National and fifteen states ANA Executive Council members trouped to the capital of the State of Harmony recently for the first ANA/Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Campaign’s Capacity Building Workshop.

The workshop which focused on Innovation in Contemporary Literary Awareness Campaigns in Nigeria, held at Mustapha Akanbi Foundation’s Knowledge Platform, G.R.A, included ANA National and selected chapters’ executives, as well as journalists representing Blueprint, The Sun, The Guardian and The Nation newspaper.

In his welcome address, ANA President, Mallam Denja Abdullahi, who described the association’s capacity building workshop as auspicious, said the significance of the topics of discussion by the resource persons for the workshop in bringing about better ANA at state and national level could not be overemphasized.

He disclosed that the workshop was in furtherance of the association’s schedule to justify ANA/Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Campaign grants, which the donor had been given to ANA since 2012, “He gives N3,000,000 yearly and we’ve tried to justify it by using the money judiciously.”

He said the legal luminary’s financial gesture towards the association has helped to stabilize and progress it and its activities on yearly basis, “His (Yusuf Ali) generosity has helped us to be on our toes to innovate programmes and projects for ANA future.”

Mallam Abdullahi used the gathering to therefore call on other well meaning Nigerians to key into Yusuf Ali’s numerous acts of philanthropy, while emulating the sustainable western world’s arts and creative industry, ensured by foundational funding, “In western world, art is kept alive by foundations. We want same to be translated here”.

In his paper titled “Managing and Financing Literary Projects and Programs for Optimum Results”, one of the facilitators, who is the Former ANA President, Dr Wale Okediran observed that though it’s a herculean task to raise funds for financing literary activities in this part of the world, however, with persistent, clarity of purpose and networking with the right people, fundraising for ANA programmes would be a thing of the past.

He charged ANA state chapters to be up and doing in innovating and implementing programmes and projects, saying they are the engine room whose individual make up constitutes the association’s national body.

“The job of running ANA is a thankless job. Hence, state chairmen are supposed to be looking for sponsors. Don’t just sit comfortably in your office. One contact can change your story. Use the association to network and travel the country,” he urged.

Dr Okediran, who is also the founder of Ebedi International Writers Residency, emphasized on monthly readings, publication of anthologies, organization of seminars and workshops, activities by other literary organization, anniversaries of published books/authors, annual or monthly publications and writers’ residencies as the literary projects and programmes for ensuring optimal growth and development of ANA at both state and national level.

According to him, in managing and financing literary projects and programmes, frictions would happen; stressing however that those areas of conflict should be identified and resolved so as to engender optimum results.

He also stressed the need for basic financial skills such as cash management and book keeping in managing and financing a healthy Association like ANA.

Also speaking, Mr Okeke Job Izuchukwu of the Pukyong National University, Busan, South Korea, in his paper titled “Digital and literacy culture in Nigeria: Surmounting the challenges of disruption and enhancing the reach of the story”, highlighted the international innovative and creative best practices in developed countries like Korea and America that promote their literatures.

According to him, the best practice literary awareness campaigns in Korea include the country’s association of books with popular culture and characters, by deepening existing books and literary culture through: book clubs, book programmes on broadcast mediums, Facebook/video book club, as well as bringing books and literary activities to the public domain.

Others he also stressed include but not limited to adaptation of books to movies, building synergy with the country’s government, interest groups and businesses, “In Korea and Japan, government design poetry excerpts in written, in public spaces. They celebrate their international writers. That’s why synergy is important.”

The facilitator also observed that the intrusion of digital era is changing, and thereby shaping contents in innovation and creative economy especially in news production and consumption, “Technology platforms like Facebook and Google are responsible for huge chunk of online referral traffic and define trade at their own term.”

Izuchukwu who noted that Nigerian authors’ characters are stagnated in the pages of their books urged authors to use the ideas of new culture to bring literature to culture like Korea, Japan and America of this world.

“Our characters must leave our books, literature must leave the books. We must take worthy characters out of the literary world and give them life in our mainstream culture.

“Books should be the beginning and not the end of literary life of a creative work. Other media like performances and branding should be used to enhance the reach of the story,” he added.

In her presentation titled “Innovation and creativity in child-centred literary awareness campaign”, Mrs Funmi Ilori recounted how a gathering of intellectual’s task of scribbling ones’ biggest dream  helped her in building the first mobile innovative library in Nigeria, iRead.

The facilitator, who was a beneficiary of ten million naira You-win grant in 2013 and one of the selected people to meet with President Obama in 2015, said it was in her engagements with children that she saw the values placed in books.

Mrs Ilori, who is the founder of iRead mobile library, observed that exposure to knowledge is the main trigger for innovation and creativity, stressing that there is need to transform the library for effective use by both young and old, “The fact that walls, pillars are placed in the library; what makes the library are books in the library.”

She said as part of engaging the children, there is the need for publicity and placement of library at the centre of local community to ensure universal access, adding that when children have access to books, they would read, “We need to affirm the library as the go to place for information and support on reading and literacy for formal and informal lifelong-learning for all age.” 

In actualizing a child-centred literary awareness campaign, she also emphasized the need to activate communities through mobilizing resources, most especially man power, “We may not have all the funding, but we can meet people for support. People are the major resources and not the programme. People are much more important and so we have to use them.”

The professional teacher who decried paucity of much Nigerian books in her mobile library for children, advocated for beat down of prices of books by Nigerian authors so as to bring about higher purchase and readership, “Honestly, we (i.e. iRead mobile library) do not have much Nigerian books in our shelf. If the prices are slashed down, it will help in creating more awareness about authors of those books.”

Earlier in his goodwill message, Retired President, Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi (retd.) said he holds ANA and its leadership all the gratitude for their impactful nationwide programmes and activities, praying that God would reward them.

Justice Akanbi who said his voracious reading culture assisted him in achieving great feats in life, charged writers and authors to be avid readers, “Reading makes you a full man. It makes you respectable. If you read, you will find out that among the grace, you will be expected.”

The pioneer ICPC Chairman pledged his all times support for the association, enjoining them to continue to have course to live for. “We must live our life sublime: the path we live behind us would remain in the sands of time,” he submitted. 

In his vote of thanks, the association’s Vice President, Chief Camillus Ukah, thanked the host state for compelling ANA National and State Executive Council’s pilgrimage to Ilorin for seven consecutive years, stressing that the duo of Yusuf Ali (SAN) and Justice Mustapha Akanbi (retd.) are kinds of personalities ANA needs in every state.

He also appreciated these personalities for making themselves distinguishable, while also extending gratitude to journalists and their mediums for supporting the association in making a big difference in the Nigerian literary space.