The Director- General of National Council for Art and Culture, Otumba Olusegun Runsewe, has applauded a fast rising writer, Hajiya Halima Dalhatu, for uniting Nigeria through her creativity, foresight and storytelling ability.
Otumba Runsewe stated this weekend at the public launch of a book titled: “Random Nigerianna” written by Halima in Abuja.
According Runsewe who was the chairman of the occasion, the content of the book is uniting us as a people. It is a book that is telling us where we are going to as a people
He commended her for promoting Nigerian culture through her writing .
“The author brought in creativity in storytelling and encouraging the young ones to understand that we need to tell our stories ourselves. Random Nigerianna are unique six stories which touched on our living as a people on a daily basis.
“If we have more young people going into this kind of venture, we will reduce crime in our society. That would encourage the younger ones to know that there are people, there are icons they could look up to.
“It is unfortunate that it’s a common saying that if you want to hide something from a black man you should put it in a book and nobody will go there but with what she has done now, she has reawakened our consciousness as a people that reading culture is important and it keeps us abreast of happening on a daily basis.”
In her remarks, the immediate past Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Zainab Shamsunna Ahmed, who was a special guest, commended the author for her hard work, describing her as, “organized, resourceful and wise”
“When she told me that her book is ready for launch, I told her that You stay in the office everyday till nine Pm how did you manage to write a book,?
“Halima is very resourceful, organised and has wisdom that is beyond her age. She analyses and triangulate everything in order to come up with sound and well informed decisions.
“This cannot be the only book, there has to be others. I have read it already and I am waiting for the sequel. Everyone that reads this book wants to read the next one and the next one,” she said.
Also speaking, Halima aid she struggles with science subjects all through her secondary school because she wanted to please her parents.
She however, noted that the decision to studying English and literature and reading Chimammanda Adichie’s literary works was the beginning of her self-discovery.
“After reading Chimammanda Adichie’s purple Hibiscus, I told myself I am ready to be a writer. I find chimamanda’s style of writing as very inquiry. I can develop plot from almost everything. I can see somebody smile and would be like I can develop a story from that smile. It could even be a tone of voice, I could turn it into a character.
“The most important thing for me is to get enmeshed in the process where I feel the characters’ pain, joy and fear and even giving the character a life. I encourage you all to engage in reading and engage in practices that opens up the minds,” she said.
