BM Dzukogi is one of the most notable literary voices in the Northern part of the country. In this interview, the former Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Secretary General and current Head of the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA), speaks on his writings and his vision for Northern Nigeria’s literature.
Your creativity cuts across poetry, fiction and non-fiction. How are you able to combine all these?
Well, I must say that this multi-functional nature is evolutionary. In Nigeria, new writers are on their own; they attain certain level of self-discovery and quality by associating with other writers. In the process, you see illumination of one’s creative worth, creative diversity and universality. So, this wasn’t all together a conscious exercise during growth that one wanted to write in all genres. I started with novel, then poetry and later children’s story, short story, essays and special quotations and all that. The process is that, while you engage in one, light sprouts in a corner of your endeavour, and you feel like you could do the other.
You have been credited for transforming the literary landscape in Niger State. How were you able to achieve this?
It is the pouring out of creative boys and girls to the community annually that gladdens the heart. We have given them direction in an increasingly degenerating society. Many are now young writers, painters, craftsmen and women, dancers, singers, broadcasters, academics, among others. And at the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA), through the support of the Chief Servant, Dr Mu’Azu Babangida Aliyu, we have been able to publish many talented writers, while encouraging others to join the literary line. We are also making books available for the public at subsidised rates.
Some say you are a better poet than a prose writer, do you agree?
Some say my power is in the description. Ismaila Garba said the power is unmatched in recent Nigerian short fiction (topical, isn’t). Well, people are likely to see you and your works in different ways. For me, I am just enjoying the show. But as much as you revel in the beauty of being discussed, those moments make you assess yourself and probably reshape your thoughts about what you do.
Poetry makes me feel higher inside. It gives me the character everyone calls Dzukogi. It grows my writing in terms of the essence, elegance and soul. Poetry is what makes a piece of writing eternal. Prose could be all but less. I love the literary essays. Who will hate his children?
You have been much involved in government as the head of research and documentation in the Government House; do you still have time to write?
Certainly! They only invited me to do what I am used to doing. Documentation and research are activities of the writer. Writing is the only most fulfilling engagement that is natural and satisfying thing I do on earth. Other things come to me as artificialities; passing entities but writing, I live forever with it. Any obstruction to my writing career, I quit, because I am going to be empty without it. See, as you gain recognition and your social status elevates, indeed, more burdens come with it. Time becomes limited, energy waned and other things are truly dropped. However, I must say that any leader who wants to take all the tasks and do alone will die the next day. You got to distribute tasks to reach heights. I function more in a group, for greater faces will smile and that translates to peace, co-existence, development and prosperity.