‘How to revamp writing, publishing in North’

Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammad, alias Ibzar, is the Managing Director of Ibzar Publishing Company with head office in Jos and branches in Kaduna and Kano. He spoke with Bookshelf on the challenges facing writing, the printing and publishing industry in the North and how to turn things around in the region and Nigeria as a whole. […]

Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammad, alias Ibzar, is the Managing Director of Ibzar Publishing Company with head office in Jos and branches in Kaduna and Kano. He spoke with Bookshelf on the challenges facing writing, the printing and publishing industry in the North and how to turn things around in the region and Nigeria as a whole. Excerpts:
Bookshelf: What inspired you to venture into printing and publishing business in the Northern Nigeria?
Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammed: When I was a teenager, I liked reading a lot. I remember I used to buy Nasiha, a Hausa newspaper at N1. I also love drawings and cartoons, so anywhere I saw newspapers, billboards, text books, and Jotters, I asked myself how such items were made or manufactured. This curiosity drove me to venture into publishing and printing business in order to see for myself and share the knowledge with anybody that wanted to know.
Bookshelf: How long have you been in this business and what challenges are you facing?
Muhammed: I started this business in 1999 and the challenges I am facing are enormous but surmountable. One of them is the environment I am from, which is Northern Nigeria. The region is lagging behind in the publishing business, despite our population. We don’t have the x-factor that will encourage writers and make them to compete with their contemporaries in other parts of the country. If you look back meticulously you will find out the text books used in northern Nigeria’s schools 50 years ago up till now are books published by companies from other parts of Nigeria. This is a challenge on the part of our economy because patronising them creates jobs for their youths and strengthens their economy and concomitantly decimates ours. Therefore, I want to use this medium to give a wake-up call to our governors to have a good look into the printing and publishing business in the north.
I am not saying government should only give us loans, but when we publish books that are of great importance to schools, we want them to purchase them for schools to use. By doing so, the companies will create employment for the teeming writers that are sitting idle, and our companies will be encouraged to produce qualitative books and simultaneously boost the economy. I am not insinuating a stop to patronising books from other parts of this country, but for our government to focus more on purchasing books produced by northern printing and publishing companies. And the writers here know our culture and religion therefore they know books that will have instant impact on our people.
Bookshelf: What achievements are you most proud of since you ventured into publishing?
Muhammed: I brought awareness to most printing companies in northern Nigeria, I opened their eyes to realise that they can also publish books, before they only focused on calendars, political posters, jotters and stickers. I also employed more than 22 youths, with about 19 apprentices.
Bookshelf: What do you think are the reasons behind the north’s backwardness in terms of writing and publishing?
Muhammed: We have excellent and exceptional writers in the north that are supposed to focus on writing on different aspects of life, but they only centre their themes on love stories. I am not saying that part is not important, but why should we focus on one theme? That’s my argument. The north is a complete dynasty. We have areas like administration, culture, security and traditions. What we are lacking is blending what I aforementioned with this digital generation. I strongly believe if our writers will write on different topics and subjects to benefit nursery to tertiary institutions, knowledge and education will be better. Now look at our population. We have a lot of questions to ask. We go to school, but why will we not write on subjects that will benefit our students either in Hausa or English, to aid learning in the region? We have the market because of our population, but we don’t have the books to sell.
Bookshelf: You said northern writers only focus on love stories. Can you be more specific on the subjects and topics they should write on?
Muhammed: I want our writers to write on most, if not all of what is on government’s curriculum, and I also want the government to assist the writers by providing whatever they need to help them blossom. I know many writers that can write well but they don’t have the capital to publish their books.
Bookshelf: Some writers in the north say the challenge of readership made them dump writing. What do you have to say about that?
Muhammed: I totally disagree with their opinion, because in the world of reading there are people from the north. A lot of people memorise the holy Qur’an, many Hadiths and books written by many scholars. My question is, ‘where are the books that such writers claim lack readership?’ I want to know the number of books written by the northerners.
Bookshelf: How do you think writing and publishing will boost the economy of the North and Nigeria in general?
Muhammed: Now let’s assume each parent has a son or daughter in school and buys at least 20 exercise books per term.  Now let’s take for example each parent buys one 60 leaves exercise book at the cost of N40. Forty times 20 will equal N800. Now assume each parent has five children in school, now multiply N800 by five, you will get N4000. Now if we have 10 million parents multiplied by five children, you will get N4.1 billion. In the north, we don’t have any company that publishes exercise books. We get them from other parts of the country. So there is a big market in the north due to our population. What if we focus on text books and other storytelling books that are costlier than exercise books? Our government will generate money through publishing and our economy will sky-rocket, and by doing so more job opportunities will be created.
Bookshelf: You were talking about the challenges facing writing and publishing in the North. What do you think is the solution?
Muhammed: This is simple, I want the19 northern states to set up a committee to be supervised directly by the governors; this committee will include renowned writers and scholars of about 10 to 20 members, with each member having five writers under him or her. The writers will choose a particular subject or topic to write on, present it for scrutiny, and if they are approved by the members of the committee, the books will be published and used in the schools. By doing so, the publishing company in the state and the authors will benefit, and this creates jobs for the teeming writers.
Let’s say the writers wrote on at least 10 subjects, those books will impact positively on students in the north, even though each state will be producing its books. I also want governors to be in the leading line in helping writers and publishers in the region, most especially writers with no capital to publish books. I also suggest that it will be a good idea for the state governments to establish printing and publishing companies where writers will come with manuscripts, the committee set by the governors review them, and if the books are good, then they would be published. This will also revamp writing, printing and publishing in the north. Also, there are a lot of marketers or administrators that take their printing work abroad, if they do it at home; it will be cheaper, boost the country’s economy and job opportunities will be created.