at the moment. However, at the end of the day, we hope the situation will come out well. It is generally peaceful, even though politics is politics. Even when it is local or seems to be so, it is still politics. Political gimmicks and campaigns are ongoing over there as you can see, but we are a family of writers and we hope to come out good”.
Nwamara who spent over three years to ensure as many writers as possible join ANA in Rivers State, equally believes that Enugu offered writers the opportunity to wallow in the beauty of a city well-planned to benefit everyone. He said, “the city is beautiful, no doubt. Transportation is no challenge; in term of security, we are not having any challenge at all. These are really part of what people consider when they arrive a city for a convention or a conference. In terms of accommodation, we are okay. We are not expecting people to go and break banks. No, as we are now we are comfortable”.
He noted that some hoteliers were able to subsidize the hotel prices for them. “Yes, a lot of the hotels did so. They subsidized the rates to enable and encourage our members to feel comfortable. Yes, the rates were basically negotiated downwards to make them more affordable for writers. Of course it depends on where you wanted to stay. There were hotels of N4,000, very good and comfortable. There were also those higher than that. So, you book in where you feel you can afford to stay. There are luxury suites too. If you wish to stay there, that’s your business. Some of these hotels you have cheap here are more expensive in Rivers State”, he said.
Since 2014 when Rivers State hosted ANA convention last, why is it taking them longer time now to bid for another hosting? “Yes, we hosted in 2014, when we had Port Harcourt as a book capital. That time the Port Harcourt book festival was at its peak. That year the government was to give us backing. But along the line that much-awaited backing did not come. The issue affected us because by the time the government came in, it was a bit late.
“But we hope to host ANA again very soon. However, we have our challenges which we hope to surmount very soon. When you have leaders who do not pay maximum attention to education, to writers generally, what do you expect? Not only in Rivers State. Apart from a few states where their leaders offer good leadership in the area of education, where else do you have such succour in Nigeria?” Nwamara is piqued that Nigerian political leaders do not see sound education as one of the brightest ways to meet up with technology, assess human development and meet up with the rest of the world. “It is so unfortunate”, he decried.
“In ANA Rivers in the past three years or so, we have ensured that we recruited new members to help grow the body of writers in the state. In about seven years the book festival in the state ran successfully well. It was an opportunity too to bring writers to the state not only from Nigeria, but from all over the world. Those were the moments great writers visited Rivers State. This served as an avenue to encourage and breed more writers. We in ANA did our best also to key into that to grow the body in the state”.
The world book capital that was bestowed on Port Harcourt was not just deserving, it helped to draw attention to the issue of literacy in the state. “Yes that world book capital that was given to Port Harcourt was good”, Nwamara declared. “The governor, Rotimi Amechi did well, yes he did well. But what do we do now? We keep pushing on; we keep the hope alive for the good of the body of ANA. One day, God will answer our prayers as writers. In my way not only did the membership increase in the state, there was room for writers to grow, relate well with one another and so on”.
The state had time to go into partnership with some corporate bodies and individuals to promote the interests of writers. Some other programmes were done from time to time to build on the bonds of friendship and literary ideas. “We have had summits on writings, on literary matters in the state”, the chairman pointed out. “Trainings have been on art management, art marketing and so on. Then we have had several conversations among writers to encourage and share and deliberate on ideas. We have done a lot and Port Harcourt is happy we are there”, he stated with a broad smile.
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