Sola Osofisan
12-31-2007, 08:08 PM
Written by TAYE OBATERU
Celebrated writer, Helon Habila, was recently a guest of the Advancement Office of the University of Jos to deliver a Distinguished Alumni Lecture as part of his tour of Nigeria. He spoke to Sunday Vanguard on the occasion.
HOW does it feel coming back to your former university after some years?
Well it’s like a home coming I think, especially for University of Jos and this is my return after four years. So, I am happy to be here after all this time and to be doing this, especially here in Jos.
We understand you are on a tour of the country. What is it all about?
Yes! I’ve been to Abuja and I am going to Gombe from here. It was organized by our publishers, they are called Cassava Republic. They are my Nigerian publishers. We are issuing one of our books here in Nigeria. We aim to promote them and to also talk to people along the way and encourage young writers and do whatever we can, you know, to create the awareness on the need for reading and writing to young writers.
How can upcoming writers be encouraged in this age that reading culture has dropped drastically?
Yeah! What must be done is for our universities to invite writers, bring them to meet writers. People see books as if they kind of drop from the sky but there are people behind them. So, if you can demystify the books itself, then, human beings will read them and they also have their challenges they went through or the difficulties to do it. So that people can see that it is written by people or say that yes this person did it. If he has done it, I can also do it. So, that’s what I think we should be doing, especially in universities. Also, the government should be organizing this kind of interactions.
What do you think has led to the state of things in our education sector?
It’s a problem of leadership. You know we are just emerging from over 20 years of dictatorship, so there are different things. Most of the time, they ought to be expected because dictatorships don’t cater to the needs of the individual. They tend to do what they want to do, pursue their own agenda so it’s as if we are staring from zero, we are just starting from scratch. This is the first time, after a long time, that we have individuals being able to express themselves freely or to expect justice from the courts and all that. So, there was a decline because the leaders did not develop the country. They did not develop the people and did not give people freedom to develop themselves.
So, what can writers like you do to encourage younger writers and break some of the barriers standing in their way?
I think the best we can do is to give advice and to kind of impact our expertise on our people. I’m talking especially about working with younger writers who are really ambitious and talented and have no idea about how to go about realizing their dreams.
So, I think that’s the best people like me can do is to rally upcoming writers, encourage them and give them any connection that they might need in order to publish their works. These are being done.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3872&Itemid=83
Celebrated writer, Helon Habila, was recently a guest of the Advancement Office of the University of Jos to deliver a Distinguished Alumni Lecture as part of his tour of Nigeria. He spoke to Sunday Vanguard on the occasion.
HOW does it feel coming back to your former university after some years?
Well it’s like a home coming I think, especially for University of Jos and this is my return after four years. So, I am happy to be here after all this time and to be doing this, especially here in Jos.
We understand you are on a tour of the country. What is it all about?
Yes! I’ve been to Abuja and I am going to Gombe from here. It was organized by our publishers, they are called Cassava Republic. They are my Nigerian publishers. We are issuing one of our books here in Nigeria. We aim to promote them and to also talk to people along the way and encourage young writers and do whatever we can, you know, to create the awareness on the need for reading and writing to young writers.
How can upcoming writers be encouraged in this age that reading culture has dropped drastically?
Yeah! What must be done is for our universities to invite writers, bring them to meet writers. People see books as if they kind of drop from the sky but there are people behind them. So, if you can demystify the books itself, then, human beings will read them and they also have their challenges they went through or the difficulties to do it. So that people can see that it is written by people or say that yes this person did it. If he has done it, I can also do it. So, that’s what I think we should be doing, especially in universities. Also, the government should be organizing this kind of interactions.
What do you think has led to the state of things in our education sector?
It’s a problem of leadership. You know we are just emerging from over 20 years of dictatorship, so there are different things. Most of the time, they ought to be expected because dictatorships don’t cater to the needs of the individual. They tend to do what they want to do, pursue their own agenda so it’s as if we are staring from zero, we are just starting from scratch. This is the first time, after a long time, that we have individuals being able to express themselves freely or to expect justice from the courts and all that. So, there was a decline because the leaders did not develop the country. They did not develop the people and did not give people freedom to develop themselves.
So, what can writers like you do to encourage younger writers and break some of the barriers standing in their way?
I think the best we can do is to give advice and to kind of impact our expertise on our people. I’m talking especially about working with younger writers who are really ambitious and talented and have no idea about how to go about realizing their dreams.
So, I think that’s the best people like me can do is to rally upcoming writers, encourage them and give them any connection that they might need in order to publish their works. These are being done.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3872&Itemid=83