ANA Congratulates Yusuf Olaolu Ali on his 65th Birthday

 

ANA CONGRATULATES YUSUF OLAOLU ALI ON HIS 65TH BIRTHDAY

 

Camillus Ukah, President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has congratulated Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN), an Ilorin-based renowned legal practitioner, author and dedicated philanthropist who has taken literary philanthropy to an enviable level with his yearly N3 million grant to the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) designed to promote reading awareness among Nigeria’s young people in schools on his 65^th birthday anniversary.

 

This was contained in a statement issued by ANA PRO South, Wole Adedoyin in Ibadan on Thursday.

 

According to the Statement, “Your birthday is an opportunity for us to show our appreciation for what a wonderful giver and inspirational mentor you are! We are sending you our deepest prayers and wishes today! May you be blessed with good health, happiness, and many more years of sharing your wisdom with us! On your special day, we just wanted to let you know that we consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work with you. You have guided us all in the right direction and motivated us to do our very best. Thank you for being such a wonderful leader! From all of us in ANA, we wish you nothing but fulfillment and joy on this special day! May you be blessed with sound health and enormous wealth in the coming years! Happy birthday to someone who has done so much for ANA.”

 

“We sincerely commend you for your consistent generosity in supporting Nigerian literature.”

 

The Yusuf Ali Literary Awareness Grant was first secured by ANA National EXCO in 2012 and all state chapters of the association received sub-grants of N150,000 at various times between 2012-2014 for local literary awareness campaigns involving secondary schools across the country. In 2015, the grant was applied by the then National Executive Council of ANA to host a workshop on fiction writing in Abuja in which about 25 students, drawn from tertiary institutions across the country via a competitive process, participated.

 

In 2016, the Denja Abdullahi-led National Executive Council of ANA took the literary awareness campaign a notch further by focusing on innovative literary awareness campaign among tertiary institutions across the country through the states’ chapters, which submitted proposals on envisaged activities based on which they were assessed and sub-grants finally awarded to 16 chapters that met the requirements.

 

The competitive process was introduced to ensure greater compliance for the overall project vision and to improve on the process of monitoring, evaluation and reportage of the implemented activities. The grant was utilised in 2017 to publish three children’s literature titles under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS), which have been distributed to chapters of ANA nationwide to power ANA’s A-Book-A-Child nationwide project that was flagged off at ANA’s 36th International Convention, which held in Makurdi, Benue State in October, 2017.

 
The 2018 grant was deployed to facilitating a comprehensive media supplement on the projects executed with the yearly grants over the years and an intensive workshop for 15 selected chairmen of ANA chapters focusing on “Innovations in Contemporary Literary Awareness Campaigns” to deepen the execution of the project in the coming years.

 

The 2019 grant was devolved to selected state chapters to carry out innovative and cutting edge literary awareness campaigns in their domains as contained in the capacity building workshop held in Ilorin in 2018.

 

In the first quarter of 2021, during the 10^th Meeting of the National Executive Council Members with state chapters’ Chairmen and Secretaries held in Ilorin, Kwara State, twelve (12) ANA Chapters were given sub-grant to carry out innovative literary outreach programmes. The beneficiaries include: ANA Abuja, ANA Edo, ANA Oyo, ANA Kogi, ANA Rivers, ANA Imo, ANA Benue, ANA Bayelsa, ANA Ebonyi, ANA Yobe, ANA Abia and lastly the host, ANA Kwara.

 

ANA sincerely commended Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali for his consistent generosity in supporting Nigerian literature and therefore called on other well meaning Nigerians to emulate Yusuf Ali’s gesture of support for the literary arts.

 

Camillus Ukah finally prayed that the Almighty God will grant Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali longer life, good health and more strength to celebrate more fruitful years.