Halima Usman is an award-winning poet and an advocate of literary creativity and environmental activist. She stands out with her literary initiative: “Turning Poetry To Action”, under her Foundation Halimafactor Community Initiative. Mrs Usman, who is vying for the chairmanship of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Abuja Chapter in this Interview with IBRAHIM RAMALAN, talks about her resolve to take the body of writers in Abuja to an enviable height.
You are in the race to become president, ANA, Abuja Chapter. What motivated you to join the race?
There is a saying that “evil triumphs when good people do nothing.” Many a times when things are not going the way it should, we are quick to point accusing fingers and condemn the players yet we do not take the responsibility to get involved and solve the problem.
For some time now, ANA, Abuja Chapter, has been facing some challenges that had hampered the progress of the association and hence the need for someone to rise to the occasion.
Therefore, I have decided to give myself, my time and my abilities to serve the association and restore to its glorious position and take it farther. It is a voluntary work and someone must step in. I believe I have the capacity to lead the association to a greater height.
ANA Abuja, being in the nation’s capital deserves to do better than any other chapter for so many reasons but we are not there, our activities have been crippled and the association is in a critical stage. This is why I am volunteering myself to be the chairman of the Abuja chapter to work towards rebuilding it.
What are the challenges ANA Abuja has been facing and how do you intend to address them?
The challenges the chapter is facing are basically that of lack of harmony and the misplacement of the main objectives of the association, which is to promote Nigerian literature and its authors. There is an urgent need to go back to the main aim of creating the association by our founding fathers. We are expected to build and improve on it and not to digress.
What are the cardinal objectives of your manifesto?
Based on the present situation of the association and my deep believe that we should be better and do better, we are looking at how we can build on our collective weakness to make the association strong, then we can think of making any achievement.
An association is as strong as its weakest point. Therefore, our intention is to revive the chapter, restore it on its original path and through peaceful and harmonious coexistence produce quality works that would shape our society for the better.
We will also strive to make sure the Association is attractive to new members as well bring back old members and other prominent Nigerian writers that were not part of the association.
ANA is a house-hold name when it comes to workshops, book launch, book fairs, book exhibitions, retreats, symposium, and talk shops as such it’s our motive and absolute believe to take on our in-depth knowledge in expounding on the aforementioned through all the best brains, ideas, conventions, conferences, birthday anniversaries of aged writers, memorials, award ceremonies, courtesy calls, book presentations, fund-drives, launching, fund-raising, prize presentations, and election into offices, tourism, and travels.
We shall greatly stimulate and magnify the ANA Abuja Critique session which has been the bedrock of quality works to authors who may not readily have the assistance of editors and reviewers. It is in our common interest to book a strong critique and review mechanism so that the books written by members of ANA Abuja become legacy books like those of our founding fathers whose works are globally celebrated, translated into various languages for wider audiences.
This should be our major objectives and hence the focus of the new executive under my leadership.
Building peace, unity and harmonious existence among members will require a lot of patience and sacrifices seeing the deplorable working relationship that characterized the last tenure.
Lessons have been learned and we will work whole heartedly to ensure that peace is restore within ANA Abuja. We know that the lack of transparency to all extend had contributed to the ailing state of the association, we will be transparent and accountable both in character and actions.
In the spirit of peace, unity and harmonious association, we will attract more members both published and would-be authors to join us on this upward march to the promise land.
So, how do you intend to carry everybody along, because those who lose during elections usually stay away until another election year?
One of the main reason of coming out to contest for the chairmanship is because I believe I can serve as a neutralizer and in my personal activities in the Halimafactor Initiative, we have achieved great things through collaboration.
It is this collaborative spirit that we intend to work with in ANA. If people are treated well and their opinions are respected, they will be committed to a cause.
The task is herculean because we have many members who no longer come for meetings because of the challenges faced but we will do our best.
We will consult, respect people, accept criticism positively and find a common ground to disagree to agree. This I believe would help us have a win-win relationship as fellow compatriots of the association.
Fund is one of ANA’s bottlenecks, how would you generate fund for the association?
Yes, it’s true that funding has been a major problem for Nigerian literature and authors. However, it is not completely a dead end. We are already considering our options which includes, but not limited to, seeking donors and sponsor, grants, organising events to raise funds as well as soliciting the support of well-meaning lovers of art.
