The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Writing

  • What do you read?

    The world would definitely be drab if reading and writing had not been invented. Well, at least for some of us. I often times wonder what one would do with the twenty four hours of a day without reading, even if for a few minutes. And for those who have the ability to read and don’t one should ask why they are wasting this God-given talent.

    In the line of duty, I once went to an office to keep an appointment with someone. On getting there I was told he won’t be available until a certain hour. I was on appointment; I did not just barge into the place. Nigerian officials hardly keep to time. I looked at my wristwatch and I noticed that I had about three hours to wait! What do I do? Do I leave and come back later? The legendary Lagos traffic snarl made that option impossible. I’d three whole hours to wait!! The reception hall where I was asked to wait was bare with some dog-eared, smelly magazines on the table for waiting visitors. You can tell from their looks that they had been there for ages. I was turned off. So, what next?

    From time immemorial, I never stepped out of the house without a book or something to read in tow. This is because I am a restless soul who can never sit in a place idle. I must find something to do. Or how do you go to a public office waiting and just sit idly or sleep off?  On this particular day, I went back to my car and was saved the long hours of waiting with the reliable company I keep – a book.

    The assistant to the person I went to see after contacting her boss later came and apologised that she had contacted her boss and that he would soon be around. She asked if I’ll like a cup of tea or coffee. Of course I opted for coffee. A young man later came in to see the same person I was waiting for. He was busy browsing through his phone while waiting. He had no book to read, I was sure he was only chatting and he did this until his phone battery kaput. He frantically looked for a charger to use fretting that he forgot his at home.

    Of course I couldn’t help him, neither could the receptionist. A few minutes after hissing and shuffling his legs annoyingly on the floor, he slept off. His deep snores enveloped the whole room. I was incensed. What sort of youngsters are we breeding? An illiterate population hooked on reading Facebook, WhatsApp and other distracting social media?

    As we marked another World Book Day on April 23, I enjoin us all to pay more attention to reading and how to make our children a reading generation.  April 23 is a significant day chosen according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) because of its importance. William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes (remember him?) among others are identified with the date. Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote has been translated into over 140 languages. It is considered to be the most-translated book in the world, after the Holy Bible.

    The essence of the day UNESCO added was “to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.”

    In her message, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO said, “Books are a form of cultural expression that lives through and as part of a chosen language. Each publication is created in a distinct language and is intended for a language-specific reading audience. A book is thus written, produced, exchanged, used and appreciated in a given linguistic and cultural setting. This year we highlight this important dimension because 2019 marks the International Year of Indigenous Languages, led by UNESCO, to reaffirm the commitment of the international community in supporting indigenous peoples to preserve their cultures, knowledge and rights.”

    Reading as a way of escape must be returned to just as we find ways to make our indigenous languages matter in the world of reading and writing. Cervantes didn’t write in English neither did many of the Russian writers, but their books have become world classics. We don’t have to write in English to become world famous. Where are our translators? They have disappeared because we have rendered them idle.

     

  • TINU ODUGBEMI: Writing has always been part of me

    TINU ODUGBEMI: Writing has always been part of me

    Tinu Odugbemi is an experienced journalist, educationist and social enterprise manager. She is also the Executive Director, Head High International Organisation, an organisation that focuses on widows and women, orphans, and people living with HIV and AIDS. In this interview with Omolara Akintoye, she speaks on how her organisation has effectively transformed the lives of widows, her experience as a journalist, among others.

    WAS journalism your initial career ambition?

    No. Initially I wanted to be a doctor and you may wish to know that I passed all my sciences very well. But in my final year somebody came to give us (students) career talk in our school–Methodist Girls’ High School, Lagos. And the man spoke so much, and so very well about journalism; made reference to people like Julie Coker, Bimbo Oluyide even though these people were not really journalists; they were more like media women. His presentation was so fascinating and I fell in love with journalism. And I said to myself I must be a journalist. Mind you, I made Grade 1 with distinction in many subjects and I was a science student. I had distinction in Mathematics, Chemistry, while Physics and Biology were credits. When I told my father I was dropping medicine for journalism, he broke down; in fact, it was most tragic for him because in those days the parents of medical doctors and things like that were adored. So I opted for journalism and I had always written so well. And since I came into the media, God has taken me round all the aspects of the media.

    Would you say you are fulfilled in your chosen career?

    Oh sure! I’m fulfilled. I was once the Lagos State chapter chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) from 1992 to 1996, a period of four years. And I got the British Chevening Scholarship or Fellowship as they call it while I was in journalism. Need I add that journalism took me to 17 countries of the world in 13 years, including United Kingdom and America.

    Can you remember some of the tricks you played as a child?

    Well, like helping to cover for your brothers.

    How did you meet your husband?

    I met him right in my house. He came as a friend to a friend of my brother’s. After my two elder sisters had left home, I was the only girl in our home with five boys. So the day he visited, my brother ordered me to get them food to eat and I did. Perhaps, the man didn’t like the way my brother spoke to me, so after they had finished eating, as I was clearing the plates, he decided to help me carry some to the kitchen and there he started chatting me up.

    Incidentally, I told him I was about going into the university to study Mass Communication and he screamed that he was studying Mass Communication in the University of Lagos as well. And he offered to help me with some books I might need. We became friends; one thing led to the other and we finally ended up as husband and wife.

    What kind of person would you say your husband is?

    Oh! My husband is a very nice person, kind, caring and supportive; in fact he is the best any wife could have. I have learnt a lot from him in some virtues; he hardly gets angry; he is very patient. He has been very supportive.

    How Head High International Organisation took off

    For me, it was the need to look after my family; that was the major reason I left active journalism. At a point, I felt I needed more time to attend to my children at the ages they were. I travelled abroad for the British Chevening Scholarship administered by the British Council and I left my baby that was under one year old. Even though I gained much from the programme–the scholarship got, I met a lot of people, made friends and bagged a master degree– I missed my family so much.

    I got back to Nigeria in December 1998 and in 1999 I was made a pastor among so many women in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG. And in the zone where I was, I was the only woman chosen for ordination as a pastor.

    And I went to seek the face of the Lord.  God began to show me different things about each of them.

    For example, He showed (me) that Naomi represents the older and childless widows who need support, and she found support in Ruth, and also told me that these widows need to get together. Ruth, on her own, represents the group of widows who are hardworking and by so doing, they would want to serve the Lord without distractions. About Orpah, the Lord told me that she represents the group of widows who are young and vulnerable if they were not properly guided. That was how I started Head High International Organisation, an organisation that champions and defends the cause of women, widows, orphans, children on the streets and People Living With or are affected by HIV and AIDS

    So what I started then was a television programme, an independent production and a weekly programme called “Head High” (lifting heads that are bowed high) on NTA Channel 10.

    Projects like this require a lot of money; how do you source for fund these past 17 years?

    That is a big challenge. The society appears not to be responsive to the plight of widows, so we depend on God.

    Success stories

    Head High International has turned out at least over 300 women in different skills acquisition, many of their children have won scholarships and are now in the university. We have our social and skill centre where widows come together, we are presently renovating the centre. There are so many widows that before they joined us their heads were down but today I’m happy to tell you that their heads are raised up. This is to show that Head High is giving them a new life which is what gives me joy today. They are wonderful women who are very appreciative

    Challenges

    A lot. There are some of them that it is when they need to pay house rent that you see them, once you help them to pay, you don’t see them again until the following year. That is why we are planning to have a shelter for them so that if there is any of them that is ejected by their landlord, we can accommodate them for like three months while they look for another house. We want the three tiers of government to do much more for these widows as NGOs cannot do it alone. Thank God for Lagos State government that’s doing all it could to ensure that women and youth in the state are empowered.

  • ‘Family travails ignited my love for writing’

    ‘Family travails ignited my love for writing’

    At first, one could pass the gathering at the Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja for a birthday bash. But, it was not. It was the launch of Mrs Hadiza Isma El-Rufai’s first book: An Abundance of Scorpions, which celebrates the Nigerian Muslim woman’s strength and perseverance. She spoke on how her family’s travails and political upheavals of 2008 reawakened her interest in writing, why she wrote the book on Nigerian Muslim family, and her dream of being  a published writer, among other issues. Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME reports.

    Until 2008, Mrs Hadiza El-Rufai was not known to the literary world. Though a housewife and an architect with a Master’s degree in Architecture, the wife of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has always dreamt of being a published writer. Her family’s travails and political upheavals ignited her love for writing – a passion she had always nurtured. Last Thursday, she did not only join Nigeria’s literati but also presented her debut book, An Abundance of Scorpions, to the literary world at Abuja.

    At an interaction with Dr. Olaokun Soyinka during the launch, Mrs El-Rufai said she had always dreamt of being a published writer despite being an Architecture major. She said to hone her skill, she enrolled for a Master’s degree programme in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom. That decision, she said, was informed by her belief that she needed to know the craft in spite of the desire and passion in her to do well in writing.

    “In 2008, my family had lots of travails and political upheavals. It was a turbulent and confusing period for us. It was at that period I remembered that I used to love reading books. So I started reading, and I attempted to write. But I realised I needed to learn the craft of writing. So I decided to do a Master of Art Degree in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, UK. There was no regret for me. I learnt a lot of things there, and that was the beginning. I was lucky because my husband was busy and that gave me the opportunity to write,” she said.

    Mrs El-Rufai, who is also the founder of  Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation aimed at awakening and nurturing creativity in children and improving the literacy skills of disadvantaged young women in Northern Nigeria, recalled her anxiety while waiting for the birth of the first book.

    “Since I decided to write and of course I had the dream of being a published write. And when a writer is published it makes some kind of validation. Even writers that are not published it is not to say they are not good writers. But publishing make you feel some kind of validation. Of course, I had wanted to be published and I feel excited. The first time I saw my book in published form, I was very excited,” she added.

    When asked if the use of suspense in her book was deliberate, she replied:”I don’t know and I won’t say it is deliberate. You know how these things happen. Sometimes, the book suddenly rewrites itself. Of course, not many of you have read the book. On page 4, I wrote about sex there. I got questions about that too. I did not deliberately put that there. I thought it was important to add that. I wanted to show the intimacy between a wife and her husband, after all, it is part of life. Also, I wanted to show the life of Muslims and Northerners that is different from the stereotype that lots of people have. I want people to read the book and see our family life and know that we are not so different.”

    On the thrust of the book and how it mirrors her person, Mrs El-Rufai described the question as a frequently asked question, but said the “book is on a Northern Nigerian Musilm woman, Tambaya, from the same culture. She is a woman that suffers a lot. Apart from that, the whole story is pure fiction. I made it up. I am working on the second book. I plan to write for the rest of my life.”

    Publisher and CEO, Ouida Books, Lola Shoneyin, who is also the initiator of Ake Arts and Book Festival, said she was very proud of Hadiza Isma El-Rufaia, adding that she enjoyed every moment and felt greatly privileged to have been involved in guiding the delivery of the book.

    “But what was the mother like while in the throes of labour? Well, like it is with every text that is cooked to term, we had to do a little snipping here and there. We did our breathing exercises and had long debates about punctuation, language, pace and even the title. But through it all, this mother was cooperative, painstaking and diligent,” she said of the processes that led to the birth of the new book.

    She recalled when she was introducing her at Ake Festival: “I whispered to her that this was the end of all that Your Excellency. I explained that you haven’t really “arrived” as an author until people refer to you by your first and last name. She looked at me with a wry smile and said: ‘I am very happy with people calling me by my given name.”’ she said.

    Continuing, she added: “You’ll hear that name quite a lot today. It won’t just be because Hadiza Isma El-Rufai has become a member of what is still an elite group of published Nigerians, it won’t just be because she has earned our respect; it will be because her baby, her book, An Abundance of Scorpions, is beautiful and worth celebrating.”

    Shoneyin, who noted that writers often describe the act of seeing the first bound copy of their books as akin to childbirth, said running a publishing house is one of the most fulfilling things she had embarked on though it is tough and frustrating when things don’t go the way you want. But, added that nothing compares to the sheer joy that that one experiences when a book is born.

    In his keynote address, Dr. Anwalu Anwar said between 1980 and 1990, the northern region experienced an explosion of women creative writers with the emergence of Yaya Hassana (NuniCikinNishadi, 1984), Talatu Wada Ahmad (Rabin Raina, 1987), Balaraba Ramat Yakubu (BudurwarZuciya), Zuwaira Isa, Bilkisu Ahmad Funtuwa, Sa’adatu Baba Ahmad, and Lubabatu Shehu, among others. The trend, he said continues till now.

    According to him, in 2014, Mace Mutum Writers Association in Kano produced a 266-page book, Hannu Da Yawa, on the themes of Talla (hawking), Fyade (rape), Aikatau (menial job), Rikice-rikice (trouble making), Almundahana (fraud), Yaki da Jahilci (adult education), Daba (hooliganism), Barace-barace (begging) and YanarGizo (internet). Anwar, who spoke on The Significance of Northern Women’s Voices to the Nigerian Literary Canon, said the significance of Northern women’s voices to the Nigerian literary canon is embedded in the nature of issues the authors discuss in their books. These, she said, include issues such as girl child, girl education, early marriage, polygamy, domestic violence, unpredictable and often sour relationship with in-laws, gender issues, gainful employment, entrepreneurship, economic independence, workplace politics, ethno-religious tolerance, peaceful coexistence, social responsibility and political awareness.

    He said that the emergence of women literary voices in English  was recorded in 1984 when Zaynab Alkali was discovered through The Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman (1986), Cobwebs and Other Stories (1997). Other authors in the category included AsabeKabirUsman, Fatima Alkali, BilkisuAbubakar, Bilkisu Ahmad Funtuwa, Razinat Muhammad, HalimatSekula, Cecilia Kato, The Kabafest Celebrities and HadizaIsma El-Rufai. He identified the objectives of the writers to include identifying the position of northern woman, to express her yearnings and aspirations, to tell her own story without distortions as effort to dismantle all barriers against her true identity and development.

    He therefore urged Northern leaders at all levels to sponsor the translation of women literary works from local to international languages, while governors should embark on genuine education reforms and development, especially at the primary and secondary levels. “Government at all levels should pay more attention to vocational and technical education. There is need for mentoring to encourage up-coming writers. Both the Old brigade and the New-breed writers need societal goodwill and support in order to sustain their literary activities for transformational purposes and development,” he added.

    The evening was not all about talks and speeches, as there were drama sketches Deihlar Musa, musical performances by Jeremiah Gyang and Uche Onah,  screening of short film on the book by Lilian Byoma. Book presentation was done by the duo of Tony Elumelu and Hakeem Bello-Osagie, while goodwill messages were sent by well-wishers such as Deputy Secretary General, UN, Amina Mohammed, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Uwais, Maryam Uwais, Zainab Alkali and Association of Nigerian Authors, President Denja Abdullahi. Present at the launch were Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai, Alhaja Zainab representing President Muhammadu Buhari, APC Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Managing Director Nigerian Port Authority  Hadiza BalaUsman,  Director General National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Segun Runsewe, former Corps Marshal, FRSC Osita Chijoka, wives of state governors from Kwara, Imo, Zamfara, Gombe  and Sokoto.

  • Writhing and writing

    Writhing and writing

    (A primer for transformation)

    Writing is easy. All you need to do is to hold your pen firmly and begin to scribble away until your fingers began to hurt and probably to bleed. Yet there are times when you just don’t feel like writing anything, when you feel you have written whatever there is to write. You even begin to plagiarize or parody yourself.

    Self-parody is like sodomizing or even lobotomizing yourself. For the writer, this is the worst form of self-abuse. Intellectual indigestion sets in before a writer’s block begins. It is the literary equivalent of what is known as a burnt out case, a case of leprosy prevalent in the old colonial Congo that is so severe that you can hardly feel anything anymore. Because you are mentally petrified, the whole world has also become one huge slab of a stone. A wit has after all described a critic as a man who leaves no turn unstoned.

    The conceit behind the opening sentence is not even original. You know that somebody has said something close to that before. But in your crammed and cramped state, you cannot recall the exact words or the name of the author. In panic and in urgent need of some literary laxatives, you reached for the Google search engine, skipping the Obasanjo-Awujale tiff which had filled the pages of the newspapers. You dismissed this hegemonic tussle as the opening gambit on the political chessboard ahead of the next presidential election. Nigerian power masters set forth at dawn even when at the dusk of it all the nation has nothing to show for it.

    But when you type in the phrase “writing is easy”, it immediately yields a moveable literary feast containing about twenty eight gems of compelling reflections on the magic of writing by writers across age and time. Snooper leaves you with three of these gems. “The first sentence is not written until the last sentence has been written”, Joyce Carol Oates. “Writing is easy. All you need to do is to cross out the wrong words”—  Mark Twain. “ There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed”. Ernest Hemingway.

    If writing is such a burden then why write at all? Or why write and writhe? But for most writers, writing is an obsession, a type of holy madness. It is when you stop writing that the madness becomes unholy and unwholesome. The obscene takes over from the scenes. In solitude, you consume only yourself. But without solitude, you are bound to consume others. The seer has become the shearer.

    It has been suggested that writers do not stop writing because the writer is a righter. The writer as a righter? What does this mean? It means the writer is the ultimate moral, ethical and spiritual compass of his society; the one who sets aright whatever has gone wrong and awry with his society; the all-time weatherman for troubled climes who forges in the smithy of his soul as the unregulated conscience of his race, to misappropriate James Joyce.

    If snooper’s memory serves him right, more than thirty years ago, in an engrossing and polemical monograph written for the monograph series of the Department of Literature in English at the old University of Ife, Niyi Osundare, the master-poet of agrarian splendour and joyous soaring lyricism, set forth the artistic template for what has since become a glittering career in popular and populist poetry. It was titled: The Writer as Righter.

    At that point in time even with the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry already in his Ikerre Ekiti hunting bag, it was obvious that Osundare had a sense of mission and of what should be the place of the writer in his society. Thirty years on and several national and international garlands after, the great crooner from Ikerre has not looked back, neither has he spared the politically errant the merciless and astringent bromide of his poetic master strokes.

    The cost of this poetic license can be prohibitive. Osundare often calls snooper on his occasional visits to Nigeria to compare experience and to share in the joys of glorious literary creation. In his guttural voice, rich and redolent with political ironies, the superlatively endowed lyricist recently told yours sincerely of how he was compelled to devise an escape route through Ise Ekiti at his own mother’s funeral, just in case the local tyrant decided to visit him with poetic justice after an earlier poetic infraction. Such are the pains of writers and righters.

    But unlike snooper, at least they allowed Niyi to bury his mother. Yours sincerely was not so lucky. Abacha’s goons kept a vigil and were on the prowl should in case yours sincerely have the temerity to show up once again as he did a week earlier, beating their evil security dragnet hands down through the help of some trusted associates. As a gesture of filial obligation to a beloved mother and as a mark of indignant contempt for military despotism, yours sincerely had shown up a week earlier to pay his last respects to the dying matriarch. Many thanks, once again to Akin Osuntokun, my politically estranged younger brother.

    As one writes this, the eyes began to cloud all over again. Perhaps it is because this coming month, it is going to be twenty years. Most rulers hate writers because they cannot write, nor are they capable of imagining the pains and trauma of creative gestation. Take a census of Nigeria’s rulers and see how many of them can be regarded as authentic authors rather than purveyors of ghost written memorabilia. Many of them cannot even read over without stumbling over their own recalcitrant creations.

    When Charles de Gaulle, the greatest Frenchman of the twentieth century, was asked to put away Jean-Paul Sartre who had been a thorn in his flesh and had been described by De Gaulle’s loyalists as the hyena behind the typewriter, the great warrior declined, famously grouching that Sartre was also France. Political titan and literary avatar profoundly disliked each other but each knew which sacred national boundary cannot be crossed without the nation suffering for it.

    The fact is that Charles de Gaulle was not only a military and political genius, he was also an accomplished author in his own right. Pound for pound, De Gaulle remains one of the most gifted prose stylists of the French language. African leaders who tend to excel have all been authors and avid pen pushers: Tafawa-Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Kwame Nkrumah, Kenneth Kaunda, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Augustino Neto, Amilcar Cabral. etc. Only the imaginatively gifted can call to the imaginatively gifted.

    But if oga no dey write, it is also the case that oga no dey read as well. Let them continue to write their nonsense while oga continues to work wonder. The problem is that without books and a life of the mind, there is nothing for oga to work with. A barren mind is incapable of producing great visionary ideas. This idea that something can come out of nothing and that reading does not matter is part of the ruinous, nihilistic legacy of the political elite that has percolated down to the great multitude in Nigeria. In every society, the ruling reading culture is a reflection of the reading culture of the ruling class.

    From classical Greece to the ancient Roman Empire, through Mandarin China, England, Holland, America, France, Singapore and Fidel Castro’s Cuba, every society that has excelled and commanded the attention of the world has done this through the literacy of its ruling elite and the cultural awareness of the generality of the populace. In many of these societies, economic, political and industrial breakthroughs are often preceded or accompanied by a huge explosion of learning and mass literacy.

    In the pre-literary phase and the great epoch of orality, Africa was there with the rest of the world because the great African oral culture also threw up its superb artists, philosophers, historians military geniuses and great chroniclers. This explains why Africa was not lagging behind the rest of the world in the epoch of empire. In retrospect, perhaps the greatest historical calamity that has befallen Africa and the entire Black race is the inability to transit from oral culture to the literary epoch on its own terms.

    There was enough warning before the Europeans took matters into their hands and applied their own solution as they deemed fit. Now, another world-historic calamity beckons as the advent of a knowledge-driven society and the supersonic boom of the hitherto unimaginable makes nonsense of the old paradigms of creating wealth. No government ever decrees the birth of genius. There is an organic connection between genius and the state of awareness of a society.

    Genius depends on the organic tension between individual talent and the dominant culture. A backward feudal society stifled by mass illiteracy and hobbled by superstitions can only throw up its own type of genius, particularly when it comes to scientific breakthrough. If ever such a society, against the run of play and the logic at play, manages to produce outstanding geniuses, they will in all probability unravel in the infancy of genius unless they are transplanted to more hospitable climes. This is the bane of contemporary Nigeria.

    There is too much unstructured and uneducated discontent in this land. It is a particularly evil augury for both ruled and rulers. In order to redeem Nigeria, we must take the foundational step and go back to where the rains started beating us at least in the post-colonial epoch. We must bring back the great learning culture, the great city libraries, the great town hall debates among holiday makers which powered the brief intellectual renaissance of the seventies and early eighties of which Niyi Osundare and so many others are sterling and outstanding products.

    It is this explosion in learning and cultural awareness which drove the Yoruba cultural revolution under Awo, which led to the great transformational stride that pushed the Igbo nation into global reckoning between the thirties and the sixties and completely overhauled its social and psychological fabric. It was the same phenomenon that led Ahmadu Bello to found the New Nigerian publishing conglomerate a few weeks before he was assassinated. Writing has its pleasure and writhing its great traumatic pains. But taken together, they may well be the elusive magic formula for a nation in urgent need of transformation.

  • How writing can change society

    How writing can change society

    Members of the Creative Writers’ Club (CWC) at the Fati Lami Abubakar Institute of Legal and Administrative Studies (FLAILAS) in Minna, the Niger State capital, have held their maiden literary symposium. One of them unveiled his unpublished work titled: Pearls of success on the occasion. ABDULSALAM MAHMUD and MARY JOHN (Mass Communication) report.

    It was a memorable day for  members of the Creative Writers’ Club (CWC) of the Fati Lami Abubakar Institute of Legal and Administrative Studies (FLAILAS) in Minna, the Niger State capital. Last Monday, the club held its maiden literary symposium, with the theme: Effecting a lasting societal change using writing: Prospects and challenges.

    Seasoned writers and members of academia were part of the dignitaries at the Mass Communication Lecture Hall (II), where the event held. The symposium also featured fund raising for an unpublished work titled: Pearls of success.

    Dr Muhammad Aliyu Busa, the institute’s Provost and host, said sustainability of the symposium would help revive the reading culture. He praised members of the club for organising the programme. He described the students as “intelligent youths”, whose write-ups could change the nation.

    Busa said: “I foresee a bright future for the nation with the efforts of these young writers and visionary youths in honing their skills in book writing and turn down social vices. The youths are dependable pillars and reliable agents of change in our society. I urge them to devote their energies to noble missions and productive ventures.”

    The provost hailed lecturers in the Department of Mass Communication for mentoring and guiding the students. The management, according to him, would not relent in boosting the capacity of the department to produce morally upright graduate that would write the name of the institute in gold.

    Speaking on the theme, the Legal Adviser of Niger State’s chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Mr Sulay Nsubong, described writing as a productive activity and sacred ritual whose origin can be traced to the creation of man. He said: “There is no arguing the fact that writing, in contemporary times, has its roots from the period when God created man. Writing is used not to only inform, educate and breed upright individuals, it is also capable of proffering solutions to myriad of problem facing human civilisations.”

    Nsubong made reference to the works of the Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka, the late Prof Chinua Achebe, and the late Abubakar Gimba, saying the writers used their works to expose injustice, corruption, decadence, immorality and bad governance in the nation.

    Nsubong said most of the contemporary writers were motivated by financial reward and not the objective to use their works to tackle societal challenges. He urged the students to improve their reading habit, saying only avid readers would be prolific writers and great leaders.

    Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Arts and Culture, Alhaji Muhammad Kabir Dan Asabe, said the nation’s rich cultural heritage would be best transmitted from a generation to another through writing.

    He said: “Writers have served as the watchdog of our societies and transmitters of cultural values. As future writers, you must write to educate and enlighten people. Through this, you stand to be famous and become beneficiaries of international honour. This will bring reward in many folds.”

    Earlier, the chairperson of state ANA, Mrs Farida Muhammed, said the symposium came at a better time, describing the theme as apt. She reiterated ANA’s commitment to reviving the reading culture and among the youths. She said the writers’ association under her leadership would continue to offer moral and financial supports to talented and creative young writers.

    The writer of the unpublished book, Mahmud Abdulsalam, said it took him four months to complete the work, adding that the book would be a compendium of recipes and tips students need to achieve success in their academic pursuits.

    Mahmud, who is CWC president, said: “I express my gratitude to my lecturers, members of CWC and classmates for their advice and objective criticisms. It would not be an understatement to say that it was their supports, motivations and encouragements that made the achievement a possibility.”

    Mahmud’s classmate and Sarauniya (Queen) of Hausa-Fulani Students Association, Zainab Kagara, described the author as a brilliant student, who “loves sharing knowledge with others”.

    The ceremony also featured poem and drama presentation, choreography, comedies and singing by members of the writers’ club.

  • ‘I have been writing since I was 13’

    ‘I have been writing since I was 13’

    Without doubt, it is not her smile, not her charm, and not even her congeniality that are the most potent qualities of Shola Amaraibi, author of Lest we Forget. Her lyrical fluidity, however, is as affecting as it is engaging, and she demonstrated this to the literary world in her first book, Lest we Forget, which was launched last Sunday at the Eko Hotel and Suite in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Laying emphasis on the expression of ideas and ideals through art, she said: “Everyone has a story inside them. Some express it through music; some express it through brushstrokes in painting and some in writing. Spoken rhythm is a way of expressing and experiencing poetry.”

    Her inspiration for writing the book, she claimed, came when she was trying to make meaning of life. She went on to philosophically explain the reason for entitling the book as such, saying: “The book’s title is Lest we Forget. Lest we forget to live, lest we forget to love, lest we forget, our values, lest we forget our individualities, lest we forget what is inside us waiting to be expressed.”

    Added to this inspiration is the reality that some of her personal experiences are expressed in the book. She noted that she walks through life with poetry and said: “To me, poetry is life. You will not find my actual life stories in it. However, when I am going through a certain experience, I express it in poetry. I have been writing since I was thirteen and this is just a selection of some of my works.”

    The reviewer, Oluwaseun Ayanfe,  said the author’s use of words is very expressive. “You can get a lot from the way she deploys words. It is very engaging. I also observed that the poet in one way or the other refers regularly to God, even though she does not refer to the God of any particular religion.She does not also refer to Him as God, but as ‘the divine being’, and ‘the supreme one’. She is not losing focus of her values,” she stated.

    Perhaps, to lay emphasis to the ideals she was trying to portray in her anthology of poems and short stories, the audience at the book presentation was treated to a short dance performance. The dancers included six males costumed in red pants with white bands at the ankles as well as white headbands and white loincloth over the pants.

    Their dance sequences seemed to have an innocently happy-go-lucky air about it, depicting what seems like the different relationships people forge in their journeys through life. The males leapt in the air in carousel motions, danced with a staccato tempo in crouched positions and thrust their hips forwards and backwards. They oozed of pure testosterone and the masculinity permitted to men.

    The females too swivelled delicately, in a strong and vigorous way, to represent the gentle power of the womenfolk. Although the dancers were still in their early teens and did not have ample physicalness to pull off some of the female moves, they did their bits commendably. They even managed to show the power of women over men in a sequence where the male dancers went on all fours and the female dancers sat on them and mimed the self-application of makeup to their visages.

    At the book presentation were many friends, art lovers and her husband who claimed that he connects favourably with his wife’s poetry because he can feel what she feels and it helped to strengthen their relationship.

     

  • Writing should be promoted too

    SIR: There have been heightened concerns recently on the poor reading habit of Nigerians. This is especially prevalent among the younger generation. Of course, a poor reader cannot make a good writer. While promoters of music, sports and other such take up the front pages and centre-spread, indeed the most strategic positions in the media, notices on writing competitions and workshops, etcetera are hidden in the most uninspiring sites if not the darkest pages of newspapers with prizes as ridiculous as a book by a famous author (one it is clear everybody already has). It is also sad that establishments and conglomerates, in their corporate social responsibilities would prefer areas (music, sports etcetera), already stimulated enough, with mouth-watering prizes just to rake in ‘corporate social returns’. Where in reading nations, newspapers, magazines and publishing companies are major facilitators and champions of writing, ours would hardly have any category for writers in their overblown usually annual awards. The result is that the promotion and impartation of writing skills is left solely, or with grudgingly little support, to the few established writers mostly confined to schools. Future writers of repute are not found only in academic environments. They are just everywhere. Sadly, the few competitions organized only see the winners rewarded with funny prizes – they may then go to hell with their knack in writing.

    I am yet to see our print media – they because they are writers and should represent everything writing – publish any winning work with intention of vigorously campaigning for the author’s support and advancement. Instead, they shamelessly publish with slight, authors who have been awarded abroad.

    Why won’t our best brains migrate abroad where they would be better appreciated? Our media houses will rather accept and promote deceptions and falsehood from politicians and their aides for whatever selfish and greedy reasons. They will rather collaborate in promoting contests from fashion to beauty in complete disregard of what they represent. The government’s indifference is simply overwhelming. Yet, one gets to often see articles complaining of the loss of interest in reading. Where is the motivation coming from? Since certificates are the ultimate target, do we not need to get rid of past-level books or more conveniently seek shortcuts to the so treasured ‘paper’?

    Writing and writers should be seriously campaigned for and encouraged. Publishing houses and the media generally, academic institutions, oil and gas companies, the government, professional bodies, telecommunication companies, writers themselves, in fact, everybody should join hands in giving writing (which comes with reading) its pride of place in Nigeria because a nation that hates reading is simply dancing it way to the very destructive pit of illiteracy or maybe neo-illiteracy.

     

    • Uzoaganobi Ebuka,

    Imo State.

     

  • CAMPUSLIFE man returns to alma mater with writing contest

    A graduate of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Ibrahim Jatto, has returned to his alma mater to engage students in writing contest.

    Ibrahim, who graduated from Department of Zoology, is a CAMPUSLIFE correspondent and a member of Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ).

    The writing contest tagged: El-Critical Writing Spree, was organised by Pen Press in honour of Ibrahim, who was former Editor-in-Chief of the club. It featured three categories of creative writing, which are prose, poetry and short story.

    The club Staff Adviser, Dr Jimoh Hamzat, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, extolled the virtue of the honoree, praising Ibrahim for his contribution to the development of campus journalism in the school.

    Hamzat also hailed Ibrahim for bringing gifts to the winners of the competition, saying the items would motivate students for more participation.

    An alumnus, Mallam Abubakar Anka, described the gesture as wonderful, urging other ex-members of the club to emulate the honoree by giving back to the association that made them.

    Highlight of the event included presentation of award to winners. Jameelah Yusuf, a 200-Level Law student, emerged overall winner from the three categories. Abdulqaudry Hassan, a 200-Level Education Biology student, was the first runner-up, while Abiodun Adewunmi, emerged the second runner-up. Five other students received consolation prizes.

    The Editor-in-Chief of Pen Press, Halimah Akanbi, hailed the sponsor for the initiative, urging him to sustain the contest.

     

  • Writing to hit mega bucks

    Writing to hit mega bucks

    Can you write? Then, there is a job waiting for you as a content writer on websites and blogs, which subscribers can access on their mobile devices. Online businesses and marketers are increasing their spending on content marketing, reports, DANIEL ESSIET.

    As more people access the web from their laptops, smart phones and  tablets, the demand for digital content is growing. Online companies have found that attractive prices, huge inventories and responsive online ordering aren’t enough to attract traffic. The missing ingredient, according to them, is quality content to inspire repeat visits.  To them, quality content is reading materials that are of value to their target markets.

    Moreover, the best content comes from writers. Content writers are professional writers who produce engaging text for use over the internet. They’re Internet-savvy individuals who create articles, blogs and other forms of written web materials.

    In the last five years, new content opportunities are emerging on the net, an internationally recognised web content writer, Bamidele Onibalusi said. Onibalusi, who has been successful as a web content writer started offering his services since December 2010. Since then, he has never looked back for any other job.

    From his online earnings, he has been able to establish a commercial fish farm that has provided employment people. Compared to when he started five years ago, demand for web content writers has increased massively and it’ll continue to increase. Onibalusi said this is due to the rise of a trend called “content marketing” online.

    Basically, content marketing involves educating and informing audiences through online media. Realising the importance of content marketing, businesses worldwide have increased their   budgets for it.  This means, better days are here for web content writers.

    Onibalusi said writers are raking in the cash. One area that he made money as a web content writer was in the area of writing landing page content on websites. A landing page is any page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action, or result.

    He also writes blog posts and guest blogs for clients. In the last five years, his reputation has risen, drawing attention internationally. His portfolio contains large amounts of marketing materials such as printed flyers, brochures, e-books and emails that he has done for people and organisaions.

    His stories and articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines in different countries.

    Onibalusi, who runs a writing blog (writersincharge.com) that has been read by over a million people, said  there’s high demand for writers online, internationally, and this is a great opportunity those  who are willing to use their  writing skills to earn an income.

    Businesses are in search of content writers to create content for the web including sales copy, e-books, podcasts and text for graphics. They are required to produce the content for many different types of websites, including blogs, social networks, e-commerce sites, news aggregators and college websites.

    Aside from writing content, these writers might also be responsible for making sure the sites’ pages and content connect. They’re also responsible for setting the overall tone of the site. Content writers accomplish these tasks by researching and deciding what information to include or exclude from the site.

    Onibalusi said a lot of youths with writing talents can carve a career for themselves as web content writers. Another celebrated web content writer is Michael Chibuzor. He is the owner of   contentmarketingup.com. He has made so much from web content writing business. He has now, ventured into offline projects through income from his writing services.

    Victor Ijidola, owner of startupwithgreatsales.com. He is gradually building himself as a successful web content writer. Beside working with international clients and charging them a premium, Ijidola has written for Forbes, Problogger and other key publications. A lot of Nigerians who are making it through website content writing wear many hats. Some are skilled copywriters, web content producer, content editor, website and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultant, freelance journalists and editors.

    Their main service offerings include   web copywriting, content editing, search engine optimisation, content marketing, website reviews, web consulting, editing and proofreading.

    One example is a former Deputy Editor of City People Quarterly, a subsidiary of City People, Mrs. Iyabo Oyawale. She is a popular fixture on the social media, and earns good money from blogging. She runs two blogs http://naijanetwarriors.com and www.askiyabooyawale.com.

    A champion of the “Quit Your Day Job” message, Oyawale is a professional copywriter, web content specialist, website/SEO consultant, journalist and editor. Over the years, she has produced and written quality content for a large variety of reputable businesses, and websites.

    Drawing on her journalistic background, she writes web content in British and American English that is understood everywhere. She writes professional copy for small business websites that improves their visibility in search engines.

    According to her, a lot of Nigerians are accessing books, magazines and news content on their laptops, smart phones and tablets than traditional hard copies. This represents a substantial increase in digital content consumption. For this reason, news content media is growing with digital access.

    While more Nigerians may be less interested in physical content because of high cost of living, their appetite for digital content continues to grow. That appetite, coupled with the introduction of new technologies, is leading consumers to access the content they want on a number of different devices. They are simply watching or reading on different media or platforms.

    For this reason, she said digital content consumption’s growth is no longer something businesses can ignore. She said the industry is in need of content writer with skills in search engine optimisation. According to her, SEO has emerged as an important industry in recent years due to the increasing power that a search engine such as Google wields.

    As companies try to raise their rankings on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP), she said they are turning to a specialised content writer with SEO skills to accomplish this goal. Such writers understand the art of designing, developing and promoting high quality websites. They have   experience with search engine optimisation in a variety of online activities, including web design and web content production.

    Content writers trained in SEO techniques and internet marketing help companies to create powerful, persuasive copy that compels and encourages positive audience reaction. As search engines continue to evolve their ranking mechanisms, companies struggle to align their strategies and stay in the game, she said. This makes writing for an internet audience increasingly challenging.

    Oyawale said writing has an unbelievably low barrier to entry. According to her, if one is looking to cross the threshold into entrepreneurship, one needs training on SEO. On the whole, she said there has never been a better time to become an online writer than now.

    She said the opportunities for those with experience and newbies too! – are greater than ever.   While full-time staff positions may require a degree, usually in the arts such as English, all most freelancers have to prove is that they can write.

    Online companies hire freelancers without degrees, but have killer writing samples and an understanding of search engine optimisation. Other skills required are excellent computer, research and organisational skills.

    On the whole, web content writing is competitive too, but one can earn significantly more as a freelancer once one determine a niche, set  own rates, create own service offerings, Oyawale, said. Those preferred are content writers with strong English and writing skills, as well as experience using softwares and technology systems.

    The market is open to content writers that use various web formatting tools, such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as content management systems to help create their work.

    While the social media has created a need for writers, there are more opportunities for SEO content technically written for search engines. These are content written to be found by search engines. It is keyword driven.

    According to her, the outlook for writers– especially freelance online writers– has never been better. The opportunities are there in many forms.

    The Chief Executive, Business Impact Limited, Olatunde Samson said online content jobs show no signs of slowing despite the situation of the economy as companies turned to freelance hands to control costs and manage uncertainty.  According to him, web based copies now require keyword research for search engine optimisation purposes.

    Explaining the importance of SEO, Samson said it represents the ranking of a company or organisation’s internet content on web search engines. According to him, SEO content writers are responsible for creating content for websites using keywords that will be ranked highly by such search engines as Google, Yahoo and Bing. The writers, according to him, conduct keyword research to determine the most popular search terms and use analytic tools to monitor and measure ranking performance.

    Generally, entry requirements for web content writers vary. However, many writers generally hold a bachelor’s degree in English, marketing, communications or another related field. Most successful content writers come from backgrounds in creative and technical writing, grammar, proofreading, editing and revising.

    According to experts, good research skills are essential, as they are required to use and cite authoritative sources to gain credibility. Samson said SEO content writers must master the art of incorporating precise keywords into their writing in order to optimise the companies ranking on search engines. This is because some clients provide a list of keywords to be used in articles, while other SEO content writers are left to the task of researching and developing lists of their own.

    He said content writers need expertise in social media as some SEO content writing jobs may have social media and blogging components. He said aspiring SEO writers should be familiar with using the most popular social media and willing to adopt new technologies and applications as they emerge.

    Few companies are currently offering positions for in-house SEOs. An SEO specialist is responsible for optimising page content, researching keywords, building links, adding content, among others. The range is very wide due to experience and opportunity. In some settings, a content writer is a critical part of an SEO firm.

     

  • ‘I poured my frustration as banker into writing’

    ‘I poured my frustration as banker into writing’

    After 13 years in the financial sector, Chinyere Vivian Obi-Obasi walked away from it all. Motivated by her passion, Mrs Obi-Obasi, a lawyer, anchored her career on the shoreline of creative writing. This 2011 Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Literature Prize finalist has co-founded Grower Literature, a publishing outfit. She is advocating parents-driven involvement in promoting reading. With Evelyn Osagie, she shares her thoughts and motivation.

    Writing is a gift. It has been fun writing books and stories and being appreciated by those who read them. My mother introduced me early into the world of creative writing. In promoting my creativity, she spent a lot of money buying novels for me. My mother used to buy us as much as 10 books; and they were relatively cheap. She would give us money to buy books ourselves and exchange with friends when we were done  with reading.  She also encouraged my writing then. All these helped me to become the writer I am today.

    I have always been writing. I started writing bit by bit from secondary school. Up till while I was studying English, and later Law, I kept on writing. After my second degree, I sent a complete manuscript to a publishing company: they neither acknowledged nor published it. I finished law school and concentrated on my law practice. And it was not until 2001 when I got into the bank that I picked up writing again to fill up those nights that I used to prepare my submissions.

    The high point of my writing career, which gave me a lot of joy, was in 2011 when I got to the finals of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Literature Prize competition. I have published three children’s books, The Brave Driver, The Faithful Dog and The Great Ponds, while my short stories have been featured in newspapers/anthologies (Camouflage) and (Eko O nibaje). My book, The Great Ponds, was shortlisted for 2011 NLNG Literature Prize. That same year my book, The Change, won the ANA/Lantern Prize. I am the current National Financial Secretary for the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).

     

    My voyage into banking

     

    It was a very difficult situation. I spent about 13 years working in the banking sector. I worked in the bank up till last year August when I resigned to concentrate and go into writing full-time and on my writing other allied professions, such as public speaking and script-writing.

    Banking job is not something most people just wake up and want to do. Sometimes, it is the Nigerian situation that forces them into it. Banking job is attractive and so you come with your talents and gifts; but when you get there you find out that this is not what I am supposed to do. But what do you do, you have family responsibilities and friends depending on you. In fact, bankers don’t spend most of the money they make; it goes to the public because you don’t even have time to go to the market or enjoy or relax. And I intend to do a book that I call Banking Exposed.

    Another terrible thing about banking job is that it is not like most careers. For example, a teacher can leave teaching  profession, chances are that he/she would open a school or set up a centre or something related to it. A journalist can you leave journalism and establish his/her own paper or run an online paper; and it is same with a medical doctor. But it is not so with banking. To set up even a community bank is not a tea party. So you would see a banker who, after leaving, goes into an entirely different career that has nothing to do with banking. So it doesn’t matter if you’ve spent 20 years. Yes, there are things I know about how the bank works that the ordinary person doesn’t, but what else.

     

    Mixing banking and writing

     

    While in banking, I already had a good writing culture, so I wrote every night.Just like I did during my school days, I wrote every night from 2am till early hours of the morning without fail, including Saturdays and Sundays. While I was working in the bank, then, there were lots of frustration: long working hours and all that. When I came back home, I’d pour that frustration into my writing. Writing was like an escape for me and a lovely experience.

    I would have left banking a long time ago but I didn’t have a clear vision of what I was going to do. I knew I’d leave there and write someday; but I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do to put food on my table. I wanted to own a bookshop but there was the danger of not running the bookshop by myself. So, I left last August when I got a clear vision of what I was going to do. I have no regrets. With Kenechi Uzor, we have floated a publishing house for children, Grower Literature. We currently have three books on our label. This is beside the other things I  now do, such as public speaking, stand-up comedy and acting.

     

    Eking out a living off my creative works

     

    I don’t because sadly, your books must be sold first and not so many get sold except when I get bulk purchases like when Julius Berger took me on a tour in certain cities and bought hundreds of my titles or when schools purchase the books in bulk. Writing is something that would yield after some years. Right now, My Great Ponds, published by Hybun that made 2011 NLNG Prize for Literature final list, is on the curriculum of five states; and some of my children books may get into the school’s curriculum soon. Despite being on the curriculum, my book is still faced with the challenges confronting the industry, such as distribution and agent problems. Some people would pick the book without remitting the money.

    In this part of the world, to make money from your books, you have to personally go into marketing and since you cannot catch two birds (writing and marketing) at once, something will give way. I look forward to a time when genuine marketers will handle the marketing side so the writers can concentrate on writing and producing good quality books. One of my goal is to own a bookshop which will take only 10 per cent for running cost because the author who gives me his/her books to put in my store is doing me a favour. If half of the books you find in bookshops are paid for in cash, shop owners would not be able to pay for them all. But what gain is there if the author gives his book to shops and the shop owners take 40 per cent. Let’s say the book costs N500, 40 per cent of that amount is forfeited by the authors to bookshop owners. Meanwhile, the take-home price is not up to the cost of production. So the next thing to do is to increase the price so that you can make profit. But writers should make money from the proceeds of their works. This brings us back to the exuberant cost of books. In a way, it is not entirely the authors or publishers fault. There is need for government interventions.  Let the writers get involved and establish bookshops that would begin to charge lesser percentage.

     

    My growing up

     

    My upbringing inspired the woman I became. I was born into the family of eight children (six girls and two boys). My parents, Mr and Mrs Iwual, were industrious business people, who were very caring. They embraced their God-given assignments with joy and complemented each other well. Whereas my father will not beat you, my mother will beat you but, all in all, while growing up, we were closely knit and happy. My father was very democratic that my mother believes he was, sometimes, too lenient with us. I used to jokingly tell my children that I cannot match my parents’ level of care. My mother made me into the woman I am today; and I mirror her life in all ways. In those days, we had talks every day on the facts of life; she told me many important things that I am planning to put into a book.

    My mother, who died in 2010, taught me that raising children is not a time to be involved with excessive socialising but a task that requires deep concentration. Before she died in 2010, she was a consummate businesswoman who tried her hand on diverse legitimate businesses.

    My parents loved education and encouraged us. Five out of us attended Federal Government Colleges; I attended Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Benin-City. I read English Language/Literature in Abia State University; Law from University of Uyo before proceeding to Law School such that by 27, I was done with all these.

    I have also copied their legacy of education in raising my kids. Two of my children finished from Queens College and I used to visit them once a term. I used to jokingly tell my children that I cannot match my parents’ level of care. They hardly missed any visiting day; and took me home during mid-term breaks that were not up to a week.

     

    Managing the worlds of spouse, motherhood, banker and lawyer

     

    I work within the time God has allotted me; do not complain. I have a good attitude towards whatever I do. I owe it as a duty to the society, to be a role model ‘wife’ in assisting my husband in everything; to bring up children who are industrious and ready to add value wherever they find themselves. And finally, I owe it as a duty to myself and my Maker to be fulfilled and discover, utilise and maximise every given talent in me. As a parent, your life is a mirror to your children. If you tell lies you cannot tell your children not to. If you don’t read, you can’t raise children who read. They see the positive results of my hardwork and that I have not died, they find it very easy to do the same.

    My third daughter Ugochi Obi-Obasi is a brilliant writer. Sometimes when I read what she writes I marvel. She has won a number of awards and I know in future she will be one of the writers that will be well spoken about in Nigeria. She is currently the head girl of her school. I am very proud of her writing skill.

    My son Chukwuemeka Obi-Obasi is a performance poet who was only last year at the age of 10 awarded a scholarship on account of his brilliant performance.

    He performs poetry like a grown up not a child in the best professional manner. These poems were not necessarily written by him. He is also ever willing to learn.

     

    Igniting reading culture in kids

     

    In our days, we had Pacesetters, Hints and others publications to read; but all the publishing houses soon folded up. If we are saying we are bringing back the book, it means that something happened to the book at some point. What happened to it? Parents have a role to play reviving the dwindling reading culture, especially in children. I also adopted her policy on my children. My house is full of books….cartoons of books.  I buy new and second-hand ones. Sometimes with N5000, I can buy so many. My children watch TV and they read. They watch and when they get an uninteresting segment, they’d read two pages.