Literature
NNW: Let?s begin with your assessment of the Nigerian literary scene.
Shehu Sani: The Nigerian literature is a victim of artificial and natural circumstances; it is a victim of the realities of the changing times. And it is also a victim of a society that is degenerating. If you go to developed societies, it is different. Each time I popped into a library or a bookshop in London, Paris and Norway and in some other countries I?ve visited, I do see people trooping in to buy books, both fiction and nonfiction, people that cut across different ages. And also if you travel by trains or buses in Europe, or if you stroll within the public parks, you see people reading books.
So literature is an integral part of the lives of those countries. Their relative economic prosperity and technological advancement has not affected the ability and interest of their people towards literature. But what we are having here is a direct opposite of what is obtainable in the western developed society. Here there are challenging issues that are diversionary and are also intervening when it comes to the issue of development of literature and the concept of reading culture. Young people here are more interested in reading what is on the Facebook and Twitters than reading books. They are more interested in watching cable TV than reading. They are more interesting in watching Big Brother Africa than reading books.
There are also challenging issues that have to do with the economic situation in which we found ourselves. There is a preponderance of poverty and challenging social issues that have made life unbearable. And all these things deflect the attention from the dynamism of literature in our society. What also corrupts it generally is the politicising of literature in the sense that books that have attracted greater attention and of interest are usually books that make no meaning at all; books that are written to massage egos of individuals or make politics out of literature. So we can say that literature in our society is on the decline, hand in hand with the socio-economic and political idealism of our society. For now we can say literature needs salvation as much as our society needs salvation.
Don?t you think politics coming into literature has a way of enhancing it rather than affecting it adversely?
If you look at it clearly you will find out that most of the public launchings of books today have become simply a political arena. We live a lie. Any politician that wants his ego to be massaged and achievements to be drummed up simply hires a ghost writer to crystallise both the facts and fiction about himself and what he has achieved. And then it is fed to the public. And most of the so-called speeches that are being paraded as a collection of thoughts of most of our leaders are usually speeches written for them by their speech writers. This is bastardisation of literature in the sense that most people today, especially the political elites, see books as part of the furniture of their houses. Each time they are instructing their architect to build a house for them, they usually recommend for aesthetics that a library should be constructed. And there as part of the contract, books are bought and stocked in the library. But they have little or no time to read the books. And many of them also make a show of it by stacking their offices with books which they spend years without going through. I have met some politicians who have confessed to me that they have not read even their own autobiography which is written for them by their ghost writers or hired writers. So book launching and the interest in books by political elites is more of hypocrisy. They can explore any avenue and use any instrument that they feel can sell them and give them a certain image that will advance their political interest or ambition. So politics have done a serious harm to literature. Even from the quality of debate that goes on in the National Assembly and in the interviews being granted by most public office holders, you will discover the famine in the content of their argument. You can hardly see a minister, commissioner or governor making speeches and backing it up with some relevant quotations from leaders that have faced similar challenges. This is because they don?t read. You can also see the quality of debate on TV by our office holders. They are virtually bankrupt of ideas. It is natural that what comes out of your mouth is what goes into your head.
What are the major causes of this situation?
I think a lot has to do with politics and economic situation in the country and the level of our social degeneration; politics in the sense that we are running a society whereby the pursuit of wealth and power is the major interest and ambition. It is also what is being quantified to be the achievements of an individual. And where interest and ambition is about personal acquisition you will have a society that is bankrupt of literary thinking. Also, there is the economic problem as it is now. Young people in pre-independent Nigeria, just years after independence, had a higher standard of living and comfort and the society itself was secured. An atmosphere existed at that time that made it possible for individuals to pursue their literary dreams. And also every school boy knew The Trial of Brother Jero, Things Fall Apart and so on. Young people compete with each other in terms of how fast they can finish reading books by James Hardly Chase and pacesetters and other African writers? series. But now young people are virtually empty in their own thinking. You see them discussing irrelevant things even on Facebook. What have you eaten in the morning, what are you wearing, what are your favourite colours and so on. You can see the descent in our society when it comes to the issue of literature. And it is a serious problem. In the late 50s and early 60s even though most of us were too young but we have seen how it was. Young politicians like Awolowo, Zik and Aminu Kano could quote people like Martin Lurther King, Fidel Castro and others. But you don?t see this these days. So we can say the decline in literature is in consonant with the decline in our society.
What is the way out of the quagmire?
The way out is that, first of all, there is the need to have an improved political and economic atmosphere that would make it possible for people to read rather than think of survival like the way animals do. They should also think of how to live as advanced human beings and add quality to their mental faculty and also see how they can enrich the society with thoughts, visions and literature. Secondly, there is the need for a revolution in order to revive that literary culture which the country like ours was known with. It is unfortunate that I read recently that the staff of Nigerian libraries are planning to go on strike because of poor condition of service. When you have a librarian who cannot feed his family from his earnings certainly the books have to suffer. Other sectors of the society that contribute to literature, like our schools, are all in decline in terms of quality. And when you have a combination of these things certainly the interest of the society and its attachment of literary culture will certainly be affected. And that is why public schools have been so destroyed over the years and literature affected. Public schools nowadays don?t even have chairs not to talk of having libraries. It is very painful that most of those in power today have all attended public schools, but they cannot take their children to such schools any more because they are a ghost of what they used to be. So it is the decline of moral values in the society, our educational values, and the economy that have contributed to the literary decline. And it is only when such sectors are revived that we can actually have a society that will be reading and writing again.
Talking about reviving our culture for the better, would you say the present government of President Jonathan is on this path?
Well, the present government is not different from the past government in the sense that they all have the same programme and they are from the same base. So what is needed most is the appreciation of the value of literature because before you make any move you have to appreciate it. It is then you will make an investment in it. We have to be innovative in regenerating interest among the younger people. We must, for instance, update our libraries with computers, internet services, etc, to make it attractive; to make them get back to reading and writing. Funding is also very important. There should be a way in which we will remunerate individuals that have talent or interest in reading and writing of books by making funds available to write off any credible manuscript. That will encourage people to write.
(c) Interviewed by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the New Nigerian newspapers of September, ath 2010.
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Literature
Nigerian literature is a victim of circumstances
NNW: Let?s begin with your assessment of the Nigerian literary scene.
Shehu Sani: The Nigerian literature is a victim of artificial and natural circumstances; it is a victim of the realities of the changing times. And it is also a victim of a society that is degenerating. If you go to developed societies, it is different. Each time I popped into a library or a bookshop in London, Paris and Norway and in some other countries I?ve visited, I do see people trooping in to buy books, both fiction and nonfiction, people that cut across different ages. And also if you travel by trains or buses in Europe, or if you stroll within the public parks, you see people reading books.
So literature is an integral part of the lives of those countries. Their relative economic prosperity and technological advancement has not affected the ability and interest of their people towards literature. But what we are having here is a direct opposite of what is obtainable in the western developed society. Here there are challenging issues that are diversionary and are also intervening when it comes to the issue of development of literature and the concept of reading culture. Young people here are more interested in reading what is on the Facebook and Twitters than reading books. They are more interested in watching cable TV than reading. They are more interesting in watching Big Brother Africa than reading books.
There are also challenging issues that have to do with the economic situation in which we found ourselves. There is a preponderance of poverty and challenging social issues that have made life unbearable. And all these things deflect the attention from the dynamism of literature in our society. What also corrupts it generally is the politicising of literature in the sense that books that have attracted greater attention and of interest are usually books that make no meaning at all; books that are written to massage egos of individuals or make politics out of literature. So we can say that literature in our society is on the decline, hand in hand with the socio-economic and political idealism of our society. For now we can say literature needs salvation as much as our society needs salvation.
Don?t you think politics coming into literature has a way of enhancing it rather than affecting it adversely?
If you look at it clearly you will find out that most of the public launchings of books today have become simply a political arena. We live a lie. Any politician that wants his ego to be massaged and achievements to be drummed up simply hires a ghost writer to crystallise both the facts and fiction about himself and what he has achieved. And then it is fed to the public. And most of the so-called speeches that are being paraded as a collection of thoughts of most of our leaders are usually speeches written for them by their speech writers. This is bastardisation of literature in the sense that most people today, especially the political elites, see books as part of the furniture of their houses. Each time they are instructing their architect to build a house for them, they usually recommend for aesthetics that a library should be constructed. And there as part of the contract, books are bought and stocked in the library. But they have little or no time to read the books. And many of them also make a show of it by stacking their offices with books which they spend years without going through. I have met some politicians who have confessed to me that they have not read even their own autobiography which is written for them by their ghost writers or hired writers. So book launching and the interest in books by political elites is more of hypocrisy. They can explore any avenue and use any instrument that they feel can sell them and give them a certain image that will advance their political interest or ambition. So politics have done a serious harm to literature. Even from the quality of debate that goes on in the National Assembly and in the interviews being granted by most public office holders, you will discover the famine in the content of their argument. You can hardly see a minister, commissioner or governor making speeches and backing it up with some relevant quotations from leaders that have faced similar challenges. This is because they don?t read. You can also see the quality of debate on TV by our office holders. They are virtually bankrupt of ideas. It is natural that what comes out of your mouth is what goes into your head.
What are the major causes of this situation?
I think a lot has to do with politics and economic situation in the country and the level of our social degeneration; politics in the sense that we are running a society whereby the pursuit of wealth and power is the major interest and ambition. It is also what is being quantified to be the achievements of an individual. And where interest and ambition is about personal acquisition you will have a society that is bankrupt of literary thinking. Also, there is the economic problem as it is now. Young people in pre-independent Nigeria, just years after independence, had a higher standard of living and comfort and the society itself was secured. An atmosphere existed at that time that made it possible for individuals to pursue their literary dreams. And also every school boy knew The Trial of Brother Jero, Things Fall Apart and so on. Young people compete with each other in terms of how fast they can finish reading books by James Hardly Chase and pacesetters and other African writers? series. But now young people are virtually empty in their own thinking. You see them discussing irrelevant things even on Facebook. What have you eaten in the morning, what are you wearing, what are your favourite colours and so on. You can see the descent in our society when it comes to the issue of literature. And it is a serious problem. In the late 50s and early 60s even though most of us were too young but we have seen how it was. Young politicians like Awolowo, Zik and Aminu Kano could quote people like Martin Lurther King, Fidel Castro and others. But you don?t see this these days. So we can say the decline in literature is in consonant with the decline in our society.
What is the way out of the quagmire?
The way out is that, first of all, there is the need to have an improved political and economic atmosphere that would make it possible for people to read rather than think of survival like the way animals do. They should also think of how to live as advanced human beings and add quality to their mental faculty and also see how they can enrich the society with thoughts, visions and literature. Secondly, there is the need for a revolution in order to revive that literary culture which the country like ours was known with. It is unfortunate that I read recently that the staff of Nigerian libraries are planning to go on strike because of poor condition of service. When you have a librarian who cannot feed his family from his earnings certainly the books have to suffer. Other sectors of the society that contribute to literature, like our schools, are all in decline in terms of quality. And when you have a combination of these things certainly the interest of the society and its attachment of literary culture will certainly be affected. And that is why public schools have been so destroyed over the years and literature affected. Public schools nowadays don?t even have chairs not to talk of having libraries. It is very painful that most of those in power today have all attended public schools, but they cannot take their children to such schools any more because they are a ghost of what they used to be. So it is the decline of moral values in the society, our educational values, and the economy that have contributed to the literary decline. And it is only when such sectors are revived that we can actually have a society that will be reading and writing again.
Talking about reviving our culture for the better, would you say the present government of President Jonathan is on this path?
Well, the present government is not different from the past government in the sense that they all have the same programme and they are from the same base. So what is needed most is the appreciation of the value of literature because before you make any move you have to appreciate it. It is then you will make an investment in it. We have to be innovative in regenerating interest among the younger people. We must, for instance, update our libraries with computers, internet services, etc, to make it attractive; to make them get back to reading and writing. Funding is also very important. There should be a way in which we will remunerate individuals that have talent or interest in reading and writing of books by making funds available to write off any credible manuscript. That will encourage people to write.
(c) Interviewed by SUMAILA UMAISHA and published in the New Nigerian newspapers of September, ath 2010.
- Nigeria Is In Serious Trouble ? Prof. Ujo
Abulhameed A. Ujo, professor of Political Science, University of Abuja, was Resident Electoral Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission, Kaduna State, 1998 to 2002, member of the Presidential Electoral Reform Committee (set up by...
- Can Jonathan Bring Back The Book?
There was this legendary farmer who owed his popularity more to his dream of being a great farmer than the actual farming. He had several farms and at each of them he would spend the whole day telling every passerby how he intended to cultivate the...
- My Pen Is That Faceless Crusader Aiming For A Change - Salamatu Sule
SALAMATU SULE, a graduate of English and Literary Studies from the Kogi State University, Ayingba, is a multi-talented writer. She writes prose and poetry in both standard and Pidgin English. In this interview with SUMAILA UMAISHA, the imaginative writer,...
- Awf: A Commitment To Literary Service
DR. EMMAN USMAN SHEHU, founding President of Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), and Director of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja, hails from Maradun in Zamfara State. The holder of doctorate in African Literature in English has published...
- Drama Is The Easiest Way To Communicate
Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan, simply known as Femi Osofisan, was born on 16th June, 1946, in Erunwon, Ogun State. He is a playwright, poet, theater director, university professor, literary theorist, and newspaper critic. He is well known for his critique...