Sule, Obi-Obasi, Abdullahi Herald ANA’s A-Book-A-Child project

Nigerian Writers Series 2 books, dedicated to children’s literature, are out. It is a culmination of over a year’s process of competitive call, sifting through manuscripts and arriving at a group of three adjudged publishable by the series editors.

For this outing, a special appreciation goes to Yusuf Ali, whose 2017 grant to ANA financed the publication, the series editors, Prof. Uwemedimo Iweketok, Ikeogu Oke and Omowunmi Segun and Osorobu Igudia, Managing Editor, NWS Publishers, an imprint of ANA. With these books, ANA’s A-Book-A- Child nationwide project is set to run.

The association has also congratulated the three writers, Salamatu Sule (Oma the Drummer Queen), Chinyere Obi-Obasi (The Loyal Queen) and Kabiru Abdullahi (The Golden Girl of Galma), for creative efforts that saw them being found worthy of selection.

President, ANA, Denja Abdullahi, explained the concept behind ANA’s A-Book -A-Child nationwide project as “being designed to get an ennobling general interest book of cultural relevance into the hands of every school-going Nigerian child from the ages of 5 – 12. Since last year, ANA organised a manuscript submission competition for possible children-centred books that would be published to power the project. 13 manuscripts were received, which were passed to the series editors, who are experts in children’s literature. Three manuscripts were adjudged publishable, which we have published under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS) of ANA through ANA’s publishing outfit, NWS Publishers.

“The three books are The Golden Girl of Galma by Kabiru Abdullahi, Oma the Drummer Queen by Salamatu Sule and The Loyal Queen by Chinyere Obi Obasi. Incidentally, all the three well-illustrated books dwell on the matter of girl-child empowerment and female-oriented issues. The books were published with the fund received from Yusuf Ali as part of his annual grant to the association. We are presently distributing the books to bookshop outlets nationwide but our major design is to distribute nationwide through our chapters.”

Mr. Abdullahi also said the association has found a worthy partnership with the First Lady of Imo State, Mrs. Nneoma Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, on how to distribute the three books through her foundation.

According to him, “We are presently talking to the First Lady of Imo State Mrs. Okorocha, who has indicated interest in partnering with us on the project through her WODI Foundation for the massive distribution of the books to schools across the country. We are also going to seek out the cooperation of corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals to get at least a copy of the book into the hands of the given targeted school-going children.

“Also, government agencies regulating and facilitating the introduction of good books into the school curricula are also our targets. We are doing this because we feel as writers, we have a great role to play in making our children get access to well-written books that will inspire them to be good citizens of this country.”

IN the same vein, the Association of Nigerian Authors International Convention 2017 will hold in Makurdi, Benue State capital from Thursday, October 26 through Sunday, 29, 2017. It has as theme ‘Canons, Prizes and Boundaries: African Writers and Writings in World Literature.’ The keynote speaker will be Professor Saleh Abdu Kwami, who is currently Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Gombe State University, Tudun Wada, where he is serving his Sabbatical Leave.

Kwami was born in 1957 in Kwami, a Bolewa town located to the North-West of Gombe, in North-east Nigeria. He is the founding Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Management & Social Science, Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State. Before joining the latter institution in 2012, Kwami was Head, Department of English and Literary Studies, Bayero University, Kano.