People call me 419ner because of Abuja Writers Forum – Emman Shehu

I just discovered I was interested in writing; it was one way of expressing myself. I read stories quite early and felt I could do the same. And I have always felt that’s one way to be immortal because I have always been fascinated, right from the time I was in secondary school, I will […]

I just discovered I was interested in writing; it was one way of expressing myself. I read stories quite early and felt I could do the same. And I have always felt that’s one way to be immortal because I have always been fascinated, right from the time I was in secondary school, I will go to the library and look at the names on the spines of books; William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth and these people are no longer living and you feel whoa, if you are a published author you could live forever. You could be immortal.

So why did you choose poetry to immortalise yourself?

I haven’t chosen poetry; it’s just that the publishing procedure in Nigeria has made me to be recognised more as a poet than anything else. I write in all the various genres but my publishing breakthrough came through poetry and has been sustained through poetry but I am working on a collection of short stories, I’m working on a couple of novels and I have a couple of plays also.

Your most recent efforts has been Open Sesame. It has been on the shelves for some time. How successful has it been?

I think every collection I’ve had has been successful in its own way so I wouldn’t say Open Sesame has been more successful than Questions for Big Brother because Questions for Big Brother was my publishing debut and it’s published as part of the update publication; we were called the update poets because five or six of us got published under the auspices of ANA, when ANA was still focused and vibrant. We were the first to be published and we were regarded as the update poets. It marked a major turning point in terms of one; publishing of Nigerian writers and two; in terms of the kind of poetry that appeared in the Nigerian scene at that point in time. Then it took a hiatus of about 12 to 13 years before I got published again and this was Open Sesame. For me it’s also important because it broke a silence of 12 years because a lot of people were saying he’s a one publication writer, he’s finished, whatever, whatever, whatever. People don’t know the undercurrent. I had to deal with personal issues, work issues and the publishing climate in Nigeria, being what it is, I didn’t want to self publish

The collection has been described as very lucid, almost accessible to all; why that choice of approach?

I happen to be involved in communication. As a media person I know that communication is very important and I have deliberately experimented with being understood rather than confusing people. It’s a deliberate choice to be simple but not to be simplistic because I think a lot of people feel poetry is difficult and are not attracted to it. But my feeling is poetry is interesting, you can understand what the poet is saying and therefore, I have deliberately chosen to write in a form that will be accessible because if you are not accessible you are not communicating and so that is what has come about. But that is not to say that the simple and lucid form you have seen in Open Sesame has not been criticized. There are people who feel this is not abstract enough for poetry, this is not the Emman Shehu of Questions for Big Brother, this can be likened to retrogression but I don’t think so.

So among the genres, which one do you prefer; poetry or prose?

They all attract me it’s just that poetry seems to be more handy. You can, within a short time, express yourself. The others are more demanding, they take your time and unfortunately, time is not a luxury we all seem to enjoy especially as we all have responsibilities and you have to cope with survival, so poetry now becomes the most convenient way of expressing yourself.

Can you tell us about your inspiration?

I get inspired by everything but most of all situations of injustice, situations of dishonesty, situations of mis-governance. I believe that the poet in every society is a spokesperson of society and therefore, you have a responsibility in your writing to talk about things that are happening in your society in an insightful way and so those are the things that inspire me.

Now let’s talk about the literary scene in Nigeria, how would you describe it?

The literary scene is picking up. There was a time we thought things were not looking hopeful in the sense that the first generation of writers were gradually dying away then there didn’t seem to be much qualitative writing going on. We seemed to be in a situation where succession was going to be a problem but obviously from what has been happening in the past few years, we don’t have to worry about that. We have quite a number of new names on the block and we don’t have to worry if the older generation passes away because we have competent successors or those who are on the verge of eclipsing the pioneer generation. But that is not to say we don’t have problems. There are serious problems and one of them is the issue of publishing. Literature can only thrive when you have a publishing environment that is writer friendly. Unfortunately, the publishing environment is Nigeria is not writer friendly. And so you still have a situation where self-publishing is appealing because of the difficulties writers have in getting published. It is part of my address in the last literary festival that in this country there is quite a lot of talent. Put ten Nigerians in the same place and ask them to come up with something creative. You will be surprised by what they come up with even if they have no prior knowledge of that area in whichthey are expressing their creativity. We see in various places this raw expression of talent and so we need a proper publishing environment. We don’t have a good editing tradition in this country and these things go hand in hand. You need to have a good manuscript and you need to have a good editor who knows what he is doing. We also need publishers that can take risks. And that is why we have potentially good manuscript but the end product is nothing to write home about because there has been no editing. I can boldly say that in Nigeria at the moment no editing takes place and that is the major problem with the literary scene.
The other problem also is that you need to build capacity. It’s one thing for you to say you want to be a writer and it is another thing for you to know what you want to do as a writer. If we look at the time frame of the development of literature all over the world, people have acquired skills. We cannot be re-inventing the wheel in 2010 so why do we need to start from zero AD. People have acquired a body of knowledge and experience and that is why we need to have regular creative writing workshops so that beginners, mid-level writers and even the experienced writers can hone their skills by attending these workshops so they can learn new approaches to writing and be more skilful. Writing is about skills, it’s about expressing yourself whether you are writing creatively or non-creative works, it’s about skills and we don’t have a structure in this country for that and the people who should have created that structure are involved in politicking.
And then we have poor reading culture, I won’t say people don’t read; it’s a poor reading culture. If people were not reading newspapers would not be existing. Part of the poor reading culture is people feel that anything outside of what they have to read regularly out of school is not important and they also feel that once they are out of school they only do basic reading or do motivational readings, that’s all, how to get rich quick, bla! Bla! Bla! Well, those things have their relevance in society but as you get older, you need to be a holistic person, you need to get knowledge constantly and one of the ways to do that is by reading literary works because what you have had in school is just foundational, it’s just to create for you the platform that you can be able to interrogate these things on your own, it’s not the end. So you need from there to do your own exploration and unfortunately, that is where we are lacking. People don’t do their own exploration; they don’t do their own discoveries and therefore there is a lot of potential that is not discovered. So we are doing ourselves a lot of disservice in the country by not enriching our reading habit.

 That brings us to the present generation of Nigerian writers; do you think they are focused?
I think Nigerian writers are focused if you give them enabling environment; the problem is the environment is not developing so they are reacting to the telecom companies and sponsors of musicians, capitalizing on the hip-hop wave and going for sleaze and whatever because that is what is selling. So if you create the enabling environment, Nigerian writers have the potential to tell our stories to the world.

So what do you think is the basic difference between the first and the present generation of Nigerian writers?
The first generation was an accident but it was a good accident; I always say that. They went to school, they had teachers who encouraged them in literature and they were excited by what they were able to read and they thought they could express themselves and they did it and they had more of a colonial force because of the colonial influence that the publishers then were foreign publishers and your work has to be edited. It would be interesting to talk to members of that generation, how many times did they have to re-write their books before they were published? I am sure it would be an interesting revelation. Today we have the attitude that we have written once and we want the book to be published.

Recently, you organised a literary festival. What was the objective of that?
We are trying to achieve a lot for Nigerian literature and global literature, even though we are locally based and locally named (Abuja Writers Forum) our vision actually is beyond Abuja, it’s beyond the shores of Nigeria. It’s a global vision for the development of literature. This is an age of globalisation and there is no way we could stay here and say we are isolated from what is going on around us. We believe Nigerian literature can be a world beater but it can only compete at a global level if it is produced the same way literature in America, literature in Canada, Britain is produced. Basically that’s what drives us.

During the festival, you had an awards ceremony the likes of which had not been seen for long, how did you go about that?
Well, it’s part of having a vision and focusing on your vision. We would have done this earlier but for the fact that we’ve had a lot of impediment on our path. A lot of people have been uncomfortable since we emerged on the scene on June 16, 2008 and they tried in several ways to see that our vision is not fulfilled but you can’t be greater than divine vision. Since 2008, our vision has been to have a competition that will bring to light new writers and challenge experienced writers also to come up with new works that will improve the standard of literature in the country. We have set out to prove that it is possible to have a literary contest that is devoid of politics.

Do you think this project is sustainable?
It is. It is sustainable, one; because God is behind it and two; because we are focused. We are not 419ners. They have gone to various bodies and said we are 419ners, that there should be only one writers’ body in the country. It’s ridiculous. You cannot, in a nation of 180 million people say there should only be one writers’ body especially if you are not running that writers’ body properly.

Can you tell us about your grouse with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)?
I have no grouse with ANA. Maybe they have a grouse with me but I have no grouse with ANA.

But you have been talking about detractors…
The detractors know themselves. There are people who go to my governor, the governor of Zamfara State and say I am a 419ner that is why I have set up AWF; or go to the governor of Akwa Ibom and write him a letter that we are 419ners, they shouldn’t sponsor our programmes. They know themselves.

Why do you think they are doing that?
The result of AWF is making them do that.

Why would you say they are uncomfortable with your results?
We have achieved in one and half years what other organizations have not been able to achieve in 28 years.

Why couldn’t you have channelled your vision and resources through ANA, the umbrella body?
If a platform is not accessible to you, look for a platform that is conducive and AWF has turned out to be a very conducive platform and I have no regrets about it.

Is there a possibility of re-aligning with ANA?
We don’t need ANA. In one and a half years of our existence we’ve never needed ANA.

Don’t you think you are being hard lined?
Hard lined? Everybody knows that Emman Shehu, before he takes a position he dwells on it and once he takes a position, if it’s hard lined well, so be it.