One of the most regrettable points to note in the last thirty years of Bayelsa’s existence is the reluctance of the state government to support the growth of literature. Compared to government’s abiding support for sports, the attention to literature is nil. Exception, of course, must be given to Alamieyeseigha and Jonathan.
To begin with, Alamieyeseigha recognized the body of writers in the state, and dropped the first one million naira into the purse of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA. No other Bayelsa Governor has done that again till date. I stand to be corrected. He was quick to note the distinction between journalists, creative writers and authors. He noticed that not all journalists were authors, but many authors began as journalists. Either way, he pulled them close.
When he came into office, in fact, one of the first things he did was to hold the local media in a gubernatorial embrace. He invited prominent journalists from the three arms of the press to dine with him inside Government House. A few years later, he came to understand even better that there was a difference between creative writers and journalists. He noticed, for instance, that Gabriel Okara was a journalist, creative writer, and an author. More importantly, he came to know that there was an Association of Nigerian Authors, Bayelsa State chapter, that Okara was the first patron of the Association in the state, and he identified with it at once.
He showed up at a meeting of ANA Bayelsa, as I said, and donated the first one million naira to the coffers of the Association. Flanked by Elechi Amadi and Oronto Douglas, Commissioner for Information at the time, Alamieyeseigha saw himself as an author. His first book, Employee Productivity In Nigeria, was published in the same year that ANA Bayelsa was inaugurated. The book was, in fact, promoted in the very first edition of The Mariner, journal of the Association.
In like manner, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, in his days as Governor, played host to Dr Gabriel Okara in 2005 when the old poet shared the second NLNG-sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature with another poet, Ezenwa-Ohaeto. Okara’s award-winning book of poems was titled The Dreamer, His Vision. The year before, in the maiden edition of the prize, Bina Nengi-Ilagha had come top of the short list of three with her first novel, Condolences.
Rather than give her the prize money of twenty thousand dollars, the panel decided to split the money with the other two at five thousand dollars apiece, and to return the other five thousand dollars to the sponsors. Professor Wole Soyinka jumped to his feet, ascended the rostrum, seized the microphone from the master of ceremony, and expressed his objection to the anomaly. His protest did not change the decision of the panel right away, but it gave the sponsors cause for thought. The prize now carries a value of one hundred thousand dollars, and it goes to a solo winner. Till date, I still look at a framed picture of Soyinka in a congratulatory handshake with my wife on the wall of our house. But that’s another story altogether.
At no time during his tenure as Governor did Chief Timipre Sylva invite writers to lunch, even though he ranks as an accomplished poet in his own right. Dickson did something different. He invited the three most prominent writers from the Niger Delta swamp, namely Gabriel Okara, J.P. Clark and E.J. Alagoa to join Wole Soyinka on a common podium to celebrate the birthday of the Nobel Laureate on July 14 of that year at the Ijaw National Academy in Kaiama. At least, he allowed ANA Bayelsa to put the event together under the charge of the Speech Writer to the Governor at the time, Michael Afenfia, a novelist who made the NLNG long list a few years later.
It seems to me that the Douye Diri government has not seen it fit to patronize the body of creative writers in Bayelsa State. Every member of ANA Bayelsa thinks so. I stand to be corrected. I say so with all sense of propriety. Writers all over Nigeria were in Abuja last week for the 45th international convention of ANA at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja. Guess how many writers from Bayelsa were there? The Bayelsa contingent was so hamstrung by funds that the count could not go beyond three.
The irony, Your Excellency, is that Bayelsa has the highest number of ANA Fellows in the nation. Small as the state may appear, it can boast of six Fellows in the front rank of the Association. The first was Mrs Bina Nengi-Ilagha who was inducted in 2021. The following year saw Emmanuel Frank-Opigo and Lindsay Barrett, the Jamaican-born journalist and poet who has since adopted Bayelsa as his home, adorn the robe of Fellowship. The induction ceremony of 2023 saw three more Fellows from Bayelsa on the line-up, namely King Bubaraye Dakolo, Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers and author of five books, Professor Chris Onyeama of the Federal University, Otuoke, and the award-winning poet and journalist, Pope Pen.
It may interest you to know, Your Excellency, that Gabriel Okara, Elechi-Amadi and Ken Saro-Wiwa, are still among the jewels of the Association venerated every year. In their lifetimes, they played prominent roles among the brotherhood of writers. Saro-Wiwa was, in fact, a former national President of the Association. Their very presence at any convention was enough to spark news for the next seven days.
The easy excuse may well be that the body of writers in Bayelsa was at war with itself in a factional dispute. Allow me to testify, Your Excellency, that writers are mature citizens. They can always put their house together. They are not like politicians who are divided about who to succeed the incumbent. We believe in peace building, and we do that with our works. We constitute the core of the communal conscience. We talk to ourselves and come to an understanding. We know when to start a quarrel and when to end it, when to fight and when to hold our horses. We are reasonable people.
I testify that the Association has unanimously recognized Ebi Robert Esquire as the current Chairman. A gentleman man you know very well, a veteran registrar of three universities, Sir David Suowari, offered to broker peace between the right and left arms of the Association, and the result has been salutary so far. We have resolved that the leadership of the Association can go round every member every two years. It’s a matter of time, a matter of patience. As the poet, Niyi Osundare, would put it, ‘a little patience is all it takes, the stammerer will call his father’s name’.
All hands are together to help our Chairman secure the confidence of the Bayelsa State government enough for Your Excellency to call the Association to dinner. It would do the memory of Okara and Clark a world of good if the Douye Diri government will look in the hopeful direction of creative writers in Bayelsa.
I foresee a situation where the Bayelsa government can sponsor the state contingent of creative writers to every annual ANA national outing, the way it sponsors sportsmen and women to attend sports festivals at home and abroad. What stops the Bayelsa State government from sending homegrown writers on short refresher courses abroad the way it sends the Bayelsa State cultural troupe to perform in China? Is this possible under the Douye Diri government? That is the question.
The other day, Emmanuel Frank-Opigo, a fellow Fellow of ANA, called on government to pay attention to the Bayelsa State library, and I wonder if anyone was even listening to him. Let me lend my voice to his call.
He has a very strong point. The Bayelsa government will do well to renovate the state library named after our own illustrious doyen of literature, Dr Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara.
Thirty years into the life of Bayelsa State, we should be proud to invite our children to go on excursion to the library named after the venerable poet of world renown. I am not in a position to tell you about the imperative of having a first generation public library today, well stocked with books, tastefully furnished, and equipped with every technological gadgetry known to the modern world.
In a bid to draw attention to the importance of preserving our libraries, I have come under obligation to invite Your Excellency to the formal presentation of two books out of twelve on 19 November 2026, at the foremost private library in the Niger Delta, the Azaiki Public Library, Yenagoa. One of the books is titled ‘Our First Deputy Governor’. The other is titled ‘Conversations With My Governor’. Nothing promotes our heritage more than patronising our own, and nothing would please me more than to receive you at the occasion. Have a jolly good day ahead, Your Excellency.
