Tag: NABTEB

•Niger establishes agency to cater for books and intellectual property

Not even a blast in nearby Kontagora could dampen the mood of the literary giants gathered in Minna, the Niger State capital. There were songs, drama, dance and speeches at this year’s edition of the MBA International Literary Colloquium. A keynote speaker and former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, touched on the continent’s need for visionary and people-oriented leadership. Evelyn Osagie reports.  

Niger State was agog with literary and intellectual activities that have become a yearly ritual at the MBA International Literary Colloquium held in its capital, Minna.

The theme was Leadership and national development. The colloquium has grown into a veritable platform where writers, scholars, politicians, public office holders and students talk about the place of good and proactive leadership and literature on the continent’s political and economic growth.

This year’s edition had former President of Mozambique and Chairman, Forum for Former African Heads of State and Government, Joaquim Alberto Chissano; and public commentator and Professor of Literature at the Carlton University, Canada Pius Adesanmi, as keynote  speakers. Prof Pius spoke on the first day, which focused on Literature. On the second day, former President Chissano spoke on Leadership and National Development.

The colloquium, the fourth on the series, has hosted renowned scholars, such as Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka, Prof Atukwei Okhai of the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), Prof Kofi Anyidoho, Odia Ofeimum as keynote speakers. Last year, the organisers focused on creativity, youth and national development, while unveiling the MBA Bookhawker Scheme.

At this year’s event, the organisers unveiled two projects that would help in promoting the arts, particularly creative writing in the state. Akin to a celebrator dishing out gifts to his guests, Niger State Governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, signed into law the bill establishing the Niger State Book and other Intellectual Resources Development Agency, hitherto known as the Niger State Book Development Agency.

According to the State House of Assembly Speaker, Mr Adamu Usman, after deliberations and interactions the bill was passed with stakeholders.

On the same day, the Nigeria Writers’ Series was also presented. The series, which is a product of the N9million grant from the governor to the national executive of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), was geared towards promoting creative writing. It  featured the works of 10 writers selected from across the country.

Praising the governor’s reports, ANA Vice President Mallam Denja Abdullahi said, the moves would impact on creative writing and subsequently on the reading culture of the young.

The colloquium, which was part of activities marking the birthday of the governor, kicked off and ended with an evening of literary festivities. As if foretelling what was to come, writers, through their works, warned on the need for peace, while expressing that the masses were tired of insurgencies and killings in the country.

Saddid Dzukogi’s poem Songs of horror from his Sunbeams and Shadows collection, which was dedicated to the late Kofi Awoonor, evoked a feeling of gloom in the audience. One could feel the harsh tug of the evening breeze as he read:”The poet’s gut fled in suspended terror…lodging in the nest of horror the wineglass is broken and bullets are now beats of music that swim through heart of man…”

Two days later, amid the intellectual festivities of the MBA festival came the heartrending news of the bomb blast at the Federal College of Education Library in Kotangora some kilometres away where a woman suicide bomber was said to have rushed towards the library, detonated a bomb.

Moved by the news the governor condemned the act, saying it was dastardly and indeed condemnable. Calling for calm, he urged that Nigerians, especially community leaders, be security conscious, saying this would go a long way to curb the insurgencies.

He said: “I have received a bad birthday gift. A female suicide bomber was rushing to enter the auditorium where the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) examination was taking place when her bomb exploded. I was told they were two. The other one is still alive and is in the hospital. Soon, we would be able to find out who sent them. We must be more vigilant; let us confront our common enemy, the insurgents, but remain focused and determined in the effort towards building the country to its greater heights. No matter what evil perpetrators do, they will not succeed in eroding peace and collective development aspiration of Nigerians.”

Former President Chissano said Africa is in want of visionary, thought-driven and people-oriented leaders. Although the continent has the means to achieve greatness and take the continent to the next level, he, however, lamented that for so long, it has lacked the right kind of leaders to achieve this dream.

According to him, proactive leadership would take immediate action to solve challenges facing the nation, such as insurgencies. He named civil unrest a result of leadership failure, saying leaders should seek to eradicate poverty, which, he said, a “single major threat to security and youth restiveness”.

He said: “Poverty eradication should be at the centre of policies for social and economic transformation and development. Leadership for development is anticipating and addressing potential trouble sports and not waiting until it is too late. Early warning demands early action. We need thought leaders: visionary leadership that would lead the nation towards the adequate diversification of the economy giving priority to correct use of renewable resources and development of capacities for provision of services by the nationals. Discontent and popular uprising may be part of leadership’s failure to deliver or lack of participation and respect for human right.”

Although Nigeria is one of the nine countries that have surpassed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agricultural target of six per cent, Chissano urged, leaders to go beyond exporting commodities to exporting processed goods, saying they must prioritise agriculture and technological development.

Platforms as the colloquium, he said, would not only providea meeting place of ideas but its constructive deliberations can change the mind-sets of leaders.He, however, observed that “the notion of leadership and national development is easy to discern in the literary world, but very complicated in the real world”.

On his part, Prof Adesanmi, who spoke on the theme, Post-Centenary Nigeria: New literatures, new leaders, new nation, likened literature’s role in national development to fire, saying is able to ignite a change in mind of society. In his view, from the days of Soyinka to the present, the literati has played a major role nation-building, adding that the onus is on it to weave up new narratives that would serve as compass for good governance and national development in the country.

“Literature, indeed, has the miraculous power to forge the essence and the spirit of a nation – and of a nation-state depending on the level of legitimacy and hegemony it acquires across time. The Peruvian Nobel Laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa, in a 1967 lecture agrees on the centrality of literature to the soul of nation and nation state in his essay,Literature is Fire.

“Long before ANA National thought of the prophylactic powers of literary imagination, long before the conveners of this edition of the MBA International Literary Colloquium thought of a theme, which connects literature to imaginaries of leadership and nationhood, generations of writers before us have imagined the connections between literature and project nationhood,” Adesanmi said.

The colloquium also featured writers from within and outside the country, including Prof Unoma Azuah; Editor-In-Chief, Newsday, Sumaila Umaisha; ANA Vice President, Mallam Denja Abdullahi; former ANA Vice President, Prof May Ifeoma Nwoye; award-winning playwright, Isaac Ogezi; Mr Chiedu Ezeanah, NLNG Prize for Literature finalists, Friday John Abba and Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, among others.