Literature
Kano State Censorship Board has reversed its position on the compulsory registration of individual writers, bringing to an end the several weeks of media war between the board and writers in the state.
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Literature
Kano censorship crisis resolved (?)
Kano State Censorship Board has reversed its position on the compulsory registration of individual writers, bringing to an end the several weeks of media war between the board and writers in the state.
The resolution was reached at an interactive meeting between the board and the national body of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, with some state chapters of the association, namely, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara states.
The meeting, which took place at the board?s premises in Kano on Monday, 25th August, 2008, had in attendance the President of ANA, Dr. Wale Okediran, several other executive council members of the association at national body and state chapters, and the Director-General of the Kano State Censorship Board, Alhaji Rabo Abdulakarim, with his team from the board.
Both parties have resolved that rather than individual registration of writers, only the writers? associations would register with the board. According to the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, only lists of members of associations of authors, publishers and marketers will be submitted to the board through the respective associations.
It is further stated in the communiqué, which was jointly signed by the president of ANA and the Director-General of the Kano State Censorship Board, that the lists were to be submitted within sixty days from the day the resolution was taken. It was equally resolved that publishers, marketers and other distributors of literary works should register their businesses with the board.
The two parties also agreed to look into other grey areas of the board?s law with the view to fine-tuning them. To this end, they would "henceforth collaborate on relevant workshops/symposiums in the area of censorship".
According to Okediran, in an interview with the New Nigerian Weekly, the first workshop has already been scheduled for October this year in Kano. He said after the workshop a memo would be sent to the Kano State House of Assembly to review the censorship law in the state.
The president confirmed that ANA and the board have reached a resolution that there would be no more individual registration. "This will now be done by the association on behalf of the writers," he said, adding that "ANA refused to agree to censorship".
He further explained that as a compromise "the two parties agreed to a workshop to clear this and other grey areas; it will hold in October".
The Director-General of the Kano State Censorship Board also confirmed to the New Nigerian Weekly the resolution taken at the meeting. Asked whether the board has actually reversed its position on the registration of writers and censoring of books as a result of the agreement reached at the meeting, he said, "Yes, we did on ANA?s appeal".
The resolution was fully supported by the Kano State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Tijjani Muhammad. During a courtesy visit on him by ANA delegation a day after the meeting, the Deputy Governor said, "We allow for freedom of speech, this government is a media friendly government, and we are always extending our hand of friendship towards writers, to enlighten our downtrodden masses, thus there is no reason for us to quarrel."
He expressed surprise at the inclusion of writers in the censorship that was, according to him, meant for film-makers. "We were surprised when we learnt that writers were included in the censorship," he said.
If both parties had in the real sense of the word arrived at this seemingly popular resolution, why then did the board still deem it necessary to have lists of writers and books that are in circulation?
The Chairman of the Kano State chapter of ANA, Malam Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, explained in an interview with the New Nigerian Weekly, that submission of the list of writers to the board through the associations was necessitated by the fact that writers? associations were to now register with the board as agreed at the meeting.
As regards the submission of the list of books already in circulation, he said, "This is to ensure that the board does not censor such books."
It then means books other than the ones in circulation would be censored by the board?
The chairman said, "Yes, and this is one of the grey areas we are talking about, which we are going to address subsequently in our planned workshop".
(c) Reported by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the New Nigerian Weekly edition of 30/8/08.
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