Convention immortalizes Gimba

A new book celebration venture is expected to galvanize national interest in Nigeria’s waning reading culture come Tuesday, 27th February, in Abuja. Tagged the ‘Capital Territory Book Convention,’ the prime focus of the event is to immortalize  the legendary status of Nigeria’s late and revered man of letters, Abubakar Gimba, who passed away in February […]

A new book celebration venture is expected to galvanize national interest in Nigeria’s waning reading culture come Tuesday, 27th February, in Abuja.

Tagged the ‘Capital Territory Book Convention,’ the prime focus of the event is to immortalize  the legendary status of Nigeria’s late and revered man of letters, Abubakar Gimba, who passed away in February 2015 after a trail-blazing career as a novelist, poet and short-story writer.

Daily Trust on Sunday recalls that Abubakar Gimba came into limelight in 1985 while debuting in the literary sphere with his novel Trail of Sacrifice. He was introduced to the world as “the Northern answer to Achebe and Soyinka” by his publishers, Enugu-based Delta Publications (Nigeria) Limited.

The company published a total of six of Gimba’s literary works, recording sales of 50,000 copies for Trail of Sacrifice and upwards of 100,000 copies for Witnesses to Tears, which was selected for the JAMB syllabus.

The forthcoming Convention will be staged by the company’s subsidiary group, The Delta Book Club, at the Professor Idris Abdulkadir Auditorium, National Universities Commission, under the Chairmanship of the NUC’s Executive Secretary Professor Abubakar Rasheed.

The day-long programme will include the first ‘Abubakar Gimba Lecture Series,’ which will be delivered by Professor Vicky Sylvester, Director of Consultancy Services of the University of Abuja. Also on the programme will be the presentation and prize-giving for the winning novel of the first ‘Abubakar Gimba Literary Award,’ the unveiling and presentation of the literary magazine ‘The Writer,’ and a book exhibition.

Speaking about the event, Mr. Dillibe Onyeama, President of The Delta Book Club, said, ‘“The Capital Territory Book Convention’ will be an annual event celebrated with great ceremony. Abubakar Gimba was as outstanding a human being as he was a literary Iroko. He had an engaging humility and charitable disposition that epitomized every moral virtue.  Our relationship was probably more fraternal than it was work or business-related. If every author could be another Abubakar Gimba, the Nigerian book industry would have remained buoyant. He left a vacuum in the literary firmament that will be difficult to fill. It is all we can do to continue the close relationship by immortalising him in one meaningful way or the other. He was indeed a legend in his lifetime.”