Tag: Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)

Ernest Onuoha is a fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).  He rose from being the chairman of Abia State Chapter of ANA to work at the national level as a member of the executive council. He is a poet, novelist, someone who uses his position to encourage writers.  At the last ANA convention in Abuja, Onuoha was in his best element, fielding questions on why the nation-state needs to be rebuilt and the inevitable role Nigerian writers have been playing to better the fortunes of the society.  He spoke to Edozie Udeze on this and much more.

Ernest Onuoha has come a long way as an author, a committed member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and a humanist who makes it a point of duty to encourage writers.  As one of the prominent members of ANA in Abia State, he has done so much to place the association on the road to steady progress and growth.  Not too long ago, he was also made a fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors in Abuja where he received an unprecedented accolade and recognition.

 At the last international convention of ANA in Abuja, Onuoha was eager to see the association succeed, move from strength to strength.  He came all the way from Aba, Abia State, bristling and bubbling with ideas to encourage both ANA and members to aspire higher.  Decked in his fellowship gown, Onuoha was all smiles as he was asked to comment on the state of writing, authorship, and so on in Nigeria.  “Yes, based on the conventions of ANA so far, we have been doing well.  Anyway, I am an author, politician and a justice of peace.  I am also a novelist, and poet, based in Aba.  In Abia State, I was a former chairman of the chapter and then served at the national level as an executive council member.  I have published works in poetry, in prose and the latest release of my autobiography.  It is titled Sweet and Soar From Homeland, detailing my life’s journey as a writer, politician and justice of peace”.

He continues: “It is published by Boldscholar on digital.  And here we are again for the 44th edition of ANA convention.  It is good to be here.  How time flies?  So ANA is now doing its 44th convention.  It is marvelous in our eyes and you can see the turnout.  Great! Wonderful! Impressive, in spite of the level of insecurity in the land.  The theme which is the Nigerian writer and the Urgencies of the nation-state is topical, coming at this critical moment in our nation.  Prof. Udenta did justice to the theme of the conference.  The panalists also looked at it from various ways and angles.  It has been a wonderful outing so far.

“Nigerian writers have always looked at issues of governance, nation building, development, right from the word go.  And that is what we still do today.  Based on the theme, you can see that we are all conscious of how our society is patterned and ordered.  The state of the nation is our concern.  From the time of Achebe, Soyinka and so on, who came out with impressive thematic ideas till today, the Nigerian writer has always been on his toes.  The issue of the state of the nation is his primary concern.  He writes about it.  He pays attention to it.  He derives his ideas from the state, from the society which emboldens his ideas, his concepts, his inspiration.  Indeed his thematic thrust.  These topics, themes, etc, envisioned and still envision what happens, what the society and its people look like in the face of all odds, all sorts of issues perturbing the nation-state”.

Onuoha is a pragmatic idealist, totally given to the growth of ideas that ferment into written words.  In most of his works he brings his audacious ideas of development to bear.  His poems are didactic, his prose style, simple, but penetrating and profuse.  His style takes you deep into the nuances of his characters, the settings, the concepts, the motifs.  You can say that his prose style is equally thematic, greasy, informative and therapeutic.

“Achebe lamented the collapse of Nigeria into a civil war.  In their evaluation of the nation-state, the panelists all agreed that the Nigerian state has degenerated into deep ethnicity and religious divide, and that the gap is widening daily.  And that almost everything has been subjected to ethnicity and religious problems.  Now, it is a question of who gets what, where and when.  This has also permeated into our society.  The divisions are multifaceted including who gets the presidency of Nigeria.

Read Also: Shallow religious knowledge responsible for violent extremism in Nigeria –East London Mosque Imam

“So, that was not the perspective nor the goal of the founding fathers when we got our independence from Britain.  Like Achebe said, the centre can no longer hold.  Despite the interventions of the writers body, some of whom even paid supreme sacrifice, people like Saro-Wiwa, Vatsa and others, the imprisonment of Soyinka in the 1960s, the aberration that made Achebe to reject the national honours award that even today the little progress we made since independence has whittled out.  It is the brand of politics that we play that causes all these problems.

“It is not that we are not nationally endowed.  Of course we are.  It is because those who have had the opportunity of capturing the nation-state, have turned it into private empire.  And then sustain it with the masses that are not fully literate by easily cajoling them into allying with ethnic views rather than national ethos.  So, it has made our situation worse. 

But even the body of writers have done a protestation, did various awareness to the government, yet all to no avail.  Authors have written books on all these – Beast of a Nation by Iweala, Famished Road by Okri, Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie even There was a Country by Achebe, all of them concentrated on what the situation has become.  And so we as writers need to continue to engage the Nigerian society.  We must not be discouraged because if we go into silence, then the impunity we are witnessing will become much more terrible than we have now at the moment”.

As Nigerian writers, Onuoha stated candidly that they will not give up.  “We do that with our creative works, our ideas, with our intellectual wherewithal.  And that is why we are here today to continue to encourage ourselves to rebuild our nation-state”.  Of course, writers are nation builders when their works serve as agenda setting for the nation and for the society

It is obvious that Lagos State as the economic, commercial and literary hub of Nigeria deserves to have a writers’ resort. Over the years, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Lagos State Chapter had been one of the most resourceful and boisterous chapters of ANA. Time was when ANA Lagos made it a point of duty to organize monthly readings and other literary activities on a regular basis. In those years, other chapters of ANA used Lagos as an example of how writers’, authors and culture enthusiasts should handle the affairs of stakeholders in the sector, thereby igniting interest in authorship.

But at a point, lethargy set in. The leadership of ANA in Lagos went into slumber, a slumber that created a yawning vacuum. This vacuum became so blatant that at the national level of ANA other stakeholders wondered what was amiss. Tongues wagged, criticisms set in. Suggestions were made with writers’ mostly those based in Lagos who began to have a rethink. Suddenly ANA Lagos under the leadership of Dr. Bosun Taofeek regained its esteem. So today it can be safely said that ANA Lagos is back on the beat. It has bounced back to regain its lost glory.

Now fully charged to take the rigours of the day, writers’ mooted the idea of the writers’ resort in Lagos. The result was a planned courtesy visit last week to his Royal Majesty Oba Riliwan Babatunde Akiolu of Lagos. In the team to visit the Oba were the National President of ANA Dr. Dipo Akanbi, Dr. Bosun Taofeek (Lagos State chapter chairman), Dr. Tolu Ajayi, medical doctor turned writer, Henry Akubuiro of the Sun Newspapers, Vine Paul, Secretary ANA Lagos, my humble self and others

In his speech Akanbi traced the history of ANA in 1981 when the late Professor Chinua Achebe and others converged at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) where they formed ANA as a way to let authors and writers’ have a united central body where their interests and voices are well taken care of. He told Oba Akiolu and his white cap chiefs that Lagos deserves to have a befitting writers’ village or resort where authors can have the rare opportunities to produce books and other literary items. For Akanbi who himself is a university Lecturer and also owns a writer resort in his homestead in Ilorin Kwara State, a resort in Lagos will always serve as a beacon of hope for the young and old writers in the society.

“Lagos was the capital of Nigeria”, he recollected. “Today it is the most economically buoyant state in Nigeria. Therefore, a writers’ village here will convey and activate more hopes and inspiration for more writers. As people come into the state, and as more writers’ aspire to rediscover themselves, Lagos will continue to serve as a rallying point”.

Akanbi also used the opportunity to draw the attention of His Royal Majesty and his Chiefs to the writers’ resort in Abuja owned by Nigerian authors. “We have a big and expansive writers’ village in Mpape, Abuja”, the president reiterated for the benefit of those who did not know. “The land was given to ANA in 1986 by the then minister of the Federal Capital Territory Major General Mamman Vatsa. But after several years of delay, ANA has been able to reclaim the land by developing it into the biggest and most resourceful and elegant writers’ resort in West Africa. It is a big hub now and also has hotels, lodging apartments and above all a writers’ residency. This is why we believe that it is the turn of Lagos to have its own forthwith”

Read Also: Nigerian techpreneurs headline Dubai AI week show

Akanbi told the gathering that ANA has planned to have a resort each in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. “Since culture is part of what keeps us together, we will use this as a weapon to foster unity in the society. ANA is in all the states of the federation and so it will be easier to use that as a clout to reach all the nooks and cranny of Nigeria”

We believe that since lands everywhere in Nigeria come under the exclusive reserve of traditional rulers and chiefs, Oba Akiolu therefore is in a better position to facilitate this move. As he spoke the Oba nodded their   head intermittently and listened intently. Even the white cap chiefs who came in their numbers nodded the acclaim. It was a large gathering as Oba Akiolu and his chiefs glittered and shimmered in their overflowing white gowns and caps. They looked on with maximum interest and turned attention to Akanbi as he spoke.

For the chairman of ANA, Lagos, Taofeek, Lagos should be the next to have a writers’ village after Abuja. “We are here to solicit your help”, he began. “We hope and have the resolve in our hearts that as someone who believes in the powers of culture, you will provide a space for us to build our own writers’ village here in Lagos”. Taofeek who is also a scholar described himself as a Lagos boy though of Egba origin. He recalled how his grandfather found solace and home in Lagos since time past. He therefore told Oba Akiolu that a place for ANA will be a worthy venture to bring writers of different hue and class to Eko not just for the normal Eko for show but to expand its frontiers as the most vibrant and robust commercial nerve of Nigeria”

In his response, Oba Akiolu was elated. He described the demand as a good one. “You see writers have helped to shape the face of this society. Their contributions to the growth of Nigeria are immense. Culture is one of the central issues that keeps Nigeria as one. As a literary guru in his own respect, Oba Akiolu quoted Shakespearean books copiously to buttress his points. He told the writers body that Lagos was willing to accommodate them so long as the venture will be exclusively for the purpose of enhancing the beauty of authorship. He drew attention to a piece of land granted to the movie industry which they later appropriated into commercial and business venture. He warned that he would never tolerate such attitude should he finally grant the request of ANA.

Oba Akiolu who was delighted to welcome Akanbi, son of the late Justice Mustapha Akanbi, the pioneer chairman of ICPC to his palace, inundated everyone with the history of his friendship with the late Akanbi. He kept turning to the president to make his remarks sink. “Your father also encouraged me to study law. He was always there for me. Even when he left Lagos for Ibadan and later to other parts of Nigeria where he held sway, our friendship continued. I cannot forget his words of encouragement which he gave to me from time to time. He was indeed a worthy friend”, he said as he beckoned on Akanbi for a closer warm embrace and handshake. Nonetheless, Akiolu recalled the many contributions of Professor Wole Soyinka, to literature, to knowledge, and to nation building.

The Oba used the opportunity to advice Nigerians, particularly the younger ones to work for the unity of the country. “On individual level people should aspire to make the nation one. Let love and peace rule the hearts of people. Government cannot do it alone. People should help President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to make the society grow. There is nowhere in the world where government alone develops the society. It is usually the collective work of all. Everyone has a role to play to ensure that Nigeria attains its goals. Culture is one of the best forms of unity. And let us utilize it for our own good”.

Away from the promises of Oba Akiolu, writers’ feel that a place within the ambience of Ikorodu Epe will be more conducive for authors to operate. The Ikorodu Epe axis of Lagos is not just expansive, cozy and unpolluted, it is easier to access the roads from any part of Nigeria. Besides, these two areas of Lagos have beautiful topographies and landscapes that can be explored for the benefit of a writers’ village. So, as the wait continues, writers keep hoping that a convenient place be provided in one of these areas for the project to take off.

What matters most is that Oba Akiolu and his Chiefs are in conformity with ANA and that the project is a welcome idea, one that is possible to have in Lagos State. It is all kudos however to the leadership of ANA in Lagos led by Bosun Taofeek and his team. As the plans keep nurturing, it is clear also that ANA here in Lagos is moving ahead with other laudable and commendable programme and projects that will put the Association far ahead of other chapters in Nigeria.