By Mcphilips Nwachukwu & chris mba

A crop of seasoned writers at a closing ceremony of the Fidelity Bank organised workshop in Creative Writing told New Generation of Nigerian writers to direct their creative art towards the telling of the Nigerian story as well as in raising concerns for national issues.

These seasoned writers spoke in Lagos, week end at the 4th Edition of the Fidelity Bank Creative Writing Workshop. According to them, it was high time the Nigerian writers expressed their thoughts through writing, while urging the Nigerian universities to offer creative writing courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Notable writers at the closing ceremony of the workshop were; Okey Ndibe, Tony Kan, Helon Habila and Odili Ujubuonu. Others were; Diana Evans, Jamal Mahjoub from United Kingdom and Spain respectively.

Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, MSr. Reginald Ihejiahi played host to the guests at the event which also featured, the presentation of an anthology of short stories from the 2010 Fidelity Bank Creative Writing Workshop titled;Dreams at Dawn.

The anthology is edited by former Arts Editor of Vanguard and Caine Prize winner, Helon Habila, Tsiitsi Dangarembga and Madeleine Thien.

L-R: Jamal Mahjoub, Diana Evans and Helon Habila at the workshop

According to Habila, who also has been the anchor man of the workshop in recent past, “Most Nigerians have a lot of stories to tell and they are not afraid to tell it. My hope is that soon our universities will recognise this need for self expression in our youths and begin to offer creative writing courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Art is cathartic, we are a nation of story tellers. All we need to do is to learn how to tell it well.”

Habila, who wrote introduction to the anthology, added that “Writers in this collection paint a picture of Nigeria as it is lived today. It can never be captured in history or news reports or government statistics, or even in the novel.”

In his remark, Reginald Ihejiahi agreed that Nigerians have a lot of stories, but also pointed out that the International Creative Writing Workshop is an important arm of our corporate social responsility initiative.

The workshop was conceived to serve a unique platform for Nigerians with a gift of the imagination who have been living in the Diaspora to come home with their talent and contribute to Nigeria’s on-going cultural renaissance.” He said.

Continuing, The Fidelity Bank MD told the audience that he was reading two books at present, and explained that human nature, characters and conditions could be better understood through reading.

“One of the books I am reading is a satire on British politics. It is called “How to be a Minister” the other one is an autobiography of Anthony Cardinal Okogie.”

Reviewing the book, Tony Kan said that the stories in the collection are so topical. He added that in the collection, that there are stories about young men killed by crazy mobs, immigrants trained in foreign lands, stories about a young man struggling with his sexuality and militants wreaking havoc in the Niger Delta among others.

While commending Fidelity Bank for the noble initiative, Kan added that, “The stories in this collection speak directly to the heart of what it is in Nigeria at the moment with all the distortions and anomalies. “