Maku as a sign of hope

Mr. Labaran Maku’s appointment as the Minister of State for Information and Communication could be seen as a result of his eloquent past achievements and a sign of better days ahead for him and the Nigerian youth in general. For, he is an embodiment of what the Nigerian youth should be, if the country is to move forward rather than collapse back on the same spot each time it takes a leap.
At the age of 48, he has already achieved so much politically, in spite of the recycling syndrome that favours only the aged and denies the vibrant youths the opportunity to contribute to the development of their fatherland. Indeed, in a country where youths are considered useful only as thugs for politicians who have lost their political grip and are desperately searching for a violent means of re-asserting their relevance, he is able to hold his own. He is able to say, in a most practical manner, ‘I can do it!’
And he did it. He did it in the University of Jos way back in 1980s. As a student union leader, he was not only vocal and forthright, he was a living example of a true leader; humble but firm, honest and visionary.
He also did it as a reporter in The Nigeria Standard Newspapers, in 1989. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Champion Newspapers, where he served as a correspondent and later a group political editor and member of the Editorial Board of Champion Newspapers. He came to the scene when the maxim that rates the pen mightier than the sword was fast losing its meaning in the Nigerian media practice. He insisted journalism must be practised to the tune of professional ethics; saying it the way it is, not the way some faceless money-bags want it said. And in the process of not toeing the line, he trampled on many toes, especially in the heat of the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election. But he never gave a damn.
He did it again when between 1994 and 1997, he teamed up with some colleagues and ran the defunct Equity Press Limited (publishers of Meridian magazine). As the deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine, he used his mighty pen to advocate ways and means by which the country could be elevated from its perpetual state of animal farm to a true egalitarian society.
Even after leaving the organisation, and during a stint at USAID as Programme Manager, he remained a constant commentator on public affairs until the return of democratic rule in 1999 when he was appointed Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs by the former governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu. As one of the major players in the revival of the politically influential Eggon Cultural and Development Association of which he became the national president, the job was more like a challenge thrown at him. It was as if to say, ‘You talk so much, let’s see if you can work so much!’
And he rose to the occasion. For the four years he occupied the seat, he was able to prove that being a government spokesman does not necessarily mean being a blind propagandist. He did it in such a way that both the government and the people benefitted from the power of information and communication. This resulted in his becoming deputy governor of the state from 2003 to 2007.
This period particularly afforded him the opportunity to display the leadership qualities that have marked him out as a viable political asset to the state and the entire nation. His utterances and actions then were quite monumental. In fact, his speeches and policy statements on various Nigerian problems were interesting archive materials.
Even as a deputy governor, the comrade did not spare the Nigerian leadership in his criticisms. For instance, he once observed at a public function that Nigeria is blessed with abundant human and natural resources, but lacks credible and quality leadership to harness the resources for the general benefit of its citizens.
In another occasion, he lambasted politicians who used religion as a means to achieve their selfish ends. He stressed that real politicians would not bring religion into politics, but use their offices in the best interest of all, regardless of religious affiliation; and warned Nigerians to be wary of self-seeking individuals who paraded themselves as politicians.
Maku did not only dazzle the public with his radical comments, he lived by them. He demonstrated on several occasions that his was leadership by example. One of the glaring instances was when he stopped his convoy to attend to two school girls who were knocked down by a car along Jos road. He spent some undisclosed amount of money for their treatment and ensured that they were rushed to hospital.
Another instance was when this writer received a call from an unknown caller, who turned out to be the deputy governor he had never met! “It is Labaran Maku calling,” he had said. “I’ve just read your column, keep up the good work.”
You can imagine the cordial feelings such simple gestures could elicit. And by extension, one could imagine the spirit of camaraderie that would exist between the leaders and the led, as well as the resultant impact on our collective sense of patriotism, if every Nigerian leader could at least once in a while exhibit such a rare show of compassion and humility.
Maku is indeed a pride and inspiration to the youth, a sign of hope. His success is a veritable testimony to the I-can-do-it spirit of the average Nigerian youth. The ministerial appointment is, therefore, just the beginning.

(c)Written by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the New Nigerian

Significance of Maku’s visit to NAN

The recent visit by the Honourable Minister of State for Information and Communications, Mr. Labaran Maku, to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, is significant in many respects. It underscored the importance of the establishment as the only agency in Nigeria recognised officially to trade news and feature materials to subscribers within and outside the country. It also brought to the fore the laudable achievements the agency has recorded particularly under the leadership of the Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo.
The tour, which took place precisely on 17th August, is among the first of such official engagements since the minister assumed office early this year. This further underlines the strategic role of the company in the realisation of the vision and mission of the ministry. The minister stressed this fact while addressing the management of the organisation: “With NAN in place, continuously feeding the broadcast and print media with accurate and timely information, the image of the country and that of Africa will objectively be projected.” He added that Nigeria is endowed enough to become a media power, using NAN as the fulcrum.
Viewed against the backdrop of the fact that the functions of his ministry include the provision of professional information services aimed at projecting the reputation of Nigeria as a responsible society, the minister’s statements are a proof of not just the agency’s importance in the scheme of things but his faith in its ability to deliver. And indeed it has over the years effectively complemented the ministry’s job of disseminating essential and vital information capable of enhancing and facilitating the socio-economic and political development of the nation.
Established on 10th May, 1976, the agency began operation on October 2nd, 1978, with the publication of a 1,670-word general news bulletin, in which its mission of providing “complete, objective and impartial information, news or news material or features on any matter of public or national interest within and outside the federation” was clearly stated. In line with the undertaking, it became the major feeder of wire reports to the country’s newspapers, using Eddystone Radio and Transtel printers. By 1990s it began to computerise and digitalise its services with digital broadcast receivers that entailed the installation of big satellite dishes and decoders in the premises of its clients. Gradually the system was upgraded to the more modern internet use. It is presently on the net with its Mweb and Galaxy satellite network services, enabling it to engage in multi-media content provision, serving radio and television stations.
In addition to acquiring upgraded technology, other aspects of the organisation have equally witnessed tremendous transformation. They include the building of new office structures, computerisation of newsrooms, upgrading of its libraries and establishment of more outlets in addition to its 20 zonal offices across the country and two foreign centres – in Johannesburg and New York.
The new outlets comprise the East African bureau and the re-opened offices in London and Abidjan, which, according to the Managing Director, would soon begin operations. The agency also plans to open five additional district offices this year in addition to the 18 existing ones.
As part of its diversification strategies, the agency has established a subsidiary company, NANBiscom, with up-to-date news gathering and dissemination gadgets aimed at rendering training and business services.
News gathering and dissemination being the agency’s main business, the management has ensured the availability of enough hands to carry out the all-important task. According to the Managing Director, the organisation has the largest group of journalists in any single establishment in the country, with 450 journalists stationed in all the states of the federation. And it is currently building facilities, renovating offices and employing more hands in the 36 states.
As a result of these efforts, powered by the visionary leadership of the Managing Director, output has increased greatly. The agency now puts out about 200 news and feature stories everyday as against the paltry 20 news articles sent out weekly a few years ago. It has even gone beyond the conventional news agency chores like news and features reports to serving photographs, film clips and other related services.
The phenomenal transformation has resulted in an equally exceptional rise in the agency’s clientele. According Mrs. Oyo, the clientele has risen from 60 in 2007 to 166 since the commencement of its 24-hour operation and introduction of its Short Message Service (SMS).
These are indeed immense achievements by every definition. And the multiplier effect of the accomplishments is quite visible in especially the Nigerian media scene where most of the media houses rely mainly on the materials from the agency for their news and features. It has positively influenced the benefitting media outfits toward a responsible journalism practice that is the hallmark of the agency. This means that apart from its role of projecting the voice and image of Nigeria to other parts of the world it is as well serving as a pacesetter in ethical journalism. It is no wonder, therefore, that the minister was so full of commendation for the management of the agency. Impressed by what he saw, he assured the management of government’s continued support to enable the agency compete favourably with other international news agencies.
This official assurance could be said to be the major significance of the minister’s visit. It is hoped that government will not only fulfil this pledge but even go beyond the usual support, considering the agency’s enormous projects ahead, so that the impact of the visit would be felt in a manner that leaves no stone unturned.

(c) Pulished in the New Nigerian newspaper.

Honouring JP Clark is celebrating Delta’s achievements

Mr. Godini Gabriel Darah, campaign director of Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan’s re-election project, represented the governor at the recent colloquium organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors to celebrate the 50 years of JP Clark’s writings, in Lagos. In this interview with SUMAILA UMAISHA, he speaks on the event and the upcoming literary conference in Abraka, Delta State.

NNW: What’s the motivation for the governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduguaghan of Delta’s contribution of N10 million naira towards organising JP Clark’s colloquium?
Godini Gabriel Dara: In the first place, Professor JP Clark is from Delta State, he is one of the most distinguished writers and a man of letters in the whole world. Any state that has the honour of having such citizen ought to honour such citizen. Though JP Clark does not need rebranding, but by marking his 50 years of writing the association is also helping to project Nigeria. The world would know that Nigeria, with all the bad image abroad, still has people of this stature. This conference will bring that out. It was only twenty-four years ago that we won the Nobel Prize through Soyinka’s works. And since that time, every prize in the world in the area of literature, Nigeria has won it. Fifty per cent of the literature in Africa is produced in Nigeria. So Delta State identifies with the intention of ANA to utilise the landmark of 50 years of JP Clark’s writing to also enter into the mood of Nigerian independence celebration which is in October. In other words, JP Clark’s writing career is synonymous with the existence of Nigeria as an independent nation. That is symbolic. And it is of more than literary interest, it is also of political interest. It is also of cultural interest, it is also of global and diplomatic interest. So that is the way our governor assessed it.
Wouldn’t you say it is also a celebration of Delta State in terms of literature, given the number of writers the state has produced so far?
Oh, yes, beyond celebrating JP Clark, we also are celebrating ourselves in Delta State through JP Clark; in the sense that the first African outside of Egypt to have a university degree is from Delta State. He is Dom Domingos; he was an Etsekiri prince, he got his university degree from Portugal in 1610. That is 400 years. So Delta State is very happy and proud that they produced such a person even before Nigeria came into existence. Secondly, we have many other pioneers in education. Bayelsa and Rivers states are just near us. The rivers people produced graduate since 1856. That is Mr. Herbert Jumbo. His brother, Don Jumbo, 1888, is another degree holder. Then the second one is the one that did BA English studies in England. And the conference that the Department of English Literary Studies is going to host in Delta in Abraka in December is framed around that achievement – one hundred years of English study in Nigeria. The other reason why Delta State and the governor showed interest is that we have a large proportion of the major writers of Nigeria in the state – JP Clark and a host of others like Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta, Tess Onweme, Tanuire Ojaide, Ben Okri, Kaine Agari, Nduka Otiono etc. So Delta State has such eminent writers that if a writer is being celebrated and he is from Nigeria we will be there. Works by our writers have been studied in universities world-wide. And dissertations in masters and PhD thesis are generated from them. It means the culture and artistic heritage of Nigeria through Delta State are being replicated and circulated world-wide. So we are not just a country of 150 million people, through the arts and the literature and culture, the whole word becomes the country’s constituency. I wrote an article in the Sunday Times when I was in Daily Times fifteen years ago, that oil and solid minerals perish but culture, literature and the arts live for ever. This is the background to the interest of Delta State in sponsoring the conference. ANA wanted twenty-seven million from all the donors and I made a recommendation to the governor that he should take three items, which amounted to ten million. He did not subtract a kobo from it. If it was not postponed, when we were to have it two weeks earlier, he insisted he would be at the opening. This one he called me in the midnight and asked when is the tcolloquium opening and I said today. But he was in Abuja for PDP meeting otherwise he would have come.
What your advice to Nigerian government regarding literary development?
Every state in Nigeria should identify his icons and forget about oil and gas, because those are conflict-inducing investment. If it is just to hold a conference per week around Nigeria at which books will be sold, and writers showcased, we will not exhaust the list. Because, in Delta State alone we have more than fifty-two writers. We have not gone to Edo, Kaduna, Anambra, etc. Can you see the inexhaustible wealth that this country has, which our government belittle. They relegate the arts; they don’t think it is important. If the MD of shell wants to see the president today, he will see him, but if the president of ANA wants to see the president, even though he was a minister, they will say the president is very busy. It is a heretic position. I hold our government responsible for under-developing Nigeria from the cultural angle. It is not so in Ghana, in Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa. South Africa, coming from the barbarism of apartheid, latched onto the arts; they know there was a large market which should be exploited.
When you make a case to federal government about culture it will say no, we want to have electricity, railways etc. They will not understand that the oxygen that animates all those technology is still culture. If you miss your culture you will not be inventive and if you are not inventive you cannot manufacture, if you are not manufacturing, you cannot dominate the world market. You become a dumping ground that we are now. It is not machines that make development, but culture. Achebe proved it in 1983 when he gave a lecture titled ‘What Has Literature Got To Do With It?’ He said it has everything to do with it, that when the Japanese came from backwardness, out of the military revolution in the 19th century, the first thing they did was to tape-record all their folklores, folktales and proverbs for ten years. And translated them and circulated them. In the folktale you see a witch flying. That’s what they converted to aeronautic engineering. That is the origin of Japanese technology now. What is Nigeria doing with such stories? The Bagauda epic, the Ozidi epic etc. Anywhere you look you will find these magical powers. If you don’t investigate and interrogate and interpret those folklores and the ancient wisdoms, you cannot go forward. If you go forward for one year, you go backwards for ten years.
Could you elaborate on the education summit coming up in December?
It is a celebration of Nigeria’s fifty years. The Department of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, where I teach, will host a conference from December 1 to December 4. And the slogan for the conference is 100 Years of English Studies in Nigeria from the Niger Delta to Globalisation, with seventeen sub-themes. Though it is part of Nigeria’s fifty years independence celebration, it is twice Nigeria’s age. And we are taking it from the point of view of gaining a degree in English studies in 1909 by an indigene of the state. That is our benchmark. We are marching forward from there. And we have sold the conference to the oil companies in the area. They are very excited because the topics are dealing with environment, human right, eco-literature, film, video, etc. And they know that this thing will appeal to a large segment of the society. So they are coming in. I have got two promises; I have even got a check from one of them – Total Nigeria Limited. It took just 72 hours for the company to reply. They don’t even operate in Delta, they are in Bayelsa and Rivers, but they know that these boundaries are just geography; they are all the same cultures. And they are very conscious of the cultural dimension in their relation with the host community. The natural gas project in brass is also one of the sponsors. We are also expecting sponsorship from Chevron and Shell. When I have those and I go to my government to solicit for more, they won’t say no. So I’m entering from the deeper side of the ocean before I come to the riverine area. We are expecting about five hundred participants. They will not pay any registration fee. We are trying to mobilise for sponsorship so that they can have free accommodation.
You are the campaign director for Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan; how are you selling the project?
I’m here (at the JP Clark colloquium) to represent him, so I’m already selling the project. I’m telling the world that Delta State is education responsible, not friendly; friendly is like charity. We have established eight polytechnics in eight years. Even Awolowo did not do that. In the area of education, we are not looking back at all. We have the best University Teaching Hospital in the whole world. In other words, education is the priority. The governor attended the best school in the state – Federal Government College, Warri, from 1963. He was in Year One when I was in Upper Six. The school was like a university. And he keeps telling himself; why are other schools in the state not like that school? So he has the motivation, the vision. By the time he is stepping down in 2015 he would have done half of the work and the next governor will take it from there. Any state that does not make education number one, that state will not make it, it will continue to starve.

(c) Published in the New nigerian newspaper of September 18th, 2010.

Celebrating JP Clark’s glowing achievements

Recently, the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, held a two-day colloquium on the 50 years of JP Clark’s writings in Lagos. In this interview at the event, the President of the association, Dr. Jerry Agada, spoke about the occasion, its shortcomings and the need to rectify the administrative lapses and effect improvement on future events.

NNW: What is the JP Clark colloquium all about?
Dr. Jerry Agada: We are celebrating his glowing achievements as a writer. Renowned Nigerian writers like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Abubakar Imam have been celebrated by the Association of Nigerian Authors in recognition of their literary contributions. And now that Professor JP Clark has become 50 years in his writing career, we decided to celebrate him too. And that’s the importance of what we are doing today.
It is virtually a year now since you became the President of ANA and this is probably the first major event you are holding, yet the quality of it is low in terms of organisation.
This is not the major event we are holding since I became president. And though there was setback here and there, it does not mean it has become a permanent feature of ANA under my administration. Yes, there were lapses, especially in the build-up to the event, as I said in my welcome speech. You can imagine; how many banners did you see outside? How many people are on the high table and other seats? There were administrative lapses. And this will be rectified in future. I don’t want it to be looked upon as if it has become a permanent feature of what ANA can do. There is a lot of room for improvement. And every aspect will be exploited to ensure that things get better another time.
What would you say are the major causes of the lapses?
There was a committee charged with the responsibility of putting this arrangement in place. I think either because of communication gap or something, they did not connect. And at the end of the day we discovered that the necessary division of labour did not take place, and you find a situation where only one person is doing the whole thing. It is that lack of commitment on the part of the committee that caused the lapses.
But as the president you are supposed to supervise...
Of course, the president was supposed to do the supervision, which in a way he did. But If I start explaining to you the way things went it means we are not going to leave here today. So many people supervised so many things but at the end of the day things did not work out well because of the basic factor that I have already explained.
Are you fulfilling your campaign promises as ANA president?
Yes, I’m fulfilling them. By the time I enumerate them you will see that a lot have been done. Certain things have not taken place but I can tell you that it will be done.
Specifically, what have you done?
This colloquium is one of them. There is the issue of ANA land in Abuja, which was our major campaign promise. Up till today, we’ve been going to the court in connection with that matter. In fact, even if nothing else, the mere fact that we are always in the court trying to make sure that the problem is eased out of our way so that better things can come, is there. So that is something that we are doing. And in terms of national participation, ANA is participating in national activities in one way or the other. Even the colloquium is part of the fulfullment of the campaign promise because the in-thing now is the amnesty programme in Niger Delta. The person we are celebrating today is also from Niger Delta. Put things together like that, you will see that ANA is also projecting the Niger Delta question for the international community.
You said during your tenure that ANA would be commenting on issues of national importance; have you been doing that?
ANA members have been commenting on national issues. We have commented on zoning and other issues. Recently I commented in Leadership newspaper on zoning. I said let zoning stay; that does not prevent Jonathan from contesting, because he is carrying the ticket of himself and Yar’Adua from the previous election in line with that arrangement. So even though Yar’Adua is no longer there, he can continue in his place. So zoning should stay though that arrange should continue. And ANA members in other places are also speaking. I read in a paper the other day, someone was saying all ANA does is go cap in hand begging governors to give them money. I laughed, because how many governors have given us money. The one that was given by the Delta State governor is because we are celebrating an illustrous son of the state. I know most of the governors, and to avoid this situation where somebody would feel that we are going cap in hand to them, I try to dissociate the body from such. So we only meet any of the governors when the event affects him directly. And to me, there is nothing wrong with it.
People may wonder that despite the ten million given by Delta State for this colloquium, there is still poor organisation.
The money was actually ear-marked but not eye-marked. The approval was made but it could not be cleared from the bank. Till this moment that the event is holding, we haven’t been able to access the fund. So certain things that need to be done could not be done because there was no money. But we are not complaining because this programme didn’t start here this morning; it started right from JP Clark’s village. So many things have been going on. But I have already explained that actions will taken to correct the lapses in future. So ANA did not have that ten million right on hand to use. Remember that even the first postponement was as a result of the inablity to get the money at the right time. There was nothing to do but to shift it to today. So let nobody play the issue of somebody carrying ten million and was not able to deliver.
Several millions of Naira was raised by the previous ANA administration, especially from the Niger State government, which you inherited; what has happened to the money?
That only thing I can say about that is that it is not true that millions of Naira was inherited from Niger State government from the last administration to mine. Nothing was given to us. You can ask anybody. The twelve million that Niger State donated for the convention was given to the Niger State chapter of ANA, it was not paid to the national body.
Do you have any plan for ANA to generate its revenue without necessarily begging for sponsorship each time it is organising an event?
We are putting arrangement in place. For instance, we want to commit ANA members financially to generate funds and stimulate a sense of belonging. It is not just enough to carry your bag around the state and say you are ANA member without any commitment. When we put this arrangement in place, and we say ANA member will be paying certain amount at given periods, people will complain, but it will help our source of finance.
What do we expect from ANA in the next convention?
Judging from what we are seeing here this morning and we have all agreed that things have not gone the way we want, I think our expectation is to learn from our mistakes, so that in the next convention we will be adjudged as the best.

Published in the New Nigerian of 21st august, 2010.

Nigerian literature is a victim of circumstances

NNW: Let’s begin with your assessment of the Nigerian literary scene.
Shehu Sani: The Nigerian literature is a victim of artificial and natural circumstances; it is a victim of the realities of the changing times. And it is also a victim of a society that is degenerating. If you go to developed societies, it is different. Each time I popped into a library or a bookshop in London, Paris and Norway and in some other countries I’ve visited, I do see people trooping in to buy books, both fiction and nonfiction, people that cut across different ages. And also if you travel by trains or buses in Europe, or if you stroll within the public parks, you see people reading books.
So literature is an integral part of the lives of those countries. Their relative economic prosperity and technological advancement has not affected the ability and interest of their people towards literature. But what we are having here is a direct opposite of what is obtainable in the western developed society. Here there are challenging issues that are diversionary and are also intervening when it comes to the issue of development of literature and the concept of reading culture. Young people here are more interested in reading what is on the Facebook and Twitters than reading books. They are more interested in watching cable TV than reading. They are more interesting in watching Big Brother Africa than reading books.
There are also challenging issues that have to do with the economic situation in which we found ourselves. There is a preponderance of poverty and challenging social issues that have made life unbearable. And all these things deflect the attention from the dynamism of literature in our society. What also corrupts it generally is the politicising of literature in the sense that books that have attracted greater attention and of interest are usually books that make no meaning at all; books that are written to massage egos of individuals or make politics out of literature. So we can say that literature in our society is on the decline, hand in hand with the socio-economic and political idealism of our society. For now we can say literature needs salvation as much as our society needs salvation.
Don’t you think politics coming into literature has a way of enhancing it rather than affecting it adversely?
If you look at it clearly you will find out that most of the public launchings of books today have become simply a political arena. We live a lie. Any politician that wants his ego to be massaged and achievements to be drummed up simply hires a ghost writer to crystallise both the facts and fiction about himself and what he has achieved. And then it is fed to the public. And most of the so-called speeches that are being paraded as a collection of thoughts of most of our leaders are usually speeches written for them by their speech writers. This is bastardisation of literature in the sense that most people today, especially the political elites, see books as part of the furniture of their houses. Each time they are instructing their architect to build a house for them, they usually recommend for aesthetics that a library should be constructed. And there as part of the contract, books are bought and stocked in the library. But they have little or no time to read the books. And many of them also make a show of it by stacking their offices with books which they spend years without going through. I have met some politicians who have confessed to me that they have not read even their own autobiography which is written for them by their ghost writers or hired writers. So book launching and the interest in books by political elites is more of hypocrisy. They can explore any avenue and use any instrument that they feel can sell them and give them a certain image that will advance their political interest or ambition. So politics have done a serious harm to literature. Even from the quality of debate that goes on in the National Assembly and in the interviews being granted by most public office holders, you will discover the famine in the content of their argument. You can hardly see a minister, commissioner or governor making speeches and backing it up with some relevant quotations from leaders that have faced similar challenges. This is because they don’t read. You can also see the quality of debate on TV by our office holders. They are virtually bankrupt of ideas. It is natural that what comes out of your mouth is what goes into your head.
What are the major causes of this situation?
I think a lot has to do with politics and economic situation in the country and the level of our social degeneration; politics in the sense that we are running a society whereby the pursuit of wealth and power is the major interest and ambition. It is also what is being quantified to be the achievements of an individual. And where interest and ambition is about personal acquisition you will have a society that is bankrupt of literary thinking. Also, there is the economic problem as it is now. Young people in pre-independent Nigeria, just years after independence, had a higher standard of living and comfort and the society itself was secured. An atmosphere existed at that time that made it possible for individuals to pursue their literary dreams. And also every school boy knew The Trial of Brother Jero, Things Fall Apart and so on. Young people compete with each other in terms of how fast they can finish reading books by James Hardly Chase and pacesetters and other African writers’ series. But now young people are virtually empty in their own thinking. You see them discussing irrelevant things even on Facebook. What have you eaten in the morning, what are you wearing, what are your favourite colours and so on. You can see the descent in our society when it comes to the issue of literature. And it is a serious problem. In the late 50s and early 60s even though most of us were too young but we have seen how it was. Young politicians like Awolowo, Zik and Aminu Kano could quote people like Martin Lurther King, Fidel Castro and others. But you don’t see this these days. So we can say the decline in literature is in consonant with the decline in our society.
What is the way out of the quagmire?
The way out is that, first of all, there is the need to have an improved political and economic atmosphere that would make it possible for people to read rather than think of survival like the way animals do. They should also think of how to live as advanced human beings and add quality to their mental faculty and also see how they can enrich the society with thoughts, visions and literature. Secondly, there is the need for a revolution in order to revive that literary culture which the country like ours was known with. It is unfortunate that I read recently that the staff of Nigerian libraries are planning to go on strike because of poor condition of service. When you have a librarian who cannot feed his family from his earnings certainly the books have to suffer. Other sectors of the society that contribute to literature, like our schools, are all in decline in terms of quality. And when you have a combination of these things certainly the interest of the society and its attachment of literary culture will certainly be affected. And that is why public schools have been so destroyed over the years and literature affected. Public schools nowadays don’t even have chairs not to talk of having libraries. It is very painful that most of those in power today have all attended public schools, but they cannot take their children to such schools any more because they are a ghost of what they used to be. So it is the decline of moral values in the society, our educational values, and the economy that have contributed to the literary decline. And it is only when such sectors are revived that we can actually have a society that will be reading and writing again.
Talking about reviving our culture for the better, would you say the present government of President Jonathan is on this path?
Well, the present government is not different from the past government in the sense that they all have the same programme and they are from the same base. So what is needed most is the appreciation of the value of literature because before you make any move you have to appreciate it. It is then you will make an investment in it. We have to be innovative in regenerating interest among the younger people. We must, for instance, update our libraries with computers, internet services, etc, to make it attractive; to make them get back to reading and writing. Funding is also very important. There should be a way in which we will remunerate individuals that have talent or interest in reading and writing of books by making funds available to write off any credible manuscript. That will encourage people to write.

(c) Interviewed by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the New Nigerian newspapers of September, ath 2010.