Sule, Obi-Obasi, Abdullahi Herald ANA’s A-Book-A-Child project

Sule, Obi-Obasi, Abdullahi Herald ANA’s A-Book-A-Child project

Nigerian Writers Series 2 books, dedicated to children’s literature, are out. It is a culmination of over a year’s process of competitive call, sifting through manuscripts and arriving at a group of three adjudged publishable by the series editors.

For this outing, a special appreciation goes to Yusuf Ali, whose 2017 grant to ANA financed the publication, the series editors, Prof. Uwemedimo Iweketok, Ikeogu Oke and Omowunmi Segun and Osorobu Igudia, Managing Editor, NWS Publishers, an imprint of ANA. With these books, ANA’s A-Book-A- Child nationwide project is set to run.

The association has also congratulated the three writers, Salamatu Sule (Oma the Drummer Queen), Chinyere Obi-Obasi (The Loyal Queen) and Kabiru Abdullahi (The Golden Girl of Galma), for creative efforts that saw them being found worthy of selection.

President, ANA, Denja Abdullahi, explained the concept behind ANA’s A-Book -A-Child nationwide project as “being designed to get an ennobling general interest book of cultural relevance into the hands of every school-going Nigerian child from the ages of 5 – 12. Since last year, ANA organised a manuscript submission competition for possible children-centred books that would be published to power the project. 13 manuscripts were received, which were passed to the series editors, who are experts in children’s literature. Three manuscripts were adjudged publishable, which we have published under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS) of ANA through ANA’s publishing outfit, NWS Publishers.

“The three books are The Golden Girl of Galma by Kabiru Abdullahi, Oma the Drummer Queen by Salamatu Sule and The Loyal Queen by Chinyere Obi Obasi. Incidentally, all the three well-illustrated books dwell on the matter of girl-child empowerment and female-oriented issues. The books were published with the fund received from Yusuf Ali as part of his annual grant to the association. We are presently distributing the books to bookshop outlets nationwide but our major design is to distribute nationwide through our chapters.” 

Mr. Abdullahi also said the association has found a worthy partnership with the First Lady of Imo State, Mrs. Nneoma Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, on how to distribute the three books through her foundation.

According to him, “We are presently talking to the First Lady of Imo State Mrs. Okorocha, who has indicated interest in partnering with us on the project through her WODI Foundation for the massive distribution of the books to schools across the country. We are also going to seek out the cooperation of corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals to get at least a copy of the book into the hands of the given targeted school-going children.

“Also, government agencies regulating and facilitating the introduction of good books into the school curricula are also our targets. We are doing this because we feel as writers, we have a great role to play in making our children get access to well-written books that will inspire them to be good citizens of this country.”

IN the same vein, the Association of Nigerian Authors International Convention 2017 will hold in Makurdi, Benue State capital from Thursday, October 26 through Sunday, 29, 2017. It has as theme ‘Canons, Prizes and Boundaries: African Writers and Writings in World Literature.’ The keynote speaker will be Professor Saleh Abdu Kwami, who is currently Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, Gombe State University, Tudun Wada, where he is serving his Sabbatical Leave.

Kwami was born in 1957 in Kwami, a Bolewa town located to the North-West of Gombe, in North-east Nigeria. He is the founding Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Management & Social Science, Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State. Before joining the latter institution in 2012, Kwami was Head, Department of English and Literary Studies, Bayero University, Kano. 

https://dailynigerian.com/sule-obi-obasi-abdullahi-herald-anas-a-book-a-child-project/

Nigerian authors to give each school child book on nationalism, patriotism

Nigerian authors to give each school child book on nationalism, patriotism

On April 10, 201611:31 amIn News by adekunle0 Comments Ilorin –

The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) says it has concluded plans to write a book on nationalism, patriotism and to ensure that each Nigerian school child gets a copy. Mr Denja Abdullahi, the president of the association made this known during his welcome remark at the association’s 5th National Executive Council meeting on Saturday in Ilorin, Kwara State. He said that this was to encourage patriotism among the younger generation. “Young ones are not abreast with the positive things about the country; schools these days do not inculcate positive nationalistic values into the younger ones. 

“This is why they are not patriotic in most things they do. “The essence of the book is to instigate patriotism among the younger generation.’’ Abdullahi said that this could only be achieved through the collaboration and contribution of the state chapters of the association. He encouraged state chapters of the association to do more in ensuring that their activities had positive impact on their communities. The ANA president also admonished state chapters to have a complete and comprehensive data base of all its members. “However, it should go beyond ordinary registration; there should analogue type of registration where members are to filled membership form and submit. “There should also be digital registration where members are to go to the association’s website, fill the form and submit it. 

“This will checkmate the issue of fake members or those who are not committed to the course of the association,’’ he said. Abdullahi said that the association was supporting one of its members who was wrongly committed to prison in Bayelsa State. 

He noted that ANA would continue to support and protect the interest of its members and to make sure that their works brought in the needed royalties. “We shall continue to make the society an egalitarian society with our works and other activities.’’ He encouraged strong and committed members in the state chapters to mentor the younger ones so that they could take over without any problems when it was the time do so. The ANA president said that the “International Book Fair’’ would hold in May month in Abuja and urged members to get ready with their works to be displayed. He said added that ANA was planning a documentary that would involve prominent people across the country. The high point of the occasion was the presentation of cheques to the state chapters for the organisation of the 2016 Yusuf Ali Reading Campaign in the states. The states that got the cheques were the ones that their proposals were approved by the ANA National Executive Council. They are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi and Bayelsa States. Others are Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, FCT and Kwara State respectively. Other benefiting states are Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau and Zamfara. Also each state was given N150,000 cheque. The ANA president however said that those state whose proposals were not approved could get the grant next year and urged them to put up a better proposal. He also appreciated Barrister Yusuf Ali for his unquantifiable contributions to the association for over five years and called on other Nigerians to also support the course of writers in the country. 

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/nigerian-authors-to-give-each-school-child-book-on-nationalism-patriotism/ Read more at:

ANA dumps publishers of NWS, releases new books

ANA dumps publishers of NWS, releases new books

Published August 15, 2017  Chux Ohai

 The Association of Nigerian Authors has released the second edition of the Nigerian Writers’ Series.

The association, in a statement posted on Facebook by its President, Denja Abdullahi, said that only three titles were published out of the 13 entries submitted in the Children’s Literature category.

The selected entries include The Loyal Queen written by Chinyere Obi-Obasi, Salamatu Sule’s Oma the Drummer Queen and The Golden Girl of Galma by Kabir Abdullahi.

Unlike the titles published in the first edition of the series in 2014 by five selected publishing companies, the new books are published under an imprint of ANA, known as the NWS Publishers.

Explaining why the association did not get the initial publishing outlets involved in the production of the new books, Abdullahi said, “We didn’t want to repeat what happened four years ago when we didn’t get up to N300,000 from an investment of about N7m. The publishing companies that we asked to handle the series ended up doing nothing to market and distribute the finished products. They simply dumped the books on us.

“This time around, we want to market the books ourselves so as to make some profits and publish more titles. We have decided to approach this from a proper business perspective. We are going to find a way to get the books into the schools’ curricula. All the chapters of ANA in the 36 states of the federation are going to be involved in marketing and distributing the books.”

But, reacting to Abdullahi’s statement, a co-founder of Parresias Publishing Limited, one of the outlets contracted by ANA four years ago, Richard Ali, counted his company out of those that failed to live up to the association’s expectations.

He said, “It’s not all the publishers initially selected to handle the first edition of the series that dumped the book on the association. If I remember correctly, the original arrangement was to produce the books and distribute them. But only Parresias distributed and tried to do some kind of marketing. The idea was that ANA would use its state chapters and other structures to help push the books. I don’t think any of the publishers followed up on that.

“For the most part, I don’t think the publishers did what they were supposed to do. Part of this problem is the fact that ANA split the task of publishing the first edition of the series among different outlets instead of giving it to just one. When Parresias entered the equation, some people protested and said it shouldn’t be the only publishing company involved in the series. So, it was split among several other publishers. If you look at the quality of the production of those books, you will see that they differ from one publishing outlet to another.”

However, Abdullahi, in a separate telephone interview with our correspondent, said that the writers’ body had concluded plans to start A Book, A Child reading promotion project, nationwide, with the three children’s books, which were also published with the grant that it received from one of its major sponsors, Alhaji Yusuf Ali, in 2016.

 

“One of ANA’s goals at the moment is to ensure that a copy of the book gets to every Nigerian child in school. We are also going to organise a symposium, themed The Expanding Frontiers of Creative Writing in Nigeria, at the Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State next Monday.

“In addition, we want to start hosting an annual conference on the criticism of Nigerian literature, which will take place as from 2018. The symposium will be the prelude to this conference. For this reason, the FUNAI authority has entered into a partnership with ANA,” the ANA president said.

http://punchng.com/ana-dumps-publishers-of-nws-releases-new-books/

ANA Releases Nigerian Writers Series 2 Books

ANA Releases Nigerian Writers Series 2 Books

 

Nigerian Writers Series 2 books dedicated to children's literature are out. This is a culmination of over a year process of competitive call, sifting through manuscripts and arriving at a group of three adjudged publishable by the series editors. For this outing, many thanks to Yusuf Ali( SAN), whose 2017 grant to ANA was used to finance the publications; the series editors( Prof Uwemedimo Iweketok,Ikeogu Oke and Omowunmi Segun); and Osorobu Igudia , the Managing Editor, NWS Publishers, an imprint of ANA. With these books, ANA's A- Book-A- Child nationwide project is set to run. Congrats to the authors, Salamatu Sule,Chinyere Obi-Obasi and Kabiru Abdullahi.

August 22, 2017

Denja ABdullahi
President, ANA

https://www.ana-nigeria.com/news/ana-releases-nigerian-writers-series-2-books