The Nation Newspaper

Tag: WALE OKEDIRAN

  • Okediran at 70: Celebrating medical doctor turned writer

    Okediran at 70: Celebrating medical doctor turned writer

    By Denja Abdullahi

    If I ever get to write a memoir on my work and time in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), my relationship with Wale Okediran will occupy a full chapter of its own and some of the other chapters may be interspersed with one thing or the other about him. We have been that close in the Nigerian literary community and I can today claim to be one of his closest literary confidants; the relationship veering beyond that into other personal areas of life.

    20 years ago when Wale Okediran clocked 50 years of age, I was at the center of the small group of writers between Abuja and Minna who organised a literary reception for him at Agura Hotel in Abuja with music, drama, poetry rendition and other such literary feasting. Then Okediran was a member of the Nigerian parliament at the Federal House of Representatives and the event pulled bigwigs from the political class. Okediran was yet to become the President of ANA and was then only the immediate past General Secretary , while I was the Assistant General Secretary under the Presidency of Prof. Olu Obafemi. But the Okediran’s contribution to the Association then and the general literary community was already prodigious and far-reaching to warrant me penning a long poetic piece on him entitled “ A Chant for Okediran@50,” delivered at the occasion for me by Omoóba Jerry Adesewo. It beggars reciting here:

    Beyond this poetic effulgence, I also wrote a piece to commemorate that occasion which was syndicated across many national newspapers in the country then. In the piece entitled “Periscoping Wale Okediran@50” I recounted his achievements as a writer, calling on literary critics to pay more attention to his many novels beyond the normal call they give to writers of the popular literary genre such as Okediran. Even at that time I had seen the profundity in his many novels which connect to other areas of life such as the environment, medicine, psychiatry, conflict resolution and politics. My believe in his writings at that time made me to write a rejoinder to Prof. Charles Nnolim’s critique of one of his novels (Dreams Die at Twillight)alongside other writers in a popular critical tirade against what he called “writers of the fleshly tradition.”  Charles Nnolim saw me years later in Owerri at a literary function and commended me for the spirited defense of Okediran’s works and others in my rejoinder to his piece. In that same piece celebrating Okediran@50 , I examined his work as a literary administrator in ANA, the highest position he had held at that time being ANA’s General Secretary , and my impression then is worth recalling substantially:

    I went on to maintain that it was therefore not surprising seeing Okediran transmuting into a politician as he has the spirit of service in him; a spirit in line with the Hippocratic oath he took   at the beginning of his medical practice.  I noted that in line with his personal disposition as a humanist and being a writer with a compelling obligation towards egalitarianism, he could not but play progressive politics which he did throughout his tenure in the Nigerian parliament. I observed that his foray into politics did not make him forget his primary constituency, which I took to be the literary community, not even medicine, which is his first love. Even as a politician, he was everywhere attending literary events, supporting writers and continued writing.  He often says at most public occasions that medicine is his wife and literature is his mistress!

    Some of us in the literary community would not want to lose Okediran to the political world, even though the medical world has substantially lost him to us. We made move to drag him back to literary politics while he was still a parliamentarian. I remember me and my literary colleague, Mallam B.M Dzukogi of ANA Niger, friends most times and opposing literary gladiators at a later time, met Dr Wale Okediran in his house at the Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja, to sell the idea to him to contest for the presidency of ANA as the tenure of the then president, Prof. Olu Obafemi was about coming to an end. Okediran was hesitant, knowing fully well that a perennially insolvent association like ANA with a highly critical membership was a difficult one to run. He had held at that time many national executive and state council positions in the association, culminating in his being national treasurer and general secretary , so he knew that carrying the load of the presidency of ANA was like carrying the head of an elephant! We insisted he was equal to the task with his experience and network of contacts and widespread goodwill. He finally agreed on the condition that I must be ready to work with him as the General Secretary. From then, I took over his campaign for the position and I and others in his team helped to neutralize his main opponent and won many people over to his quest to lead the association. He had the pedigree of service to the association and with his philanthropic disposition, it was easy to get him to a convincing victory at the ANA Convention which held at Kano in 2005. Prof. Jerry Agada who was gunning for the same position withdrew his candidacy to become the vice presidency, leaving only Dr Emma Shehu of ANA Abuja who introduced a stiff political dimension to ANA literary politics, which all the same fell short of giving him victory against a popular candidate as Dr Wale Okediran. I at that same convention won my quest to be the General Secretary of ANA from the assistant position I was holding to the then General Secretary, Nduka Otiono.

    Read Also: OUTRAGEOUS! Fertility clinics prey on young females in Nigerian varsities to ‘sell’ their eggs

    Okediran and myself came back to Abuja rearing to go all the way for ANA. For the four years I served under the Dr Wale Okediran presidency as General Secretary, I learned a lot of lessons in service and leadership and also got very close to Okediran as a person. At first, I began operating as ANA’s General Secretary in the laid back, all-knowing impresario manner of my predecessor in office, but I soon got to know that with Okediran, it is the job that matters not the office. I had to increase my pace of work to match his and even overtook him. If Okediran wanted something done and got across to you to do the job, a slight delay on your part would lead to him executing the same job himself without your input. He was averse to official sloth on the job by way of merely exercising the importance of your job description. He hated unnecessary bureaucracy; not in a non-governmental organisation and never when he could do things himself. I got to know that to be powerful as ANA’s General Secretary under Okediran, I had to have a high work rate and develop the ability to attend to multiple issues as they arose. I became a perfect General Secretary to him and the association by ensuring that I was always a step ahead of him in nearly every matter. I scoured through the dailies for literary issues of importance for the Association to react to(those were the days before the effulgence of the digital space) and I raised my radar to pick every possible happenings with our members and within the literary community, so much so that I broke many issues to him and whenever he got to me about something, I already had a response or plan of action for that same thing. It did not take him time to implicitly trust my judgement as I ran the secretariat of ANA more like the way he ran it when he was General Secretary under the Alhaji Abubakar Gimba’s presidency(1997-2001). Okediran as General Secretary of ANA was responsive, cerebral, focussing on objectives, not prejudicial in working with people and very mobile and I strove to be that and more in that position.

    Like I wrote before, I learned a lot of leadership lessons from my close work and association with Okediran that I put to use to make my own ANA presidency that came later on equally monumental with land marking achievements. One of the most impactful lessons I learned from Okediran is being able to work with anybody with some value to bring to a particular work; even an enemy. Okediran does not discriminate when it comes to work. He is never prejudicial about sex, religion, ethnic group or ideology when there is work to be done. He stretched his olive hands to even avow enemies when it came to working and achieving for the public good and in nearly every case those enemies became good friends. I also learned from Okediran the benefits on working with institutions, partnering and collaborating with individuals and corporation when working on projects where funds are limited as an initiator. Under him, I saw how mere good ideas with no immediate financial back-ups translated into well executed monumental projects. All it took to do that were sincerity, honesty of intention, partnership, collaboration and mutual respect of the interests of parties to the projects. I also learned how to value relationship from Okediran. He was there for everyone as a leader and would not discountenance anyone, no matter the person’s adverse politics to him, in the person’s hour of need, as he was always ready to assist , emotionally, physically or financially. Okediran spreads his goodwill at will both to the deserving and the undeserving. He was a leader who carried everyone along as the president of ANA and such a leader may be betrayed but it would be difficult to scuttle his achievements. Dr Wale Okediran is a humanist to the core, always looking out for those working with him. He is quick to realise when you are not yourself and sets out to immediately lift your spirit anyway he can. He is very loyal to genuine friendship and working camaraderie. Without prompting, Okediran do offers his friends and followers opportunities and vital linkages, many of such which I have benefitted from in the past and right to this moment of writing this piece. He is a friend and a senior colleague who does not hesitate to confide in you over private matters bothering him; seeking advice and possible emotional support. And when whatever you tell him works, he gets back to relate his appreciation.

    Dr Wale Okediran’s service to ANA and the literary community did not end with the completion of his tenure as president of ANA.  He is one ANA’s past president out of the lot produced in the history of the association that is always there to assist practically and actively advising successive ANA Presidents. He continued to railroad important and beneficial linkages for the Association long after he had left office as president. A striking case was his networking to get support for ANA from the lawyer of his opponent in an election petition matter, in the midst of the court battles. That supreme humanitarian effort by Okediran and the lawyer became the annual grant of N3 million naira to ANA by Yusuf Ali (SAN) that the association has been enjoying since 2012 till date.  Wale Okediran supported behind -the – scene substantially my emergence as the president of ANA in 2015. His house in Apo in Abuja hosted a lot of peace and reconciliation meetings among warring ANA members and chapters before my presidency. He even tried to broker an agreement between me and the other contender for the presidency of ANA in 2015,B.M Dzukogi, by hosting a well –attended parley between both camps in his house. The parley, brokered by Prof Zaynab Alkali, Prof May Nwoye alongside Okediran only succeeded in advising for a fair contest devoid of rancour as the battle line was already well drawn.  I later went on to win the contest in Kaduna with a resounding victory and received the support and timely advice of Okediran throughout my tenure.  He tried his best to assist in averting the problems that led to the botched elections at the Enugu Convention of ANA in 2019 but for the political daggers that were drawn against him by power mongers who were most afraid of his pacifist spirit.

    Okediran, as PAWA’s Secretary-General merely transferred the best practices he has acquired as a veritable literary administrator in ANA to run the continental association. With Okediran at the helms of PAWA these past years at the PAWA House on Roman Ridge Road, Accra -Ghana, the activities of PAWA have opened up to embrace more national writers associations across the continent of Africa. Dr Wale Okediran has democratised the activities of the association; effectively bridging the language divides of the continent. He has been innovative, digitally savvy and prolific in the areas of programmes and projects, even amidst the ever dwindling resources available to the association, which is mainly the payment of national subscription by the governments of member -states national writers’ associations. Like he did in ANA . meagre fund or harrowing lack of funds has not deterred PAWA from posting its relevance to the African literary community. Okediran is one who never fails in any given task , no matter the obstacles and challenges.

    With Okediran the success kits are nothing more than hard work, sacrifice, networking, partnership, collaboration and just a little fund to push an idea around. He has deployed all those to great measure in PAWA and has recorded many striking successes; filling the big shoes left by Atukwei Okai and already leaving shoes that may be too big to fill for a future minder of that continental association.

    I will like to end this piece with another poem out of the couple I have written in the past to celebrate the humanity of Okediran. I can say Okediran has the highest number of poems I have written for any Nigerian writer, living or dead.  Here it goes:

    Where is that muse that abandons not its acolytes in  mid-sentence?

    Where is that guardian of the word

    who loans fellow griots matchless metaphors

    Where is that peddler of phrases

    Whose thesaurus is devoid of delimiting words?

    Where is that do-gooder patron

    Who races to draw laughter out from ruptured faces?

    Where is the master storyteller

    Who built a house of words on Ebedi hill?

    Wale Okediran is here and everywhere, let us continue to celebrate him

  • Travelogue; A memory of Pakistan and my encounters with authors

    Travelogue; A memory of Pakistan and my encounters with authors

    WALE OKEDIRAN writes about his experience as an author in Islamabad, Pakistan.

    Islamabad. Early morning. I am standing at the immigration desk of the Islamabad International Airport, trying to explain to the Pakistani immigration officer my reason for visiting the South Asian country. He also wanted to know why I had to go all the way from Lagos to London then Dubai before coming to his country. Satisfied with my explanations, the happy looking burly officer gingerly stamped my passport and waved me off with a cheery ‘Welcome to Pakistan’,

    As I waited to collect my baggage, my mind went to my brief encounter with the Immigration Officer especially his concern about my itinerary. It was the same question I had been asked when I applied for a Pakistani visa in Abuja. It was also the same question when I wanted to board my Emirates flights in Lagos, London and Dubai. Even though I had decided on my itinerary in order to accommodate a private visit to the UK before going to Pakistan, I did not realize that I had inadvertently put myself under a suspicious radar by that decision.

    “Pakistan is currently fighting a twin problem of drug trafficking and terrorism. That is why travelers with multiple stop-overs are usually put under extra scrutiny’’ one of my Pakistani hosts later explained to me.

    Outside the airport, I had to button up my jacket as the chilly 10 -degree Celsius weather hit me like a cold brickbat. “November is still a good time to visit Pakistan. Our coldest month is January when the weather could go as low as 2.6-degrees Celsius’’ my guide who had come to pick me up at the airport said. As I was driven from the airport in the early hours of the morning, I admired the beautiful and sleepy city which was said to have been built as a planned city in the 1960s to replace Karachi as Pakistan’s capital city.

    Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, came into being following the partition of British India into the countries of India and Pakistan on August 14 1947. After this partition, the north-eastern and north-western flanks of the country, made up of Muslim majorities, became Pakistan. The rest of the country, predominantly Hindu, but also with large religious minorities peppered throughout, became India. It is the world’s fifth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212.2 million. By area, it is the 33rd-largest country, spanning 881,913 square kilometers (340,509 square miles).

    Even though it took place more than 70 years ago, the partitioning has left some deep- rooted resentments between India and Pakistan. Fortunately, there have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship. However, despite those efforts, relations between the countries have remained fraught, following repeated acts of cross-border terrorism. According to a 2017 BBC World Service poll, only 5% of Indians view Pakistan’s influence positively, with 85% expressing a negative view, while 11% of Pakistanis view India’s influence positively, with 62% expressing a negative view.

    I had come to Pakistan to attend the annual International Writers Conference of the Writers Union of Africa, Asia and Latin America. In addition, I had also been invited by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts and Hunerkada to attend the 2019 Islamabad Arts and Book Festival also holding in the Pakistani capital about the same time. While I was to present a report in my capacity as the Deputy Secretary General of the Writers Union during the conference, I had also come to Islamabad with copies of my novels for presentation at the Book Fair.

    About an hour after my arrival in Islamabad, I arrived my hotel, Embessidor Hotel located at Sector G- 5 of the city where I was heartily received by my hosts and other conference delegates who had arrived ahead of me.  It was nice seeing my fellow writers again after our last conference which took place in Rabat, Morocco.

    Some of the writers who had already arrived at the hotel included delegates from Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Vietnam, as well as Jordan. I also saw some new faces such as Bui Viet Thang from Vietnam, Said Salgawi from Oman as well as Toy Ting from Thailand.

    On hand to receive all of us was our chief host, the ebullient Pakistani poet and book seller, Imdad Aakash who is also the Secretary General of the Pakistani Writers Union. As usual, our indefatigable Secretary, Randa Barakat as well as our amiable and energetic President, Cherif El Shoubashy had been on ground, days before the meeting to put things in order.

    The agenda for the tricontinental meeting which would be the first one in an Asian country in more than three years consisted of; Plenary sessions, Poetry readings, A Round table discussion on the conference theme, Launching of the new edition of Lotus magazine as well as the 2019 Islamabad Book fair. Also included in our itinerary was a visit to Gandhara Archaeology sites and Museum in the nearby town of Taxila, Dinners, a Cultural event and the Closing ceremony.

    As listed on our agenda, the whole of the first day of the Conference which took place at Aiwan E Sir Syed district of Islamabad was devoted mainly to plenary sessions which centered on the conference theme; The Role of Culture and Literature in Confronting Terrorism. A major highlight of the 3-day conference was the presentation of the new edition of LOTUS, the official journal of the Union.

    The LOTUS, a trilingual quarterly journal which was first issued in 1968 in English, Arabic and French, apart from being a forum for literary interchange between postcolonial Third World intellectuals, also has a prize attached to it.  ‘The Lotus Prize’ as the prize is called, has been awarded in the past to such writers as Chinua Achebe, Mahmoud Darwish, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Alex La Guma, Ghassan Kanafani, Agostinho Neto, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Kateb Yacine, many of whom had been involved in the Union’s activities or whose work had previously appeared in the journal.

    Unfortunately, the journal went into oblivion for some years due to lack of funding. It was not until the winter of 2016 that it was revived while another issue was published in the winter of 2017. The Vol 3 and 2018 Winter edition was distributed to delegates at the Morocco conference.

    Some delegates used the opportunity of the meeting to submit contributions for the next edition of the journal.  I also had the honor of submitting a contribution from Prof. Wole Soyinka.  The Nobel Laureate who had been requested to contribute to the journal had asked me to submit an excerpt from his latest publication INTERVENTIONS for inclusion in the next edition of the journal.

    A dinner in honor of the delegates took place later in the evening in the house of one of the Pakistani writers, Wasif Arshad and his wife at E-11 sector of Islamabad. After the delicious dinner, a poetry reading session took place in the same venue before we all retired for the night.

    On the second day of the conference, we all headed to the Gandhara Archaeology Site and Museum at Taxila for sightseeing. Taxila “City of Cut Stone” is a significant archaeological site about 32 km (20 mi) north-west of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It is situated at an altitude of 512m above sea level. In 1980, Taxila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2006 it was ranked as the top tourist destination in Pakistan by The Guardian newspaper, London. On hand to welcome us to the Museum was the curator, Abdul Nasir.

    The archaeological museum at Taxila is a real treasure-house. The ivy-covered, Gothic-style museum is in a picturesque garden. Exploring Taxila is a multi-dimensional experience. I was attracted by the richness and variety of the famed Gandhara sculpture which are endless images of Buddha, in stone and stucco, and numerous panels depicting all the important stages of the great sage’s life. In addition, exquisitely sculpted friezes and statues of all sizes evoke the life and times of one of the worlds’ most impressive men of peace: Gautama Buddha. Each carved bit of sculpture, from the colossal to the miniature —- and there are literally thousands of them – is a collector’s item.

    At Taxila, I came face to face with the great Buddha where he loomed over me, larger than life. With his serene eyes gazing at me, I was gripped by a feeling of awe. I also met other famous names, such as Alexander of Macedonia, Asoka the famous Buddhist king as well as the Emperor Kanishka. Their imprints were all over the cavernous Taxila museum which was filled to the brim with tourists on that cold November morning.

    From the museum, we moved to the grave of one of Pakistani’s most revered poets, Gosh Malihabadi. Born as Shabbir Hasan Khan (5 December 1898 – 22 February 1982) Malihabadi who is popularly known as Shayar-e-Inqalab (poet of revolution) is regarded as one of the finest Urdu poets of the era of British India. Gosh always challenged the established order and stood for liberal values. He was loud, brave and never compromised on principles. He wrote over 100,000 beautiful couplets and more than 1,000 rubaiyat in his lifetime. His autobiography “Yaadon ki Barat” is considered one of the best so far in Urdu as it is written in frank and candid manner. Malihabadi was an Indian citizen until 1956, when he emigrated to Pakistan and became a Pakistani citizen. Some of his works were translated to English like The Unity of Mankind elegies by Josh Malihabadi by Syed Akbar Pasha Tirmizi who was a Pakistani citizen and a high court advocate.

    Also visited was the Pakistani Academy of Letters (PAL), an autonomous organization with its main focus on Pakistani literature and related fields. It is the largest and the most prestigious learned society of its kind in Pakistan, with activities throughout the nation focusing mainly on Pakistani Literature and related fields. It was established by a group of renowned Pakistani writers, poets, essayists, playwrights, and translators under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhuto on July 7, 1976.

    The Academy gives annual awards for the best original books written in all the major languages of Pakistan. In addition, the Academy also nominates Fellows, and more restrictively some Life Fellows, who earn the privilege of using the post-nominal letters FPAL. The Fellowship of the Academy is highly selective, indicating high distinction in the respective field, and is only awarded to those who are recognized to have contributed extraordinary work to enrich the creation and understanding of Pakistani literature.

    I had always been a fan of Indian and by extension, Pakistani cuisine because of its”highly seasoned” and “spicy” nature. I was therefore looking forward to a hearty and enjoyable meal as we headed for Lunch at the Taxila restaurant around mid- afternoon. I was glad that I settled for the Chicken-Masala and Rice dish. Apart from the fact that the rice was fluffy and sizzling hot, the chicken was very succulent and well- seasoned with the spicy masala soup that practically melted on my tongue. The gustatory activity was so enjoyable that minutes after the other delegates had finished their meals, I was still working on the very delicious meal. It was only when I realized that I could be holding up the others that I reluctantly pushed away the plate.

    Slightly drowsy from the delightful gastronomic exercise, I trudged along with the other delegates to the Sir Syed Memorial Building which housed the Islamabad Museum for the first ever Islamabad Art and Book Festival (IAF-19). According to the organizers, the 13- day festival was organized by a consortium of public and private educational institutions, art galleries and artist associations from across the country in collaboration with foreign embassies, with generous support from the corporate sector. The thematic focus of IAF-19 was ‘Dialogue between Tradition and Modernity’. Around 30,000 teachers and 300,000 pupils from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi were said to have been indirectly involved in the event.

    My group missed the event’s opening ceremony and so could not watch the performance of renowned Pakistani first Opera Singer Saira Peter among other celebrity appearances.  Saira Peter is reputed to sing in various languages including Urdu, English, Persian, Latin and some regional languages of Pakistan. Despite the miss, I was still able to interact with other writers during the Poetry reading session which expectedly was in Arabic, English, French among others. I was also able to exhibit some of my books most of which I exchanged for other books at the Book Fair.

    The usual tradition with the conferences of the Writers Union of Africa, Asia and Latin America was to make the closing ceremony a combination of a business meeting and stock taking exercise. In addition, the venue of the next meeting had to be confirmed. After intimating my fellow delegates of my desire to host the 2020 Conference in Nigeria, I also did a lot of lobbying among them during the three- day conference. Fortunately, my bid for the hosting was confirmed at the closing ceremony.

    In our communique on the theme of the conference; Fighting Terrorism Through Arts And Literature, the Union observed that ‘Literature and Art have the ability to soothe the minds and to sow the seeds of love, tolerance and understanding between individuals and peoples. Therefore, writers and artists when given a congenial atmosphere to practice their trade as well as a modicum of support can be the ideal antidote against the specter of violence, extremism and terrorism that is currently ravaging many parts of the world.”

    Our last formal dinner in Pakistan was courtesy of the Senator representing Islamabad Capital Territory on the platform of the Pakistan Muslim League at the Pakistani Senate, Senator Mushahid Husain Sayed. The amiable and suave 57- year old politician in our brief interaction informed me that he is a journalist by training as well as a published author.  The Senator is the current Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence and Defence Production.

    And as we settled down to an exquisite 5 course dinner at the Islamabad Club where Senator Husain had hosted us, I could not but admire the posh and pleasant environment of the club which I was informed was exclusively patronized by the elite of Islamabad. The club which is comprised of the main club building, a golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts and an expansive parking lot is said to sit on over 346 acres in the vicinity of the Rawal Lake.

    Even though I had enjoyed every bit of my stay in Islamabad, there was still something missing; I had not had a feel of the real Islamabad. Our crowded program had been so guided that our visits had been only to posh hotels and offices as well as high- brow residential areas. We did not have the opportunity to visit shops and markets, low income residential areas among other ‘natural’ Pakistani settings. Since it was already late in the day and in addition, I did not want to bother our hosts who had put in so much to make our trip a success, I decided to take my concern to Senator Husain. Fortunately, he agreed with me on the need to see part of the city. He quickly organized a vehicle to convey those of us who were interested in seeing the town to take us round.

    Although Islamabad is said to give off the appearance of a ‘dull place, full of retired civil servants sipping tea in villas’ my small group of writers had a stunning late-night excursion of the picturesque, wide tree-linked streets and impressive city. Since it was already late, we could only see from afar the beautifully lit Faisal Mosque at the foothills of the Margalla hills. The mosque, which is said to be the fourth largest in the world, shone like a gem as the surrounding lights reflected magically on its vast marbled courtyard.

    On our urging to go home with some souvenirs, our guide took us to the trendy Jinnah Super Market with its beautiful array of boutiques, book stores, jewelery shops, gift and handicraft stores. And so, for the next few minutes, we were lost in the midst of the cavernous interior of the semi- circular edifice as we bargained for leather handicrafts, saris and Pakistani shoes. Although Punjabi and Urdu are the main languages in Pakistan, many of the shop owners already used to international visitors spoke and understood English. We were still haggling in the Super Market when the rich and multilayered cadences of the Muezzins call for prayers rang out from the nearby minarets, bouncing off the surrounding Margalla hills to echo far into the sleepy streets of the enchanting and magical city.