Why I want to be ANA President – Dr Jerry Agada

What do you intend to do for the association if elected? If I become ANA President, the whole essence is to continue to advance the cause of Nigerian writers, and writing. This is because as I told you, I’ve been in the executive council where we have always been working towards improving the lot of […]

What do you intend to do for the association if elected?

If I become ANA President, the whole essence is to continue to advance the cause of Nigerian writers, and writing. This is because as I told you, I’ve been in the executive council where we have always been working towards improving the lot of ANA, but you know that in any situation you find yourself, there is always room for improvement. If I become president, there are many steps I will take to advance literature in Nigeria. I have a manifesto which I call the Four- Pronged Approach to the Leadership of ANA. I will focus on enhancing the leadership to make it better, I will focus on ANA’s active participation in national life, in other words, in as much as ANA is not a union to protest here and there, at least I would like ANA’s voice to be more heard on national matters. For example; I think ANA can come up forcefully to appeal to the parties in the current ASUU strike to reach an agreement, I want a more vibrant voice in national affairs, another area of focus is collaboration with external bodies where possible, for the purpose of ensuring that residences are organized for Nigerian writers, we can start from residences organized within the country, and if opportunity permits, we can extend it outside Nigeria. Yet and area of focus is to ensure that the ANA secretariat which has been of much interest to every member, is erected during my tenure. Right now, the ANA executive has always been on the problem of how to do things to have the secretariat, we have been working on it, in fact, arrangements and efforts have reached advanced stage. I want to ensure that during my tenure as president, it becomes completely accomplished so I can have something to point at, and of course, other areas of focus will be in terms of finance and administration. At the moment, ANA does not have a regular source of financing whereby you can always turn to your bank and carry out the activities you set before yourself.  I am thinking that we will put ideas together towards ensuring a sustainable source of income for ANA.

From what I read in the newspapers, it seems the contest for this ANA presidency will be stiff. How do you intend to go about it?               

It is as you said, that the competition seems to be stiff, but I want you to understand that ANA elections are intellectually inclined. The members are writers and intelligent people. They are people who can tell the difference between their left and their right, and they know the truth. In other words, it is not like our partisan politics where you introduce all sorts of tricks into elections and all sorts of things are done to win elections. ANA election is not like that. So I don’t want to feel that competition is stiff. It is open for everyone and the members know the truth and how to assess candidates based on what they can offer.

Piracy seems to be on the increase. How do you intend to address it in the interest of your members?    

Already, the government has put a lot of measures in place to combat piracy. You are aware of the functions and activities of the National Copyright Commission in combating it. ANA under my presidency, will work with the commission to ensure that piracy is checked.

There is this complaint about poor reading culture in Nigeria. How do you plan to encourage people to read ANA’s works?  

The whole essence of the association is to promote writing. If there are no readers, then your writing is useless, and you cannot say as a writer, you have written and are satisfied with yourself reading it alone. Because of that, how to improve the reading habit of Nigerians is one of the concerns of ANA and when I was Minister of State for Education, we flagged-off what we called the National Action Committee on the Read Campaign. We flagged it off at the national level. ANA was arrowhead of that committee. Therefore, I will carry on the same activities as ANA president, I will intensify efforts in this direction.

Yes, that reminds me, what was your experience as Minister of state for Education?

The experience was quite interesting. At the ministry, I had practical experience where I was able to put into practice things that I had learnt theoretically with regards to educational administration. It was an experience that revealed that situations were different from one’s perception. You would discover that whatever policies enunciated or implemented in good faith usually generated criticism, sometimes constructive, at other times frivolous. On the whole, it was quite interesting and a challenging experience, and I thank Mr. President, Alh. Umaru Musa Yar’adua for giving me the opportunity to serve in that capacity.

But how were you able to combine your ministerial work with ANA duties and family life?

Well, there are three situations in this question. One as a Minister, two as it relates to my family, and three, regarding my position in ANA As for being the Minister, I was appointed with set objectives and targets, with the purpose of achieving the government’s goals, with regard to education. In that connection. I worked assiduously to the best of my ability so as to be able to realise the government’s objective. As for my family,  I worked closely with my family to ensure that the much cherished family relationship and values were not diminished. I did not allow the pressures or call of duty to interfere with that relationship. This is premised on the fact that the ability to perform as a minister or do other jobs successfully depended on the stability from the home. So my family was a major factor in things I do in life. In terms of my position in ANA, I was able to carry on successfully because it was a passion so cherished. ANA’s activities where part and parcel of me and therefore could not be separated from me, both as a minister and family man. Take, for instance, as an ANA member, you are a writer, an author and an avid reader; and you do all these through inspiration. Therefore, if you are a minister sitting in the office as at the time the inspiration comes, all you do is to jot down whatever comes to you and then leaving it to continue with your job as a minister. At the end of the day when opportunity permits, you collate such jottings for the purpose of developing them into full script. The same thing plays out while in the home as a family man or carrying out your role as an ANA member.

You have quite a number of published works, tell us briefly about them.

There is a lot to gain from reading and writing. I have written up to 10 books, and I am still writing. My first book, a collection of poems titled “The Magic Year” was published as far back as 1996. Since then, I have come out with other books, one of them, The Secret Deal, won the first prize in Benue ANA chapter competition sometime ago. It is listed  by amazon.com as one of the best 100 selling books out of Nigeria. I have also produced a film, the first from Benue to be registered by the National Film and Video Censors Board for the Nollywood film industry. The subject of that film was the storyline from one of my collection of short stories, The Honourable Chairman. Writing is my passion and something I like always.

 With your experience and clout, in what ways have you helped younger authors?

I have edited the 500 Nigerian Poets where I published as many upcoming writers as possible in poetry. What that means is that I have helped them to become published. One of the conditions for ANA membership is to have a published work, especially when it comes to voting. You cannot vote until you have done that, and be published in an anthology like what we did in the 500 Nigerian Poets, it is a way of saying, you have been published.