Why NECO/Teen Prize winner should apologise to ANA – Denja

Malam Denja Abdullahi is President of the Association of Nigerian Authors. Recently, the Association has been under fire when last year’s winner of the NECO/Teen Prize for Prose, Ernest O. Ògúnyemí, complained about not being paid his N100,000 award money on Social Media. In this interview, the president explains why, his reaction and more. Excerpts: […]

Malam Denja Abdullahi is President of the Association of Nigerian Authors. Recently, the Association has been under fire when last year’s winner of the NECO/Teen Prize for Prose, Ernest O. Ògúnyemí, complained about not being paid his N100,000 award money on Social Media. In this interview, the president explains why, his reaction and more. Excerpts:

 

Bookshelf: How did you respond when your attention was drawn to Ernest O. Ogunyemi’s post on Social Media about his unpaid prize money of N100,000?

Malam Denja Abdullahi: I was appalled because coincidentally, I was about sending the prize sum to him that day through the account of one of his teachers whom I had been communicating with for months on the matter. I first requested for his (Ògúnyemí) account number and the teacher said he didn’t have it. Later, I told the teacher I will pay through the ANA Chapter in Ogun State in order to be transparent. I then instructed ANA Ogun State Chapter to send their account details so that I could pay in the money for them to go to the school the following Monday with a team to pay the young man and report as a media event. I had ceased communicating directly with him when he started sounding rude and irreverent with me whenever he called to ask after his money. All along, I had been appealing to him to be patient, that we were putting pressure on NECO to pay up. The last direct communication I had with him was when he threatened to go on Social Media to denigrate the name of ANA. I reported his rudeness to his teachers and they apologised on his behalf. I then told them that henceforth I will be communicating with them on the matter, assuring them that we will pay him eventually. It was thus shocking for me to discover that he had carried out his threat in spite of all the efforts we were making to pay him. Those who alerted me advised me to make a statement, which I did, but it seems the Twitter and Facebook gladiators were not happy that I asked the boy to tender an apology for trying to rubbish the image of the Association.

Bookshelf: Since NECO/Teen Prize for Prose is sponsored by NECO, what efforts have you made to ensure that NECO delivers on its promise?

Abdullahi:  On this particular case, we wrote to NECO to pay up the endowment funds for three years with cost of prize administration even before we announced the prize. We did not approach NECO for the Prize. They approached us. Our reply to NECO   was written on 24th January, 2018 stating our terms and conditions. NECO never replied our letter in spite of follow up visits by the National treasurer of ANA, Hajia Farida Mohammed, who lives in Minna where NECO has its headquarters. I travelled to Minna and visited NECO with the treasurer on 17th September, 2018, where we dropped another letter informing them that we have advertised the prize and that we received entries and would be awarding the prize in October, 2018. We requested to see the Executive Secretary and we were told he was not on seat. I left my treasurer to follow up after I departed Minna, which she did to no avail. We again wrote NECO on the 28th of January, 2019 stating that we have awarded the prize and attached about five different national newspapers clips of the winner receiving the prize. We named him and his school in that letter and requested NECO to pay up and there has been no response to that letter till date. In April, this matter was seriously discussed at the Executive Congress meeting of ANA with chairmen and secretaries of Chapters of ANA in Ilorin, and it was resolved we should keep pressurising NECO while exploring alternative opportunities of payment.

Bookshelf: Have you ever had a case in the past where ANA was unable to deliver on its cash prize?

Abdullahi: ANA as a matter of policy does not pay up prize sum on behalf of sponsors as there are prizes that ANA itself awards directly. This particular prize has always been awarded because I remember under the tenure of Prof Dibu Ojerinde at NECO they paid ANA upfront the sum of 500,000 naira for the prize which was awarded for about four years, the balance of 100,000 being for prize administration. There was a time NDDC endowed several ranges of prizes for ANA and they paid up substantial endowment up front. The fund ran out later and ANA stopped the awards.  Atiku Abubakar also endowed a prize for Children’s Literature for years until the prize endowment ran out. Cadbury too endowed between $1,000 -$2000 for poetry for years which they paid directly to the winners, so also Chevron for $2000 for writings on the environment. If these organisations had reneged on their pledges, where would ANA have found the money to pay the winners? A few other persons and organisations had reneged on their endowment, such as Senator Ken Nnamani for Igbo Literature, Lantern Books for Children’s Literature and Olu Oguibe for Playwriting in honour of Esiaba Irobi, and the winners who fell within the period of their reneging have not been paid till date.

Bookshelf: You have demanded for an apology from Ogunyemi, but some believe you should apologise on behalf of ANA. What do you have to say to this?

Abdullahi: ANA or I will never apologise to that young man for his irreverent behaviour and temerity in trying to smear the image of an Association twice his age, in spite of the efforts we have made to pay him his prize money. Those saying we should apologise are just being hypocrites on Social Media.

Bookshelf: You have said you were about to pay Ogunyemi from your personal purse when he went on social media. Why did you change your mind?

Abdullahi: I changed my mind because he went on the social media to smear ANA’s image in spite of our assurances to him. Even if it was as our critics have said that I was bullying him, could I have bullied his teachers whom I was talking to?

Bookshelf: A couple of people have put together a hundred thousand naira for Ogunyemi. How do you feel about that and will ANA still give him his award money?

Abdullahi: Those who gave him money have done what is called in Islam ‘Sadaka’, voluntary charity, a politicised and stage-managed one for that matter. ANA has not instructed anyone to pay on its behalf. I have nothing to do with that. It is their money. They can spend it anyway they like. ANA still has the obligation to pay Ernest Ogunyemi his money when we get NECO to pay up, which we will shortly.

Bookshelf: As president of ANA, you are like a father who is meant to care for writers within the country. Now that this has happened, how do you intend to rebuild that trust being that a lot of people are unhappy with the Association and the way the Ogunyemi matter was handled?

Abdullahi: ANA awarded seven prizes in 2018 and all other winners have been paid without any fuss. Four of the prize sums came from ANA’s purse and two others were paid by Dr Wale Okediran, N200,000 for the prize in honour of Abubakar Gimba for Short stories and N100,000 by Dr Maria Ajima for the prize for literary criticism. NECO put us in this altercation with Ernest Ogunyemi, and his horde of latter-day supporters on Twitter and Facebook. I as ANA President remain a very good mentor to legions of young writers personally and through our chapters in the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT. We have several on-going schemes in ANA for young writers. Those who are unhappy with the Association do not know how we function and the conditions in which we function and they have never done much by way of assisting the Association to deliver on literary objectives. To those vociferous critics, I am assuring them that we have learnt great lessons from this Ernest Ogunyemi debacle and that such will not repeat itself in the future. In fact, I have received brilliant suggestions on the future of prize administration in ANA which I will pass on to the Executive that would succeed us, come October, 2019. To those who have shown us great understanding on this matter and have expressed consternation in the way ANA’s image had been barraged on social media, I take full responsibility for what has happened and it is only them I will apologise to. I am assuring them that ANA will remain strongly the foremost literary organisation in Nigeria.