Hajia Farida Mohammed has always been one of the foremost pillars of the Niger State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). It was from there she contested and won as the National Vice president of ANA for two terms. She also contested for the post of president during the November 2023 convention in Abuja. In this chat with Edozie Udeze she shares her sentiments, reservations and experiences during that election and its aftermath and what it portends for the future of the association.
You are the immediate past Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). What are some of the experiences that have reshaped your worldview as an author?
It might interest you to know that as the immediate past Vice President of ANA some of the experiences that have reshaped my world view as an author are numerous, convergent and divergent.
I must say that my romance with ANA has really reshaped my world view, because through ANA I have met and made friends with a lot of different people from different socio-cultural backgrounds and intellectual experiences. I met Emeritus Professor Ernest Emenyonu, Professor Femi Osofisan, Professor Olu Obafemi, Professor Akachi Ezeigbo, Professor Idris Amali and his beautiful wife Professor Halima Amali, Professor Albishak, Professor Remi Raji, Dr Wale Okediran, Late Dr Salihu Bappa, Hajiya Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Mallam Denja Abdullahi, Professor Vicky Sylvester Mnguember, Professor Razinat Mohammed, Professor Tanure Ojaide, Professor Mabel Ovwierhoma, , Professor May Nwoye, Associate Professor Greg Mbajiorgu, Mr Abiola Teslim Layonu , Paul Ugah, Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie, Terseer Sam Baki, Omolola Balagbogbo, Sulay Nsubong, Dr Stanley Nduagu Chinedu, Hashimu Musa, Wole Adedoyin, Taiwo Mathew, Bentex Torlafia, Umar Yogiza, Antony Ebika, Nina Anighoro, Mrs Bukola Ladoja, Freeman Okosun and a host of other fine minds.
These afore-mentioned people have reshaped my mind to see the world differently. Bappa had taught me how to forgive others like the flower that gives fragrance even to the hand that crushes it. Emenyonu taught me the meaning of integrity and Akachi and Layonu exemplify what humility is to me. Through Denja Abdullahi I see the qualities of astute and humble leadership. The men and women on my team during and after the election taught me what camaraderie is. Everyone mentioned above has given me something to take home.
My campaign tour across Nigeria has made me realize how good some of us Nigerians are, and I am truly grateful for the hospitality shown to me.
No university professor could have taught me this much, and I am grateful to my Creator for making me pass through this university of experiences. These take home have reshaped my worldview considerably, and have made me a better and stronger person. Mark you, the botched Enugu election was not as a result of leadership failure of the then president as some quarters hold but as a result of the sybaritic, self-gratification of the opposition to foist their unwanted determination to go against ANA Constitution and convention by whisking in first timers and associate members to vote. This is a clear contradistinction with the present problem we are habouring as a fall out from failure of Mr Camillus Ukah’s leadership, his undermining the office of the Vice President and other EXCO members, failure to make accounts and, above all, a near abomination of inviting security forces into the hall of election to manhandle members. He even turned my office into a store where he kept onions, soft drinks, water and other sundry stuffs. These kinds of misfits, amounting to social malaise of a deranged society of Area Boys, had never in history been committed by a President of ANA. This tyranny from the helms of affairs also helped me to see the world in a different light that not all that glitters is gold, and that oppression and dictatorial attributes can emerge from people or places you think have finesse.
For the past years ANA has been involved in knotty issues that keep making some members feel aggrieved. In a nutshell, what are some of those issues?
Certainly, Ukah had scores to settle with his EXCO, because of their demand for him to give account of expenditures. He has written an MOU, constituted Board of Trustees for ANA Hotels and Creative Writing Institute without the knowledge of his EXCO, and had made the running of the association a one-man show. To these allegations, the Chairman Board of Trustees had mandated the immediate past President to respond to the charges or allegation, or what have you.
By the mere reason that Professor Ernest Emenyonu, trustee of ANA, requested Ukah to respond to the various allegations levelled against him, he woke up in a start and struck his name off the list of trustees, claiming he was not a resident in Nigeria. Though when Professor Emenyonu was appointed a trustee, he was residing abroad and up to this moment he often shuttles in and out of the country. He made it look as if it was the congress who agreed to remove Professor Emenyonu’s name from the list of trustees, but we all know that that was an arranged move, as he refused to give the microphone to others during the AGM except his used and unsuspecting supporters.
According to him, it is against the laws of the land for a trustee to live abroad and still be a trustee. We have confirmed this not be true as stated by Camillus Ukah. It is on record that Professor Chinua Achebe founded ANA from abroad and was a trustee of ANA while living abroad till his death in 2013. It is also on record that Professor Kole Omotoso was a trustee living in South Africa from 2015 till his death recently. The question is does the president have such powers to remove the Chairman of BOT? The answer is a capital no, because trusteeship is for life, and they are the owners of the association. So Mr Camillus Ukah should be informed that he cannot remove our beloved trustees Mrs Mabel Segun and Emenyonu, Chairman of BOT, for they remain the Chairman and member of BOT for life, and there is nothing Ukah and his followers can do about it. And we will make sure that he and his misguided followers do not embarrass a Professor and a gentle man like Professor Ernest Emenyonu and our Mama Mabel Segun.
The last general election in Abuja in November was said to be fraught with irregularities. Briefly, what actually took place?
I started feeling all was not well when I espied the massive deployment of police and DSS personnel armed to the hilt not without teargas. Ordinarily, though ANA elections might have a hitch or wrangling here and there, they tended to be violent-free and would not underscore total militarization of ANA polity.
There was no doubt whatsoever that I had a clear lead, for my popularity ran wild through the rank and file of ANA, from our venerated professors, elders, and the entire members. It is said Ukah claimed I had no capacity when asked why he was not supporting me. But I have proved him wrong, because my campaign team and itinerary were assessed to have won the campaign activities for the elections. Like the former Nigerian President Jonathan’s meteoric rise from assistant lecturer to deputy governor to governor of Bayelsa State, to Vice President to President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I humbly started as ANA Niger Vice Chairman unopposed, to chairman, National Treasurer, and then Vice President.
In the ANA 2023 election President barred some members in my contingent from Niger and other states from voting, claiming he did not see their images on the database, after they had remitted requisite charges. In the instant of Yobe State, he had claimed that the biography and autobiography were not “creative”. In the instant of Ondo State, there was total disenfranchisement as not a single author was allowed into the hall. In other instances, he held works published on the net were not enough to make one a writer in spite of an argument to the contrary that ANA had launched a website for writers and what would become of it. The President went as far as voiding the former Chairman from Abia State Dr Nduagu Stanley Chinedu whom he knew was my staunch supporter and a candidate for the post of National PRO South. But my relationship with some of the writers in Abia spans close to two decades and goes beyond ANA connections. That was what he did not know. Initially the current chairman of Oyo, Enugu and Nassarawa chapters were not allowed in. It is conventional for foreign writers to come visiting, as observers and learning from us. In the ANA elections 2023, Ukah at the gate personally barred foreign writers from entering the venue. In fact, a Cameroonian writer, Nkwetatang Sampson Nguekie, who had been a regular attendee of ANA conventions without a single break since 2019 was refused entry and courtesy of our armed Department of State Security (DSS) men. Does this tell well of our image? This same person was even accommodated alongside other special guests at the 2020 convention in Ilorin!
Some minutes to the commencement of the election, more policemen were drafted to the venue. He even warned a baffled congress of writers that they would not find it interesting if he invited the armed policemen into the hall. In fact, he went on to invite armed personnel from the Department of State Security (DSS) into the hall. It is clear naiveté to contemplate all the line up from President to Ex-officio on Ukah’s side emerged victorious and not a single failed. Yet it is on record that Ukah had said publicly (in the face of his EXCO and others) that not a single person from his EXCO whom he felt antagonistic would succeed him and he would do all within his powers, to ensure that none of the members of his EXCO made it back.
So a day to the election, he constituted a committee. This committee is constitutive of two state chapters serving chairmen, a candidate from the opposition, a professor and a few.
To cut matters short, the Accredited No of Voters was 209. For the office of President, after the voting exercise, the total number of votes cast was 225:There were cases of multiple ballot papers doled out to voters, and they unwillingly issued such to some of our voters who honestly returned them to sham electoral officials who was handpicked. But the so-called handpicked electoral committee chairman dismissed it as human.
It is also appalling to note that the so-called electoral committee deliberately did not supervise the voting process which gave room to over voting on the part of the opponent camp who had been deliberately given excess ballot papers. It was the working of Providence that such excess ballot papers fell into the hands of a few others, hence our awareness of it.
Mark you, during the staged AGM, there was actually no Treasurer’s Report, no Auditor’s Report, and handover Report by the President, and no dissolution of the EXCO. It was a total failure of leadership, a fiasco.
You were one of those who contested for the presidency of ANA to succeed the outgone president. Tell us how you feel about your loss and the conduct of the election itself?
I must correct that perception: I did not lose; I was massively rigged out.In spite of all odds, we are thankful to our Creator that we did not follow Ukah’s secret scripts. My co-aspirant in my camp and my supporters are mature and were able to suppress their emotions but I am not sure they will be able to suppress angst of the pen. Grapevine has it that it was his greatest wish to provoke my own camp to cause unrest so that he could continue with power. His greatest regret—- I am sure— is that that did not materialise. In spite of the stolen mandate I am happy that someone else is there and not him.
You helped to nurture the Niger State chapter of ANA. What is the level of the development of the association in the state now?
Well, my brother, you are a journalist and you are well-informed. There was a peaceful election which marks a transition from a caretaker status. The extant chairman Sulay is a person very close to me, a lawyer besides being a writer. He is an able hand and I guess that’s why he was disenfranchised and not allowed into the hall. He will carry everybody along, this I am sure.
In a way of summary, what do you think is usually wrong with the way ANA runs its elections? Is there going to be another splinter of ANA based on the rancour of the last convention? Are we likely going to have the Enugu scenario replicated?
No, no, no, there is no rancour whatsoever. What we are now talking about here is a crass failure of leadership (that has never happened before in ANA) of the outgoing president, who undermined due process of an election.
