By Olu Fasan

Dear readers, I’m heading back to school this month. Yes, this September! With a PhD, two master’s degrees, a Bar qualification, an LLB and sundry other qualifications in journalism, business and economics, I thought I had had enough of formal education, enough of sitting down to receive lectures and tutorials rather than giving them.

But I was wrong. A life-long passion and an undying dream have gripped me and plunged me back into formal study. That passion is creative writing, and the dream is becoming a published novelist, poet and playwright. Put simply: a dream to become a successful publisher of creative work!

New Wine International, my church in London, has a maxim known as the 3Ds. The 3Ds enjoin individuals to: Discover, Develop and Deploy their God-given gifts to maximise their potentials. I took inspiration from this. Having discovered my gift and passion for creative writing, I’m moving into the “develop” mode to improve and master the craft so I can deploy the gift as a creative writer, operating successfully in a global writerly community.

Over the course of my adult life, I have been an academic, teaching at the London School of Economics; a policy adviser, working for the UK Government and some international organisations; a legal adviser, advising major charities and businesses; and a columnist, writing for two of Nigeria’s most prestigious newspapers, Vanguard and BusinessDay, in addition to peer-reviewed articles in reputable academic journals.

But while I cherish those experiences, a career as a creative writer is in a class of its own, and one I wish to pursue. As I said, within the 3Ds framework, I have discovered my gift in creative writing. I now want to develop the gift so I can deploy it as a professional creative writer. I hear you say: So, how are you developing the gift?

Well, I’m starting a two-year, part-time course in creative writing at Oxford University this September. This is a huge personal commitment, not least because it’s an intensive and challenging course, which I have to undertake alongside my current preoccupations. Yet, the prospect of learning from some of the best creative writers in the world and studying with budding creative writers from around the world dwarfs any inconvenience.

I was interviewed for the course and asked why, despite my academic and professional backgrounds, I wanted to undertake it. I responded that though I was an avid reader and wrote regularly and widely, I believed I couldn’t be the creative writer that I desired to be through a process of osmosis. There’s a difference that being formally trained at Oxford University makes, with talented tutors and fellow trainees who will push you out of your comfort zone and help expand your writing. There’s certainly something unique about being trained by tutors who are established practitioners in their own creative fields. 

But beyond all that, a major attraction of the Oxford University creative writing course is its cross-genre and cross-cultural nature. Whatever your preferences, you will be exposed to, and expected to engage fully with, all the three main genres, namely: prose, poetry and drama. So, at the end of the two-year course, you are potentially a novelist, a poet and a playwright. The course is cross-cultural because of its international nature and the fact that you are encouraged to explore and develop your individual writerly voice.

Now, allow me to give credit to whom credit is due. Regardless of your academic and professional backgrounds, you need references for any application to an award-bearing course at Oxford. Naturally, I leveraged my relationship with Vanguard and BusinessDay. Eze Anaba, Editor of Vanguard, and Chris Akor, former Op-Ed Editor of BusinessDay, gave me glowing professional references. I am grateful to them. And Professors Razeen Sally and Stephen Woolcock, two former LSE colleagues, gave me outstanding academic references. I thank them too!

So, how would I deploy my creative writing skills after the course? Well, over the past eight years, I have immersed myself in the affairs of this country, contributing to its development through my weekly columns. However, that’s not enough. I believe the stories of Nigeria’s fragility should be told compellingly in books, through narrative non-fiction, through political novels, with a passionate polemic in defence of the best way forward. So, in addition to column-writing, I would engage with Nigeria through creative non-fiction books and state-of-the-nation novels. Two years ago, I was on the verge of publishing my first book on Nigeria’s future, but felt it needed more work. I hope to publish the book next year or in early 2024! 

But I won’t be an Oxford-trained creative writer only to write about Nigerian affairs. I would explore my creative imagination and writerly tendencies more widely. Thus, I hope to write books – non-fiction and fiction – in other areas of interest and also write poems and plays.

At 62, am I coming to this late? Well, no! I’m buoyed by stories of people who became best-selling writers later in life, such as a woman who published her debut novel at 80 and sold one million copies. Creative writing is not dulled by old age. Our own Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first literature Nobel laureate, published his latest political novel, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, last year, at the age of 87! So, I have a future as a creative writer. Wish me well!

Farewell Queen Elizabeth II. Long live King Charles III

I join millions of people worldwide in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week, aged 96. I came close to meeting her personally in 2003 when I was the rapporteur for the business session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, held in Abuja, which she attended. She was utterly charming, truly exceptional. The world will miss her.

Warmest congratulations to His Majesty King Charles III, Britain’s new monarch and head of the Commonwealth. May his reign be long!