By Prisca Sam-Duru

Multiple award-winning journalist, author and technocrat Anietie Usen, grew up as a rugged village boy. He was a pioneer journalist with the prestigious News Watch Magazine and an outstanding reporter who covered wars in Liberia and Afghanistan.

Usen is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Oxford Business School, Manchester Business School, Wisconsin Business School, Lagos Business School, Pennsylvania Business School (Wharton Aresty Institute of Executive Education), and the University of Calabar, where he studied Political Science for his first degree.

Now, with his book ‘Village Boy’, Usen has his eyes on NLNG’s $100,000 prize money for the 2024 Nigeria Prize For Literature. You’d be wondering why the author, well established and renowned, would be vying for the prestigious prize sponsored by the Nigeria LNG. Like all others on this year’s longlist, more funding will do their lifelong projects some good.

Usen says winning the coveted literature prize, means additional funding for his foundation for orphans.
“I have a foundation that trains orphans. There was a time when I had 65 orphans in various institutions.

But the number has reduced now. I have about 27/28 orphans in various institutions now. I am a friend of orphans. Those parents whose mothers are roasting plantain or corn by the roadside are my friends. I have never befriended or been close to children of wealthy families, my friends are children of people that I can help. I will be happy to have additional funding for scholarship programmes for orphans, and also care for widows. My foundation, Sheer Grace Foundation, is registered as an educational charity. That is the definition of my life: that by the sheer grace of God, a nobody becomes somebody.”

Usen spoke during an interview in Lagos where he explained why he is in the race, why he decided to tell the story of his life and the prize. Indeed, his, is a story of growing from grass to super grace.

“I was privileged to grow up with my grandmother under the palm trees in my village, smoking rats out of their dark holes for meals and chasing insects desperately at night for snacks. There is a chapter in my book where I called eating termites as Barbecue of Termites. As an orphan in the village, I became rugged. I lost my father when I was two years old and I only see him in pictures and that’s how I ended up with my aged grandmother in the village. My father died in the city of Lagos on Broad Street in a motor accident. Going through primary school was a task but I managed to pass through primary and secondary schools.

“Five of my father’s friends gathered together on a Sunday and decided to contribute money for me to go to secondary school. That was how I was on their scholarship and they used to send money to my school through postal order,” he explained.

Continuing he said, “There is a chapter in ‘Village Boy’ that I said, the best bicycle repairer that never was, was because I was supposed to learn how to repair a bicycle after primary school. I refused. My uncles tried in that direction but I insisted on going to secondary school. Eventually, with the help of my late father’s friends I succeeded. To go to the university was completely ruled out and I didn’t know that small boys went to the university but one of my father’s friends employed me in Lagos, he was working with WAEC. He became the Deputy Registrar in Nsukka. When they established the Calabar campus at Nsukka, I became his clerk. While opening admission letters in his office, I found out that young people went to the university and I said to myself that I must go. I spent like six or seven months as a clerk in his office before I got admission.

“We were the first set of JAMB in 1978. So, I told my mother that I was going to the university and she said no, that I just started working and that we needed to make small money. I heard that there was a rich man from my village who was staying in Port Harcourt so, I decided to go and see the man. He promised me that he was going to pay my tuition fees. When I was introduced to the man as the son of the late Usen, he said, oh, you have grown up, where have you people been? I had a copy of Daily Times under my armpit because the list of those given admission was in the paper; I showed him the paper and said, this is my name, I have been offered admission and that I was looking for school fees. He said, ‘don’t worry, your father was a good man, we are going to pay for it. That was how I went to the university.”

Days of NYSC in Kano State and Castle in the Jungle

After my university, I was sent to Kano for my National Youth Service Corps and in those days, nobody lobbied to be posted anywhere because Nigeria was good. Before then, as a little boy, I was cracking kernels for my grandmother. In those days, kernels were very valuable in the village, it was like money and it could be used for transactions. You will enjoy ‘Village Boy’ because it is a story of village kids and their struggles. Have you noticed that most of the children that have breakthroughs are not children from rich homes?

“I was cracking kernels on a quiet morning; only goats and hens were around. There is a chapter in the book that I called ‘Castle In The Jungle’, which is my grandmother’s house. I was alone cracking kernels when I saw something that I had never seen before. I saw a convoy of black cars which went to a particular house and I saw a big man, the governor of the state at that time, M.I Okpara. He came out of the car and went into the house.

“ When I got to Kano in the camp, the governor, Abubakar Rimi came to the camp to do the opening ceremony and I shook hands with him. Two weeks later I was posted to my primary assignment in Government House, Kano. I went to look for the place and on my way back, I was given a car to take me back. I was working directly with the governor. I was given a three bedroom flat with a cook, gardener, security, etc. I began to experience that life that I saw in a trance as a village boy. I was the best Corper in Kano that year and they gave me a job with Triumph Newspaper but I refused. I came back to Lagos and got a job with Punch newspaper and from there joined the late Dele Giwa’s News Watch. I was a pioneer reporter at News Watch (first five reporters there).

“When they employ you in those days, they’d give you six months’ probation but I was the first person to be promoted there in four months. In 18 months, I was already on the Board of Directors and by God’s grace, I did very well. I won so many awards both internal and external. At that time, the only journalism award was sponsored by UAC Unilever and the winner used to go for a three month Fellowship in the United Kingdom with Thompson Foundation and Reuters. They took me there, all expenses paid in 1989. I came back and won so many other journalism awards. I have received awards like Excellence in Feature Writing by NUJ, among others.”

Journey into writing books

Usen shares more about how his writing career began. “I have never had formal training in writing or journalism. I gatecrashed into journalism. I studied Political Science. I learned a lot from folklores and folktales in the village. And when my grandmother told me stories, sometimes, I would be gripped with suspense and if it was a frightening story, I won’t be able to sleep.

“Later, in secondary school, I got addicted to reading books such as James Hadley Chase, Pace Setters books, etc. I kind of competed with my classmates in reading books. I also read Time Magazine. When I started writing, unconsciously, I was telling stories like that. I became the General Editor in a very short time which was the highest position aside the late Dele Giwa and Dan Agbese. I was all over the world for them. After the Okar coup, I went there and I captured a picture of mayhem. I was there that same day.”

Re-firing instead of retiring

Usen isn’t getting ready to retire. Keep reading. “I transverse both the private and public sectors. Sometimes, I pick up political appointments and leave. My last point of call was with NDDC, I was the founding Director, Corporate Affairs in NDDC, I remained there and occupied other positions. When I was 60 years old, I left.

People said that I should retire but I said no rather, I will re-fire. This is the re-firing- writing books. People had been saying that I should write. I don’t have pressure about writing because I am very grateful to God that I am among the nominees. After all, I started writing recently. Village Boy is about three years old. I don’t feel any pressure, I have so many books in the works right now. I am just happy that the Nigeria Prize for Literature has come into the picture and it has encouraged me to do more. This is an encouragement and it is something to really commend NLNG because it has inspired me.

“Village Boy was just seven weeks in the public space when it drew the attention of the United Nations SDG’s book club in Namibia. I am inspired and encouraged by the NPL recognition and nomination. I don’t feel any pressure. I am just happy about the NLNG prize and it has encouraged me to do more. More books are coming.

“You know a reporter’s life, you don’t have any time at all to yourself and when I got into the public service, I was also a director in the boardroom affairs and at NDDC, the pressure was much. Immediately after I retired from NDDC, I wrote these three books.”

Finally, Usen shares the reason for the ‘Village Boy’. “Village Boy is about village children and village life. I just thought that I should get a picture with words about our villages and allow readers to see our villages even when they don’t get there physically. COVID 19 provided that opportunity for me to write the book. It is about village children, their struggles. Their mindset, worldview, cosmology, perception of life and situations. All of these are intertwined, there are different ramifications.

“For instance, how do they have their medications and treatment? Their type of medications would daze you. You can’t believe how it works but it was okay. If somebody for instance had epilepsy, they would just put the person by the plantain leaves and leave him there. The person would come out after some time, healed. How do these children get medication? How do they play? How do they go to school? How they help their families and, in the process, become rugged.

“People used to ask me, how did you go to Liberia, Afghanistan in the middle of wars to report stories? I do tell them that I am a village boy and that I used to run about chasing rats in the bush. The Village Boy is very experiential. There is nothing like writing about your experience. I want to encourage journalists, write something, leave something behind. There is a story all over the place to be written.”