Literature transformed rascality of Soyinka, Achebe into greatness – ANA President

Dr Camillus Ukah, President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has said that literature helped to mediate the rascality of Nigeria’s two biggest writers – Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.

According to him, it is the same way the reading of creative literature will assist in shaping the minds of Nigerians to prevent their involvement in violence.

Ukah said this on Saturday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, on the sidelines of ANA’s 40th Anniversary/Annual Convention in Abuja.

Ukah said: “We believe that creative literature is a missing link between our nation and development.

“Our late founding father, Chinua Achebe, said that story was our guide and escort. Without the story, we just jump into candle fence like blind beggars.

“That story is literature and symbolic because it is your story that guides you; it tells you what you did wrong before and the need to correct it.”

According to him, literature is also key to the security of any nation because literature grooms the mind and a groomed mind cannot get involved in untidy violence.

“For example, look at Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laurette, with all his rascality, if not for literature, somebody who went and seized a radio station.

“Would it have been difficult for him to get to the bush with an AK-47? Bbut literature has groomed his rascality. It has given his radical tendencies a purpose. As far as Wole Soyinka is concerned, his abiding principle is humanity.

“Look at Achebe, in his stubborn quietness, literature had groomed him and redirected his energy to developing the mind of man.

“Literature is imperative to a nation’s security and development. So, literature has a lot to offer to a nation’s building and development.

“I think the earlier we take the promotion of literature seriously, the better for us.

“For all of us who have children, you can experiment with it. If you give your child one creative literature book every week, that child will become a star, irrespective of discipline whether science or art.

“What it does is open the mind of that child. So, literature is key to any development,” the ANA boss said.

Dr John Asein, Director-General of Nigerian Copyright Commission, told NAN that the commission would partner ANA leadership to sustain the association’s creative literature books project.

Asein said that the commission, in collaboration with ANA, would ensure the proper monitoring of the creative literature books given to 40 schools in the country.

NAN