Abdulsalam Mahmud
As from next year, a writing workshop and guest author book chat will hold annually at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBUL), in Niger State. The exercise aims to immortalise the acclaimed novelist, the late Abubakar Gimba.
This was announced by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Abu Kasimu Adamu, who also showered encomiums on the departed literary icon.
Speaking at the maiden Abubakar Gimba writing workshop and book chat, Prof Adamu assured that the university would continue to honour, protect and promote Gimba who hailed from Niger State.
He said the institution management had agreed to sponsor the two-in-one literary event annually.
The inaugural exercise with the theme: Writing for self and society, which attracted prominent writers, poets and playwrights, was organised by the Department of English, in collaboration with the Minna Literacy Circle.
Adamu noted that the contributions of Gimba to the growth of IBBUL and Nigeria’s literary circuit could not be over-emphasised.
He congratulated the Department of English for organising the event, describing its theme as apt, especially now that the society needed some re-engineering owing to the degeneration of societal norms.
In his address, Dean, Faculty of Languages and Communication Studies Prof Apegba Ker, congratulated the students of the department for meeting some notable writers many whom they had only heard of.
He urged them to be hardworking, serious and more dedicated to their studies.
Speaking on the theme of the workshop, Prof. Emmanuel Sule Egya, said writers should be highly appreciated, considering their invaluable contributions in moulding and remoulding their societies.
Egya said each time a writer wrote or spoke, he never did it for himself, but for the society. Egya admonished upcoming writers to always be bold and fearless.
Photo caption: Prof Adamu (holding a book middle) with some writers at the workshop.
Leave a Reply