‘How children inherit poor reading habit from parents’

Bookshelf: At what stage did you start writing?Musa Idris: I started writing as far back as I can remember, but my writing started taking a more appreciable dimension from my secondary school days, just that then I was not having the wherewithal for publication. However, in my higher education days, I ran a column known […]

Bookshelf: At what stage did you start writing?
Musa Idris: I started writing as far back as I can remember, but my writing started taking a more appreciable dimension from my secondary school days, just that then I was not having the wherewithal for publication. However, in my higher education days, I ran a column known as “On Campus with Dan Idi” on our Mass Communication newsstand. The column was talking about campus issues and related events and it was a memorable experience.
Let’s talk about your recent book ‘Poetry at a Glance,’ what motivated you into writing it?
My main inspiration was the scarcity of materials in poetry in our own part of the globe. Poetry is one of the genres of literature. And among the genres of literature, poetry is the most dreaded by students. Many students of literature have been coming to me thinking that I will be able to assist them with materials in poetry. So, I realised that materials in poetry are a bit scarce. So in the process of helping these students, I also realised that I can actually compile the materials into a book, and that was it.
As you mentioned, many students are scared of venturing into poetry. Why is this so?
A lot of factors may be responsible for this, but I think the biggest may have to do with the technicalities involved. For instance, most often than not, the language used in literature is not the conventional, standard   English we are used to. You see literature in general or poetry in particular allows what poets themselves sometimes refer to as grammatical misbehaviour, and it is through the misbehaviour that the poet is licensed to use English almost without rules. This explains the reasons why poems are seen as complicated and very difficult to comprehend. Most poems are not straight forward. In fact, some poets are of the opinion that any poem that you go over once and understand is not a standard one. So that may be one of the reasons why some students dread poetry.
What does it take for one to become a poet?
Like Walter Lowenfels said in his book “We are all poets, really,” everybody can be a poet so long he is able to put his thoughts together. All you need is a source of inspiration, something to inspire you. You know there is this notion by a lot of poets that the best poems are those written not under normal circumstance, there has to be an inspiration. And this inspiration can be instigated by so many factors, negative or positive. For instance, you are just sitting down and someone just come to you and hand over the keys of a brand new car to you when you were not anticipating anything like that. The emotional destabilisation you will enter, even though positive, can push you to start thinking in verses instead of just sentences. Another example is when you discover your girlfriend or even spouse cheating on you. Such moments will be ideal for writing a poem. And if you can put those emotions into writing, you can easily become a poet.
Most books now have e-copies that can be bought over the net. Are you looking into that?
It is true that print books are now facing serious challenge from their electronic counterparts, most especially in the developed world where access to internet and other forms of technology is widely and readily available. In our own environment, probably due to limited access to internet and poor power supply, the print books are still thriving. That is not to say that we are not looking at the possibility of coming up with an electronic version for wider access. In fact, God-willing it is going to be possible soon. We have already established links with possible partners in that regard and their responses are encouraging.
But many Nigerians, according to various research findings, have poor reading habit. Are you not disturbed that the poor reading culture among Nigerians may affect your work?
Poor reading habit is actually true, and this can be attributed to a lot of factors. If you look at it, there is the hereditary factor. Some people don’t read because their parents don’t, it is a kind of inheritance. They inherit not reading from their parents. There is nothing anybody can do about that. There is also the environmental factor which has to do with the type of company you keep. They say ‘show me your friends and I tell you who you are’. At the same time where you live; for instance, someone who lives in the GRA has a more conducive atmosphere suitable for both reading and writing than someone who stays in the ghetto. There is the financial factor too. Some people actually want to read, but they don’t have the financial wherewithal to buy the books they want. These are some of the contributing factors to the poor reading culture we have today.
Does it pay being an author?
It depends. For now there is hardly any financial reward. If you want to be an author just for material gain, I think it is not too late to look elsewhere. But you see reward or benefit can be material in nature just like it can be abstract. One of the many rewards in becoming an author is the fact that books have a life span that even outlives their authors. People are remembered because of their writings long after their death. This is a gain. But in terms of material gain there is no much money in it.
What message are you trying to send across through the book?
The book as I already made mention earlier is a collection of poems both African and non African. Most of the African poems if you go through them are looking for freedom, the way the Europeans colonised most countries on the African continent, crying for freedom. So I can say the book, 70 per cent, is talking on the importance of freedom in human development. That is actually the message.