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Tag: AWF

  • Writers tackle touchy Nigerian issues

    Writers tackle touchy Nigerian issues

    Let against the background of the ongoing National Conference, it was more than a coincidence that the last edition of the Guest Writer Session, of the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF), took on touchy Nigerian issues.

    Zainab Sule got proceedings going with one of her new singles, Fire Down Below. It was a good teaser to set the mood for an encounter with fun and excitement and it was evident her performance was enthralling as the audience sat transfixed, gazes locked at her like the future depended on their picking out every word of her lines and guitar strumming. A situation that would repeat itself when she came back in between the writers to run through a couple of her songs.

    The sobering highpoint of the evening came when multiple award-winning journalist, read from his book, Home Away From Home. He described the book in a recent interview as “my offering to making Nigeria a great nation as some of the ones I have visited.” Though the book is solely about the history of the Ogbomoso people in Jos, the scope turns out to be far beyond that. It actually tells the sorry story of the collapse of the inter-ethnic harmony that existed among Nigerians who had lived together in peace for so many years. The book chronicles the arrival of Ogbomoso people in Jos, their settlement there over the centuries, the peace, love and unity they enjoyed as they lived, did business and mingled with the indigenes other settler-tribes.

    However, tribal and religious differences suddenly crept into the picture and turned erstwhile friends, neighbours and brothers into sworn enemies. He recalled that in his days as a little child in Jos, his family, a Christian family bonded so well with their Muslim neighbours that they’d sometimes follow them to the mosque and the friends would also follow them to church. Oyegbile decried that such a scenario is impossible in the city today, with the incessant religious and tribal fights that have erupted over the years, claiming thousands of lives and reducing the city into a theatre of violence.

    According to him, his father got to Jos before the amalgamation in 1914 that gave birth to Nigeria. At the time he left Ogbomoso, the father, he said, was too young to pay tax. He settled in Jos, worked there for decades and paid his taxes to the Plateau State government. By the time he returned to Ogbomoso, he was too old to pay any taxes. In spite of his father’s loyalty and long sojourn in Plateau State however, Oyegbile said if he needed a scholarship, he’d have to go and apply for it in Oyo State! This, he said, often makes him wonder if indeed we are ready to live as one nation.

    He did not only paint a picture of the grim situation, he also proffered solutions to the strained relations between Nigeria’s ethnic and religious groups. He advised that citizens be educated on the gains of peaceful co-existence; recommended the prosecution of criminals who are caught in the act of sectional aggression and the development of the right political will by our leaders, towards mending the broken relations among the various divides of the Nigerian people.

    The audience had earlier savoured poems from Iruesiri Samson Kukogho’s debut collection What Can Words Do? Samson said of the title of his collection, that he derived it from the importance that words play in our daily lives as humans. “I have seen words start and also end wars; words have broken marriages and mended broken hearts,” he said. The question of what words can do, he said, is to bring to the consciousness of the reader, the importance of the words we speak and is one that everyone should ask themselves often so as to guard their choice of words when they speak to others as they have the potential to hurt and heal, give life and also kill.

    From the themes Samson explores in the poems in his collection, it is obvious that he is motivated by true-life experiences and is also driven to add his voice to issues of social justice and the general enhancement of society. His voice rails against rape, violence against women and social disorders. His passion for the family institution is also clearly depicted. “Society is being torn apart because families are collapsing,” he lamented. The poet emphasized that the more we lose the family, the more we lose our society and called for a show of concern by all citizens and especially parents whom he advised not to let the proper upbringing of their children and the responsibility to show them love and care, suffer because of the search for daily bread.

    Later while responding to questions, Samson expressed his gratitude to his father whom he said had a tremendous positive influence on his reading culture. He said his father was a very rigid man and forced him to read a lot of books from his well-stocked library and though it was quite a burden for him as a child, he is grateful today because it laid the foundation for his present appreciation for the literary arts, his writing prowess and the quality of his intellect.

    After the writers did their bit, Zainab Sule took her turn with a set of enthralling songs. The UniJos graduate of Mathematics and web designer proved why she is referred to as Nigeria’s queen of soft rock. After he performance, a member of the audience sought to know how long she took to perfect her handling of the guitar. She said she started playing the instrument in 2001 when she was a student at the University of Jos. She said she did a lot of online study on how to play the guitar which has paid off with her ability today.

    Zainab’s sounds have been referred to as a “mixture of Tracy Chapman and Avril Lavigne, mixed with a touch of soul”. A collection of beauty and talent, when she is not writing songs, or on some musical tour somewhere, she works as a consultant to some major companies under her company name and alter ego, Pishon Designs.

    Maiden graduates of the AWF Creative Writing Workshop Advanced Set collected their certificates, while some members of the audience won free books from a raffle-draw, and the three guests were given mementoes. The Guest Writer Session, which started in June 2008, holds at the prestigious Nanet Suites located at the Central Business District in Abuja, and runs from 4-7pm on the last Saturday of every month. The Abuja Writers’ Forum is a community of writers and book lovers. The forum creates opportunities for writers to develop their skills, helps in promoting and celebrating established and upcoming writers and also developing the book culture among Nigerians. Activities of the forum are free and open to members of the public.

     

     

  • Abuja Writers’ Forum hosts trio

    Abuja Writers’ Forum hosts trio

    Continuing the tradition, the regular Guest Writer Session of the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) will on Saturday, March 29, beam its spotlight on three artistes.

    This was disclosed by Abdullahi Abubakar, AWF’s Public Relations Officer, in a statement.

    Of the trio, two of them, Iresiri Samson and Olayinka Oyegbile are writers, while third is Zainab Sule, a musician.

    Iresiri, a reporter, editor and social media manager with the Abuja-based Daily Trust (Media Trust Ltd)  holds a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communication from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and two certificates in Film Making and Television Production from the National Film Institute and the Nigerian Television College respectively.

    A web content manager, across several CMS platforms, and public speaker, especially on creative writing, Iresiri writes and executes social media campaign plans for all budgets and manage social media profiles for individuals and corporate organisation.

    He published his debut poetry collection, ‘What Can Words Do?’ in 2013. And one of the poems from the collection, ‘Where is The Breathe of Fresh Air’, won the Orange Crush 1st Prize for Poetry 2012. Iresiri also founded the Words Rhymes & Rhythm Group, an initiative which started from a single blog and Facebook page but now has a combined fan base of over 15,000 across several social media networks.

    Oyegbile, the author of Home Away From Home: History of Ogbomosho Peope In Jos’ is also the deputy editor of The Nation on Sunday. He was born and raised in Jos, Plateau State. Although his parents are from Ogbomoso in Oyo State, he never left the north until he was almost a teenager. Until his secondary school days, his hometown was just a name because he felt at home in Jos and other parts of the north where he had lived and travelled widely.

    After his secondary education in Kwara State, he worked in Jos for about four years before he proceeded to Bayero University, Kano (BUK) where he graduated with a degree (Second Class Upper) in Mass Communication. He also holds a Postgraduate degree from the University of Jos. It was while working in Jos that he honed his craft as a writer and journalist by freelancing for The Nigeria Standard Newspapers and writing play scripts for both radio and television stations. His stories have been published both at home and abroad.

    The love of journalism took him away from Jos to join The Guardian newspapers in Lagos. He has since worked with The Punch, Daily Independent, TELL magazine, NEXT Newspapers where he was Associate Editor from where he joined The Nation.

    Although ‘Home Away From Home: History of Ogbomosho Peope In Jos’ is his first published book, he has written a couple of short stories and travelogues. He is one of Nigeria’s most travelled journalists and has won several international awards. Among these are World Health Organisation (WHO), Public Health Reporting Fellowship, American Cancer Society Fellowship, the prestigious Knight Fellowship and a host of others. He is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and has been the lead Country Reporter for the Washington DC based Global Integrity yearly publication titled CORRUPTION NOTEBOOK.

    In a recent interview he said, “Journalism has snatched me from writing fiction. My dream was to be a writer and that I have achieved with my journalism and I have been rewarded with numerous awards that have taken me to almost all corners of the globe. My book, Home Away From Home, is my offering to making Nigeria a great nation as some of the ones I have visited.”

    The third Guest, Sule, is a professional web designer and also a singer and songwriter who does rock music. Her music has been described as being a “mixture of Tracy Chapman and Avril Lavigne, mixed with a touch of soul.”

    Zainab also holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Jos, and 3 CIW (Certified Internet Webmaster) Certifications in Web Design. When she’s not writing songs, or on some musical tour somewhere, you’ll find Zainab working as a consultant to some major companies under her company name and alter ego, Pishon Designs.

    Just three years into her blossoming career as a professional musician, Zainab already has two full length albums, some amazing singles, countless reviews and many performances in Nigeria and beyond. Her albums are available on iTunes and other online stores, and she also has a book of Poetry available on Amazon Kindle. She’s currently working on her live acoustic sessions and more music videos to promote her sound.

    The Guest Writer Session, which started in June 2008, holds at the prestigious Nanet Suites located at the Central Business District in Abuja, and runs from 4-7pm on the last Saturday of every month. It also features side attractions of poetry performance, mini art exhibition, a raffle-draw for books, and a stirring dose of live music.

  • AWF clocks five

    AWF clocks five

    The Fifth Anniversary of the Abuja Writers Forum has held at the Nanet Suites, Abuja. It was more than a book reading fiesta. It wasn’t just a celebration for the writers. Members who have been away for long came from as far as Ghana and the United States.

    There was reason for the celebration. For a literary organisation in Nigeria, attaining five years of consistent pursuit of the set goals of promoting writers and their writings is not a mean achievement.

    “It has been five years of sweating blood and endless struggles, but we made it and we are more than ever, before, ready to break new grounds,” the forum’s President and host of the event, Dr. Emman Usman Shehu, declared setting the tone for the day.

    Shehu recounted that text messages went out to people inviting them to a book reading on June 21, 2008 at Pen and Pages Bookshop in Wuse II, Abuja. On the set date, the gathering was told they had been invited at the behest of the Abuja Writers’ Forum and it signalled the birth of what is today the foremost literary organiation in Nigeria.

    Writer Uche Peter Umez was invited from Owerri as the first guest writer, and the event has been held non-stop since then.

    David Adzer, a guitarist, later took the stage and thrilled the audience with tunes that heightened the celebration mood. The audience would not let him go after the presentation, without answering a question or two. Adzer said he draws inspiration for his music from his circumstances and pre-occupation in life.

    Adzer, who, in the course of his music career, has worked with prominent artistes such as Age Beeka and Bem Sar, among others, pioneered the Playlist Group, based in Jos, Plateau State. He also co-wrote a movie, The Bond that was produced by Papel Image Tech.

    Other acts that featured were another soft-rock artiste Tokunboh Edwards and Abiodun Okewoye, a saxophonist who got the audience singing along with him as he rendered Bob Marley’s Redemption Song. Many could not stay in their seats as they rose to dance and sing their hearts out.

    There was also a mini-photo exhibition by Kemi Akin-Nibosun who has been involved in the Invisible Borders project, an initiative to tell Africa’s stories by Africans through photography and inspiring artistic interventions.

    The first guest writer was Ikeogu Oke, who read from his latest collection of poems, In the Wings of Waiting. Oke holds a BA in English from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and his writings have appeared in various publications in Asia and both sides of the Atlantic. In 2010, Nadine Gordimer, a Nobel laureate, selected his book, Salutes without Guns, as one of the books of the year for the Times Literary Supplement (TLS).

    Oke’s The Lion and the Monkey recently premiered as a reading performance by him at the last year’s South African Literary Awards (SALA) in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He also performed a premiere of his poem, Dirge for Achebe, on stage at the inaugural Ola Ndi Igbo celebration at the Civic Centre, Lagos. That was in April, this year.

    Oke left no one in doubt of his talent as a writer, performer and musician in his presentation. He sang I can’t reach you, which he said is not just a poem but a song as well. Many of his poems, he said, are lyrical and will best be enjoyed if read alongside a musical rendition. Later in the interactive session with the audience, he described his writings as a creative deviation from convention and said he draws his inspiration from the joy, agony and disappointments.

    A Political Correspondent with The Nation, Victor Oluwasegun, was next. He read from his book, In the Shadow, which is his debut collection of short stories. He attended Ogun State University where he bagged a BA in English. At various times, he worked as a lecturer at the Advanced Teachers’ College, Kano, the defunct Mutual Trust Savings, Lagos, Lifeline Children’s Hospital in Lagos and Ayida Communications, Lagos. He began his journalism career with Encomium Magazine in Lagos before settling with The Nation.

    The journalist responded to the question of if any of his works was written out of a personal experience by disclosing that one of the stories in the collection, Favour Gone Sour was indeed inspired by a true story that he witnessed. He said he was even sued to court on account of writing the story.

    The ambience of the evening night increased as seven members of the forum were applauded  as they were presented with prizes  as winners of the May edition of the forum’s monthly writing challenge. The Forum instituted the challenge as an in-house effort to  regularly encourage members to honing their skills in writing and also help them build a portfolio of manuscripts that could serve them various purposes in future.

    The monthly challenge covers the fiction, poetry and drama genres and the winners were (fiction category), Amina Aboje, who won the first prize with her story, Double Face; Abigail Abenu, who came second with her story, The Hills and Rahamat Zakari who wrote, I Thought I knew Her and got the third prize. The only winner for the drama category was Didi Nwala, who wrote, The Iykes. The poetry prizes were clinched by Elvis Iyorngurum in the first position, with  Age-long Wisdom; Amina Aboje, the first runner-up with Agonies of a Mackerel and the second runner-up and writer of The Worth of World, Kattab Salami.

    The high point of the night was a raffle draw that was conducted for the audience to win book prizes. Attendees had been given a raffle ticket bearing a unique number on arrival at the venue. Ten lucky winners went away with a book each. The Assistant Director, Media and Public Affairs of the National Lottery Commission, Mrs. Rekiya Ibrahim-Atta, congratulated the forum on its fifth anniversary and said her presence was to honour the event and also support the vision for which the forum was established. She encouraged writers to base their work on adequate research as it will serve as a reference point for history, describing them as custodians of information that the world relies on. Mrs. Ibrahim-Atta also encouraged the writing community to strive higher and remain resilient so that eventually it will attract government support in achieving its purposes.

     

    •Iyorngurum is Secretary of the Abuja Writers’ Forum.

  • Literary forum is born

    To encourage and promote new Nigerian and African writings, a new literary organisation known as African Writers Forum (AWF) has been founded.

    AWF is a non-governmental organisation set to promote research in Pidgin English and indigenous languages and the translation of literature from English to Nigerian languages. According to its president, Mr Hyacinth Chukwunwike Obunseh, the forum will also be discovering and encouraging emerging talents.

    Also, it will work with other associations at home and abroad that share similar aims and aspirations, organise conferences, workshops and seminars and publish a literary journal. It has as members of its Board of Trustees – Dr Ngozi Chuma-Udeh as the Chairman, Mr Obunseh as its secretary, Professor Sunnie Ododo and Mr Philip A. John as members.

    To host the forum, an interim executive council has been established, headed by Obunseh as the president.

    Others include Anna Ijeoma Obunseh (General Secretary), Kelechi Nwafuru (Publicity Officer), Philip Agholor John (Treasurer), Odili Ujubuonu (Auditor), Isaac Attah Ogezi (Legal Adviser), Jacinta Chizoba Ogbonna (personal assistant to the president).

    Obunseh said: “We intend to celebrate two literary icons and publish a literary journal before the end of the year. We also seize this opportunity to state that we are not in competition with any group that we severally or jointly belong to. We respect the rule of law and will keep our activities open to the general public.”