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Tag: PEN Nigeria

  • PEN Nigeria dedicates poetry festival to memory of Prof Adesanmi

    PEN International, Nigerian Centre, otherwise called PEN Nigeria, has dedicated a special Poetry Festival in the memory of Canadian-based Nigerian scholar Prof Pius

    Adesanmi involved in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash last Sunday few minutes after take-off in Addis Ababa.

    The author of Naija No Dey Carry Last (2015), a volume of satirical essays, is a poet, essayist, satirist, literary critic.

    With the theme, “What Poetry Is, What Poetry Is Not”, the festival, is part of its activities marking this year’s World Poetry Day on Thursday, March 21. It will hold at Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Noforija, Epe.

    “It would be another golden opportunity for members of the creative community to showcase their creativity and their products, including publications.  Authors who wish to donate books and other publications or materials for distribution to participants, particularly students, at the event are enjoined contact the President or any other member of the Executive Council,” the President, PEN Nigeria, Folu Agoi, stated.

    The festival has as guest poet, Reginald Chiedu (RC) Ofodile, who is lawyer, actor, compere, and internationally acclaimed novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist. Other guests include Tunji Sotimirin, Kayode Steve Adaramoye, Busola Kolade, and Ralph Akintan-Ralph.

    Its highlights include: poetry performances by individuals and groups, poetic presentations by members of the community (pupils and staff – teaching and non-teaching), poetry recitation in indigenous language (mother tongue poetry), presentations by seasoned poets and authors lecture and interactive session on the event’s theme.

     

  • PEN Nigeria calls for submissions

    The group, the Nigerian Centre of PEN International (a world association of writers), otherwise known as PEN Nigeria, has invited its members to send in their creative or critical works for publication in a special anthology it would be publishing and presenting in December 2018.

    It made the call in a statement signed by its President, Folu Agoi.

    The works, which would make up the collection are poems, short stories, playlets and critical essays on any subject or theme.

    According to the group, “each submission should be at least five poems – if poetry, and a maximum of 2,000 words for other genres; and must be accompanied by a profile of 100 words or less”.

    “Each of the works must be an original production of the contributor. Any entry found to be plagiarised will be disqualified.

    All entries must be submitted via email, as attachment, with ‘SUBMISSION: PEN NIGERIA ANTHOLOGY’ in the subject column to: /pennigeria.anthology@gmail.com/The deadline for submission is October 31. Successful contributors will be given five copies of the anthology, it stated.

  • Lack of security is endangering book, says PEN Nigeria

    The Nigerian Centre of PEN International (PEN Nigeria) has condemned the abduction of 110 students at the Government Girls Technical and Science College, Dapchi, Yobe State.

    According to the group, lack of security of lives and property, besides grinding poverty, is endangering the book in Nigeria.

    It made the observation in astatement entitled: The Book in Nigeria – an Endangered Species, to mark the United Nations World Book Day. “Schooling is a precarious venture in a terrain that is notorious for corruption, mass kidnapping and massacre of students in their schools, particularly in the north which is known to be educationally disadvantaged”, it noted.

    While decrying the state of the reading culture and the plights of the book industry players in the country, the group emphasised that the book and its industry are significant to a nation and humanity at large. It, therefore, called for the effective activation of the Nigerian book policy and support for the book industry to make book affordable and accessible to the general public.

    “Hardly has there been any genuine effort by past or present government towards taking care of the interest of authors, publishers, booksellers or other actors in the book industry. Despite the noise made by the successive federal and state governments about the need to bring back the book to the consciousness of our society, the book policy is yet to be effectively activated.

    “The industry, unregulated by government, is left to the whims and caprices of economic sharks and hawks. The cost of production of books and other socio-economic factors keep pushing the book out of the reach of the common man, a situation that has kept book pirates and other hawks in business in the country. These sinister characters swoop down on the market, scooping up the dividends of the hard labour, sleepless nights and capital invested by authors and publishers in the venture.”

    PEN Nigeria said the re-establishment of well-stocked libraries in schools and community, and employing librarians would go a long way to help boost reading culture in the country.

    What is designated “library” in most government-owned schools are empty rooms marked, in some cases, “Reading Rooms”, manned by English Language or other teachers, assisted by library prefects; or just one or two shelves housing a handful of tattered books kept in the head teacher’s office. Most — if not all — state governments in Nigeria have, since the ’80s, dispensed with the idea of employing librarians or officers so-designated to manage libraries at those critical levels of education, an idea they obviously consider a waste of scarce resources.

  • Stop the killings in Benue, others, group tells govt

    Stop the killings in Benue, others, group tells govt

    The Nigerian Centre of PEN International, otherwise known as PEN Nigeria, has condemned the violent killings and other acts against humanity being meted out on the citizenry by insurgents and cultists in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau and Rivers.

    The group, in a statement by its President, Folu Agoi, decried the killings, describing it as an “inferno”.

    “Nigerians are daily inundated with news of scores of citizens killed and many more maimed, besides precious property destroyed in virtually all the states of the federation, particularly Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau and Rivers. PEN Nigeria, hereby expresses, in absolute terms, its condemnation of the raging conflagration that seems to have taken root in Nigeria, threatening to engulf the entire country. The inferno – which manifests itself in carnage, kidnapping, robbery, rape, maiming and sundry other acts of barbarism carried out mostly by suspected itinerant cattle herders, besides suspected insurgents and suspected cultists – is, sadly, inflamed by the failure of the Federal Government to go beyond paying lip service to its understanding of – and commitment to – its basic obligation, as enunciated in Section 14(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), that: ‘The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.’ The group, therefore, called on government to take more drastic steps to put an end to the menace before it engulfs the country, while observing that the growth of violence shows the failure government’s commitment to its responsibility to its citizens.

    “PEN Nigeria, thus, urges the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive action to stem the tide of incessant attacks of innocent citizens, and demonstrate genuine commitment to the safety and welfare of all citizens. Sincere effort must be made to sanitise the country and remove its name from the list of states in which the sanctity of human life is an anathema.”