Professor Sam Ukala, Provost, Delta State University, Asaba campus, is a literary icon.  He is the Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Delta State chapter. Recently at the 8th anniversary of the body which he has chaired for 8 years / public presentation of his anthology in Asaba,Ukala spoke on the values of the teenage author’s competition floated by Delta ANA,  and other sundry issues. Excerpts.

Congratulations on the 8th anniversary of ANA, Delta State chapter. What is the objective behind the teenage authors’ competition/awards?
We had three objectives in floating the competition.

One, is to encourage our youths to read, and we know that no one writes without reading. A sure way to make sure that they read other authors is for them to think about writing themselves. And we also think that writing is a kind of job that makes you search language, to pick language as concise as it could be and to choose the right words all the time to express yourself in such a way that people will understand what you are saying. So we think that by making them to write, we would generally improve on their standard of education. Thirdly, we believe that if we get the young people to begin to write, we would have from that age, channeled them towards careers that are productive, creative and profitable rather than leave them to be thinking about hobbies and endeavours that are self-destructive and that can also destroy the society, such as armed robbery, kidnapping, thuggery and all the other things which people would rarely not want to do in the open because they are anti-social. If they have something do
ing, if they are like the young Nigerian such as Chimamanda Adichie who started winning prizes at the age of 12, and who is now living abroad and living solely on writing, such people would not be thinking about kidnapping people and going to be sleeping in the swamps of the creeks just because they need money; because they can make money legitimately. People like Mofe-Damijo, who, before he was appointed into government, was living on dramatic movements on stage and in the films could not be thinking about going to kidnap people and demanding ransom because the work they are doing is pleasurable to them and is giving them sustenance. So, that is why we want these children to be called out young, to be introduced to creative and profitable endeavours rather than wallow in ignorance and in self-destructive activities.

How far does ANA intend to go in this engagement of encouraging teenagers? What are the plans for the future?

To begin with, we want to have this done annually. That is why we are calling on the government to help us by endowing prizes in perpetuity. We have three prizes. One for prose, one for drama and the other for poetry and we think that if the government endows these prizes in perpetuity, then ANA can award these prizes yearly which means that for this year we have eight new writers who have now become published. If next year we have ten, and we have fifteen, say, every year, and we continue to churn out writers, then we would have been creating a society of learned people. So, we want to go on as long as we have the means to continue to sustain the prizes that we give. Secondly, we think that this thing has a ripple effect. When some students see that their friend has won a prize, when that friend is writing next time, others would want to write and read too. We are thinking that it will broaden the horizon of every youth and possibly influence adults. It would be a situation where the youth begins to set good
examples for the adults to follow. So that is what we intend to do.

For now, we thought only about secondary schools, whether senior secondary or junior secondary schools. In future, we shall get down to primary schools because we want people to begin to get creative from the beginning. I became popular as an actor in the primary school. I was called Bob Million because in the play that I acted, which I improvised myself, I acted the major part, Bob Million, there the son of a rich man. And that thing that I did in primary school so propelled me that even when I finished reading English as my first degree, I said no, my love is in Drama and that is why I went to do Masters and PhD in Drama and Theatre Arts. Beginning at this level, therefore, you cannot tell where it would stop.

Sir, we know the potent role of Literature in shaping society. How much can ANA do in making our young assume the role of using literature to influence or change society for the better?

I am sure each of you will take away a copy of the anthology that has been presented. If you look at the works in the anthology that the children have written, you will find that each of them teaches a lesson, they focus on a situation, they focus on a particular event, but they write in such a way that they communicate certain values which you find lacking and because those values are lacking in our youth, that is why we have all the problems that we have. One of our reasons for wanting to catch them young is that if you continue to preach the correct values through your writing, you are not likely to misbehave yourself. I keep telling people occasionally when I’m invited to preach in the church, in the pulpit—I keep telling people that the preaching that I do daily is in my creative works. I cannot create and say in my works “don’t steal” and people have read it; sometimes when I came out, they call the titles of my works and they know what is in that work…. If they find me doing something that is contrary, I would have disappointed myself. I wouldn’t have been honest to myself. So, the true, good writer is an exemplary human being. We preach by our works.

That is why if I see any writer that is misbehaving, I say he is not a true writer; he’s probably writing just for the sake of money. But the true writer will write because he wants to communicate certain values and thoughts to the society and those values and thoughts he would endeavour to live by. So, that is why I think that through writing, ANA will continue to transform our society, if that society becomes a reading society. A society that does not read cannot learn.

The title of the anthology is leading but can you throw more light, please?

Well, “Rumbling Creeks of the Niger Delta” is an anthology of works of adult members of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Delta State Chapter as well as the works of the secondary school students who contributed entries to the competition that we did for them. It is a unique kind of anthology that put prose, poetry and drama together. It is also the first anthology that I know that has put adult writers side by side with teenage writers. The reason for that is as the Bible puts it, “Iron sharpeneth iron”.

We believe that the adult writers who have been published in the anthology while reading themselves will also read the teenage authors and they will see what the teenage authors had at their age which they themselves lacked. And the teenage authors while reading their works would also read the adult authors and they’ll begin to know why this name Sam Ukala is popular as a writer and could begin to say “Aaaah! Is this how he writes? Let me read it, let me learn more so that I too could try to be like him!” So, in putting this anthology together, we have done a unique thing.

 The entries on the anthology seem to be predominantly on one theme: issues on the Niger Delta. Is it deliberate or by happenstance?

It is deliberate. Actually, the theme of what we are doing together is “Peace in the Niger Delta”, so there were many entries that came in, which were not focused on the Niger Delta situation. We disqualified those entries. So we are dealing with “Peace in the Niger Delta”. But each writer, each of the winning entries is proffering solutions to those problems. We are not just pointing out the problems, we are also proffering solutions.

You know that the youths of the Niger Delta have been branded militants and tagged other negative names. What is your advice for them?

My advice to them is actually in my work “Fumes of Fuel” which is in this anthology that we have just presented. And it is that if our leaders were leading properly, there will be no need for militancy. My advice is not really to the militant or the youth who are clamouring to have what they ought to have; who are clamouring for their rights. My advice is to the leaders, the politicians, to those who represent these people. If they fought for what the people need, if they fought to develop education, if they fought for and created jobs in the place, if they were to fight for all the good things that are required by this people whose land is exploited, the youth would have had what they need and they would have had no need to fight.

I always give example with what used to happen when I was a personnel manager at Lever Brothers now Unilever. Personnel Management will think for the workers; we would think for them. We would know what the workers are likely to need and then we will provide. We would just call the workers to a party and say from now onward, we want to do this for you and before they would recover from the pleasant shock of our giving them what they hadn’t even thought of, we are planning something else.

So, if you are proactive as a leader, giving your people what they want, why do they need to go and sleep inside the swamp, kidnapping people only to get some money? They don’t need it. So what we need in this country is proactive leadership; leadership that has quality, leadership that is selfless.

Somebody just said I have been leading ANA Delta State since 2002; the constitution of ANA is that if you have done two tenures which means four years, you are asked to leave office, possibly by force if you don’t want to leave. But here am I, every year, I keep begging people to come and take over from me and they say carry on. It is because I am doing what they expect of me to do. If I was embezzling their money, I’m sure that there will be a different cry. These are the kind of things. The leadership must provide good leadership so that they can have good followers who are satisfied. If people had been sent to school; if for example we had free and compulsory education and these people were in school, would they be in the creeks? If we had industries and they are working, would they be in the creeks? Who would want to leave earning a good and neat salary and go and stay in the bush and be bitten by mosquitoes?