A drawback for Niger’s Bookhawker Scheme

Obviously, good governance is only realizable with ideas, with people who are capable of dredging up such ideas and putting them to effect. The whole notion of the Servant leadership began first as an idea, a conception of somebody else’s mind before it eventually became universalized and found its way into the mind of the […]

Obviously, good governance is only realizable with ideas, with people who are capable of dredging up such ideas and putting them to effect. The whole notion of the Servant leadership began first as an idea, a conception of somebody else’s mind before it eventually became universalized and found its way into the mind of the Chief Servant. Similarly, the Ward Development Project, an initiative which now serves as the basic plank of the Chief Servant’s development policy framework, started as an idea before it eventually became a concrete reality that is now being celebrated everywhere as innovative. However, before it became a concrete reality, it attracted massive funding and the support of everyone in the administration.
This demonstrates the fact that ideas are as essential to human life as they are to the progress and development of any society. Without ideas there can be no reality. That is why it beats the imagination when some public people invest their energies to kill an idea especially in its midlife. Niger State Book Development Agency, and the BookHawker Scheme, which are all well intentioned human capital development initiatives of the Chief Servant, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, should not be allowed to be killed at birth. These initiatives are targeted at developing the minds and culture of the people of Niger State in material term. The MBA International Literary Colloquium is aimed at attracting ideas from enlightened minds from other places to the state for discourses that animate and foster the progress and development of immediate societies. It hopes to broaden the people’s mind and horizon about issues which are tailored towards collective aspiration of our society. When scholars are brought in from other places to treat specific issues, they are not just doing so as a jamboree. The benefit of such interaction may not be immediate but certainly in the long run it will help in various ways to enlighten and educate us on the dynamics of the society, and equally enrich our understanding of human nature altogether. Literatures produced from such interactions will serve as reference materials to researchers and scholars in various universities and centres of learning thereby helping to further the course of learning and education. What can be more important than this?
In the same way, the Book Development Agency is another invaluable centre for the coordination of all intellectual and artistic or creative efforts aimed at human capital development initiatives of the Chief Servant’s administration. That is why its functions are, interalia, to formulate, develop, and implement programmes and activities relating to specialized services in the area of documentation, policy analysis, publications and documentaries relevant to the society; to identify, promote and secure the intellectual capital programmes of the state government; to develop journals, magazines and other modern information platforms; to document government activities, creative writing and indigenous authorship in the state; to create an organized, serene environment for research writing in any discipline, and organization of thoughts by local, national  and international scholars, critics, students of tertiary institutions and policy studies. The BookHawker Scheme is in furtherance of these invaluable objectives.
So, who in his right senses will want to kill these laudable initiatives? Who is it that is determined to stifle this initiative thereby truncating them from becoming concrete realities? Most politicians in Nigeria hardly appreciate the value of a priceless idea because they are incapable of such conceptions, which they see as waste of time.
Ideas, no matter how minuscule, is bigger than an individual especially one with a warped mind. Every public officer sworn to the oath of not allowing his/her personal interest or feelings interfere with his/her official duties. But this is not so with a lot of people in government. They are so averse to human progress that what appeals to them are standing in the way of others, denying progress to others and sabotaging societal progress.
The Bookhawker is an initiative which some public officers are determined to truncate through hoarding of funds earmarked for its take-off. Therefore, Nigerian writers must stand up to protect an institution primarily directed at the promotion of their art and children at large. As writers in the state, we will take note of this development and commit it to history accordingly. Similarly, as citizens who are not in politics but devoted to intellectualism, we are aware that we have stakes in the state as much as others. We will not shy away from speaking out loud where obstacles are erected to frustrate our growth. The Bookhawker and the Niger State Book Development Agency, the first and only of their kind in Nigeria will survive!
Abdullahi is a former Asst. National Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors.