What future for MBA Literary Colloquium?

Over the last four years, Minna, the Niger State capital has been positioning itself as the literary capital of Nigeria north of the Niger, thanks in large part to the patronage of Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, whose birthday on November 12th is celebrated with a huge international literary colloquium.This year was no different. Writers from […]

Over the last four years, Minna, the Niger State capital has been positioning itself as the literary capital of Nigeria north of the Niger, thanks in large part to the patronage of Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, whose birthday on November 12th is celebrated with a huge international literary colloquium.
This year was no different. Writers from all over Nigeria trooped to the Niger State capital in what was turning out to be an annual pilgrimage to discuss intellectual capacity building and books, and perhaps some politics.
And this year, in what many feared would be the last of this colloquium, the occasion took a grand scale and stretched for an extra day with a pre-colloquium and colloquium paper presentations.
Erudite Canada-based academic, Pius Adesanmi was the keynote speaker for the pre-colloquium, a day set aside for the writers and literary-minded folks and his paper centred around, Post Centenary Nigeria: New Literature, New Leaders, New Nation while former Mozambique president, Joaquim Chissano, who delivered a paper on Leadership and National Development the next day.
The Idris Legbo Kutigi Hall venue of the key events was decked with blue and white festoons looping across the hall with a huge banner with faces of the chief servant and his key guests for the event forming the backdrop.
Prof. Pius Adesanmi seemed intent, as he said, while delivering his keynote address, on starting an inter-generational war within the writing fraternity by pitting one generation against another.
His gleeful smile when an incensed publisher and novelist Richard Ali rose to react to some of his assertion suggests a sense of satisfaction.
His verdict on the four generations of Nigerian writers he mentioned (The Soyinka, Achebe generation, the Femi-Osofisan Generation, the third Generation in which he situated himself and others like Ben Okri, Chiedu Ezeanah, Helon Habila and the likes and the fourth  generation, which he dubbed “the Pa Ikhide Children” after serial ranter, facebook champion and literary commentator Ikhide Ikheloa, was of varying degree of admiration and criticism. He took little sympathy on his generation, most of whom were writing from abroad. For the failings of his generations, he said, “Nigeria happened to us.”
“My generation entered that cave because we were dissatisfied. Just as Soyinka and his foundational quartet were dissatisfied. Just as Femi Osofisan and his warriors of a failed utopia were dissatisfied. To my knowledge, no member of my generation has ever announced our report card the way Soyinka and Osofisan made definitive pronouncements on their respective generations. It could be because our story, our entanglements or lack thereof with project nationhood, is still unfolding. If we won’t make that call, if we won’t make that pronouncement, there are new kids on Nigeria’s literary block. They have been rocking the Nigerian, African, and global literary worlds. These new kids on the block  would make the call for my generation. They are that irreverent because they are good at what they do. They would announce the report card of generation in terms of literary accomplishment and in terms of what we did or did not do with the task of literature and nation,” he said.
Richard Ali, strongly took exceptions to his generation of writers being branded Pa Ikhide’s children, saying that it is the fact that the Adesanmi generation had retreated into caves in the form of online YahooGroups where they had their intellectual exchanges to the exclusion of others that they haven’t left any significant legacy for subsequent generations and in their absence, people like Ikhide came in.
Pius Adesanmi had succeeded in starting a debate, which was clearly what he set out to do. How long this rumbles remains to be seen.
On the next day, the big masquerades came out with the Chief Servant himself in attendance, along with traditional rulers and prominent citizens of the state.
Ex President Chissano regardless set about outlining the quality of leadership that a nation needs.
“What the people want is a leader who is with them, discusses their problems and applies his or her mind to solve their problems. That is what they would call accountability and accessibility.
“Additionally, the common people want to see tangible things. After experiencing the horrors of war, they want and cherish peace and stability. They want food on their tables and food security. They want to see roads, hospitals and schools being built. They want to feel respect for their human rights. Their major concerns are basic human needs and they will respect the leader who can deliver such services. Many leaders remain locked in their offices while leadership is about going to the people to discussing with them and addressing their concerns and demands. Leadership is about delivering on promises made. If you make a promise, you must deliver – and that is what accountability is all about. A leader should not promise what he or she cannot deliver,” said the leader who had won the Mo Ibrahim Leadership Prize.
But the occasion had some significant moments. Before addressing the gathering, the Chief Servant signed into law the bill establishing the Niger State Book and other Intellectual Resources Agency.
In the last few years the agency has been coordinating the intellectual efforts of the state while working closely with the government to organize the annual literary colloquium largely with the support of Prof. Mohammed Kuta Yahya, who was at first the Chief of Staff in the governor’s office and presently the Commisioner of Agriculture in the State. He is the initiator of the colloquium.
Director of the Agency, BM Dzukogi said,  “The significance is the final institutionalisation of creative writing in Niger State where annually, we are sure government will provide funds through statutory allocation for publishing our numerous young writers. Similarly, the development now seal the fact that there is a recognition of our existence as writers and artists by the state. This act will consciously promote reading and book development at grassroots. Then you can safely say that, as writers in Nigeria, we now have a home we can call ours at the Agency.”
It was a move designed to safeguard the future of the agency when the governor leaves office at the end of his tenure in 2015.
When he eventually took the podium, the Chief Servant was presented with the New Nigerian Writers Series, a set of ten novels the Association of Nigerian Authors had published with a grant of N10 million it had received from the governor at the same event two years before, by the Vice President of the Association, Malalm Denja Abdullahi.
The Chief Servant commended the association for producing the books while expressing hope that book lovers would pick them and read them as a way of encouraging creativity.
He said his commitment to intellectual growth remains unwavering even in the face of his eminent departure from office and he will continue to support the hosting of the colloquium in the next years saying he is already looking forward to the next one.
But for lovers of the arts who have found Niger state a conducive home over the years, the uncertainty of what the future for intellectual and literary growth holds remains a subject of concern.