USHIE, ODODO, ABDULWAHEED, DENJA AND THREE OTHERS TO BE CONFERRED ANA FELLOWSHIP
By Wole Adedoyin (PRO South)
The National Executive Council of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has approved conferment of fellowships to seven deserving writers at its 40th International Convention coming up between the 3rd and 6th of November 2021 at the Mammam Vatsa Writers Village Mpape, Abuja.
This was contained in a statement issued by ANA National Secretary, Maik Ortserga in Makurdi, Benue State on Friday.
According to the Statement, “The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has overcome the recent negative narratives within its fold which made many Nigerians to forget that there is another side to the story of the biggest continental body of writers. In the course of the Association's struggles, there have been writers who have constantly remained on the side of reason, offering advice and envisioning plans for which ANA will continue to move forward in the direction of its forebears. The Association is pleased to induct the following great men and women as Fellows of ANA during the forthcoming International Convention and ANA at Forty celebrations between the 3 - 6th of September at Mammam Vatsa Writers Village, Mpape, Abuja. The names are: Prof. Joe Ushie, Prof. Mabel Evwierhoma, Prof. Sonny Ododo, Mallam Denja Abdullahi, Architect Chukwudi Eze, Bina Nengi Ilegha and Hajiya Hafsat Abdulwaheed.
The fellowship is to be conferred on them for their dedicated service to the Association and proven contributions to the development of Nigerian literature.
The investiture of fellows will be done at the awards dinner of the convention happening on the 5th November, 2021.
Previous fellows of ANA are: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, J P Clark, Mabel Segun, Labo Yari, T M Aluko, Kole Omotoso, Femi Osofisan, Ken Saro Wiwa, Odia Ofeimun, Abubakar Gimba, Mamman Jiya Vatsa, Olusegun Obasanjo, Dora Akunyili and Olu Obafemi, Dr Wale Okediran, Prof Jerry Anthony Agada, Captain Elechi Amadi, Remi Raji, Akachi Ezeigbo, JOJ Nwachukwu Agbada, Zaynab Alkali, May Nwoye, Chinedum Nwajiuba, Mallam Al-Bishak etc.
JOSEPH AKAWU USHIE
Joseph Akawu Ushie is a Professor of General Stylistics and Literary criticism at University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria.
He is the current Vice-Dean, Postgraduate School, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He was born at Akorshi, Bendi, the hilly Obanliku Local Government Area (which houses Nigeria’s foremost tourist attraction, the Obudu Cattle Ranch) of Cross River State, and he attended St. Peter’s Primary School, Bendi, Government Secondary School, Obudu, and the University of Calabar, Calabar, where he studied English and Literary studies, and was the Secretary-General, Student Union Government in 1980-81 session. He subsequently obtained the M. A. (1988) and PhD (2001) in English from Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan. Professor Ushie had served as Head, Department of English, and on several boards and committees in the University of Uyo. He had also been Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, Judge, ANA national literary competitions (2009 – 2010), Juror of the Canada-based International Poetry Competition (2017) and a Co-Editor, Montreal 2017 Global Poetry Anthology.
MABEL EVWIERHOMA
Mabel Itohanosa Erioyunvwen Evwierhoma (born 7 May 1965) is a Nigerian academic. She is Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Abuja. She specializes in dramatic theory, criticism, gender studies and cultural studies.
Mabel Evwierhoma was born to Peter Omoviroro Tobrise and Theodora Tobrise, née Aiwerioghene. She attended Abadina Primary School from 1970 to 1975;, and the Federal Government Girls College, Bauchi from 1976 to 1981. She gained her Higher School Certificate in 1983 from Federal School of Arts and Science, Suleja. She proceeded to the University of Ibadan, gaining a BA in Theatre Arts in 1986 and an MA in 1988. From 1989 to 1990 she was a tutorial assistant at the University of Ibadan before joining the University of Abuja in 1990 as an assistant lecturer. She gained her PhD in 1996, and was promoted full Professor in 2005.
A festschrift for Evwierhoma was published in 2015. She delivered an inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Abuja, 'Mother is gold', on 21 January 2016. In 2019 she was one of three candidates shortlisted for the position of vice chancellor of the University of Abuja.
In June 2020 Evwierhoma delivered a lecture 'Rape as Anti-culture in Contemporary Nigeria', calling for cultural resistance and constitutional provisions against rape.
Works
Out of hiding: poems. Ibadan: Sam Bookman Publishers, 2001.
Female empowerment and dramatic creativity in Nigeria. Ibadan, Nigeria: Caltop Publications, 2002.
(ed, with Gbemisola Adeoti) After the Nobel Prize : reflections on African literature, governance, and development. Lagos, Nigeria: Association of Nigerian Authors, 2006
Nigerian feminist theatre : essays on female axes in contemporary Nigerian drama, 2014
(ed. with Methuselah Jeremiah) Snapshots of the female ethos : essays on women in drama and culture of Africa. Lagos, Nigeria : Concept Publications Limited, 2015.
SUNDAY (SUNNIE) ENESSI ODODO
Sunday (Sunnie) Enessi Ododo is a Professor of Performance Aesthetics and Theatre Technology in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria. His scholarly work has gained considerable attention, especially his ‘Facekuerade theory’, which derives from the maskless transformational practices of traditional Ebira masquerades (eku).
He has also edited reputable journals like, Alore: Ilorin Journal of the Humanities, The Performer: Ilorin Journal of the Performing Arts, Sino-US English Teaching Journal and US-China Foreign Language Journal. He is also a Consultant to World Scenography Research Project. A good number of his essays have been published in journals in the USA, the UK, Japan, India, Netherlands, Germany and Nigeria, etc. He also co-edited Larger than his Frame: Critical Studies and Reflections on Olu Obafemi (2000) and Technical Theatre Practice in Nigeria: Trends and Issues (2006), with Professor Duro Oni.
There are other edited works to his credit. He is on the editorial board of The Perfformio, a University of Wales online journal for the performing arts (http://perfformio.org/default.aspx); and the Editorial Board of David Publishing Company, Libertyville, Illinois, USA. He is the pioneer Editor of Scene Dock: Journal of Theatre Design and Technology, and currently also serves on the board of four other journals in Nigeria.
Ododo remains a valued and respected icon in literary and theatre circles. His play, Hard Choice, further brought him to literary limelight as a gifted playwright as he won the prestigious ANA Drama Prize in 2012. Apart from being a theatre scholar, screenwriter, actor, poet and technical theatre practitioner in his highly fecund career of about three decades, he is reputed to be the exponent of the Facekuerade theory in African Theatre Studies. Beyond these, Ododo is a distinguished and versatile creative artist, who has made modest contributions to the growth of literature and creative writing in Nigeria through his activities in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), where he has served as Chief Judge of literary prizes and national Vice President. He also served as one of the Vice Presidents of the Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA), before becoming its 8th President; and he made innovative and outstanding contributions to the Society in two terms in office, which ended on 2nd November, 2017.
DENJA ABDULLAHI
Denja Abdullahi is an award winning poet, literary essayist and culture technocrat. Mallam Denja Abdullahi is also the immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors ANA. He was the National General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian authors from 2005-2009. Denja Abdullahi currently works in the National Council for Arts and Culture, Abuja Nigeria.
CHUKWUDI EZE
Chukwudi Eze, an architect, graduated with triple honours and a Phi-Beta-Kappa from Vassar College, received the William Kinne Award during his Master's degree at Columbia University in New York and studied Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. He is the designer of Africa's first Presidential Library in Abeokuta and a design member for the Enyimba Economic City in Abia State, among other distinguished works. He won the 1993 African Guardian Magazine's International Essay Competition: To Make Nigeria Safe For Democracy and won the Nigerian Youth Service Corps' Merit Award. Eze is a frequent Op-Ed contributor to Nigeria's major Newspapers and a time member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is a member of the Canadian Authors Association, the Association of Nigerian Authors and sits on the Advisory Board of the Abuja Literary Society. He is the author of five books: The Positive Dream Actualizer, 1996; Yes Lord, 2002; Uchechi - The Triumph of Love, 2011; Leadership Stories of Mother Hen, 2006 and expanded edition, 2012; The Return of Half-Something, 2018. His children are in diverse fields as medicine, pharmacy, law and engineering.
ILEGHA, NENGI
Ilegha, Nengi, Poet, Publisher (Treasure Books, Nigeria), and Special Adviser to a former Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
BINA NENGI ILEGHA
Bina Nengi Ilegha is an award winning broadcaster and author. She currently resides in Yenagoa the capital of Bayelsa State.
HAFSAT ABDULWAHEED
Hafsat Abdulwaheed Ahmed (born May 5, 1952) is a Nigerian, writer, poet, and a women's rights activist. She is the first female Hausa writer from Northern Nigeria to have written a published novel. Hafsat hails from Kofar Mata quarters of Kano City of Kano State Nigeria.
Hafsat Abdulwaheed was born on May 5, 1952. She is a Nigerian author who writes mainly in Hausa. She is a poet, and a women's rights activist. She hails from Kofar Mata quarters of Kano City, Northern Nigeria. She did her primary education at Shahuci primary School and secondary school at Provincial Girls School currently known as Shekara Girls Secondary School, both in Kano State. She started writing in her primary school days. She married Muhammed Ahmed Abdulwaheed on January 25, 1966 In the early 1970s she became the first female Hausa writer to have her novel published. In the 2000s, she attempted to contest in the governorship election in the Northern Nigerian State of Zamfara. She has written more than 30 books, only five of which have been published. She has a number of children and the eldest among them is Kadaria Amed, a journalist.
Hafsat Abdulwaheed started writing when she was in primary school, where she wrote folk tales and she received awards. She once received an award from the British Council when she was either in primary four or five. In 1970 she entered one of her stories, So Aljannar Duniya ("Love is Paradise on Earth"), which she wrote when she was in primary five, in a literary competition organized by the Northern Nigerian Publishing Company (NNPC). The book was inspired by the experiences of her elder sister who at that time married a Libyan and the cultural differences began to generate friction in the marriage. She reviewed and edited it before it was submitted.
The book, which is her best known book, came second in the competition. So Aljannar Duniya has been adjudged by analysts as the precursor to a genre of modern Hausa writing known as Littattafan Soyayya or "Love Books", or what is known as "Kano Market Literature". Cara Giaimo quotes Abdallah Uba Adamu and Graham Furniss as saying, '...it was this book that "really set the world alight to [Hausa] love-story writing...".'
Hafsat Abdulwaheed has written more than 30 books, fiction and non-fiction. Of these, in addition to So Aljannar Duniya, Yardubu Mai Tambotsai ("'Yardubu the Possessed" - fiction), Nasiha ga Ma'aura (Admonition for the Married Couple - non-fiction), Namijin Maza Tauraron Annabawa (non-fiction on the life of Prophet Muhammad), as well as a book of poetry, her first in English, Ancient Dance, have been published.
Politics
Abdulwaheed has been a member of a women's rights group in Nigeria called Baobab. When the country returned to democratic governance in 1999 after prolonged military rule, the group observed that there were no women in the cabinet of the North-Western State of Zamfara, where Hafsat has been living with her husband for many years. At one time, she said, "the leadership of the group went to visit the governor and expressed their displeasure at this development. I didn't go with them because I wasn't given to keeping quiet when I felt something wasn't right.
"When they came back, they told me that the governor had said there was no woman in Zamfara educated enough to serve in his cabinet, and I thought that was an insult, because in my house alone my daughters were very educated.
"I then said, 'Well, we are not only going to demand for the position of a commissioner, we are going to take away his seat'. And I decided that I would contest the governor's seat in the next election".
Her dream was not to be, however, because her decision was greeted with an uproar. "You know in the North it is unusual for a woman to say she wants to do anything for the public good, much less assume leadership positions", she says. Following the condemnation of her proposed candidature by Muslim scholars, the party on whose platform she wanted to contest denied her its backing and, in the end, her father prevailed on her to jettison the idea, even though she had printed posters and other campaign paraphernalia.
