Why we are assisting Nigerian teens to develop their artistic talents —BM Dzukogi

BM Dzukogi is the founder of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation in Minna, Niger State and former national secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He was the pioneer Director General of the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA), while he is the current Chairman of the Northern Nigeria Writers. In this interview with ADEWALE OSHODI, he speaks on the forthcoming second edition of the Nigerian Festival of Teen Artists (NIFESTEENA), being organised by the foundation, as well as his efforts towards assisting teenage artists develop their talents. Excerpts:

 

YOU had the first edition of the Nigerian Festival of Teen Artists (NIFESTEENA) in Minna, Niger State last year, and the second edition will be holding in Kaduna State in April, how did you come about the idea for the festival?

Well, our foundation has been in the vanguard of promoting National Teen Authorship Scheme since 1997. As you know, we have been running the Annual Schools Carnivals of Art and Festival of Songs (ASCAFS) for secondary schools in Niger State since 1995. This programme has produced many authors in Nigeria. We have published teen authors from other states through the Association of Nigerian Authors at national and state levels. Our foundation has coordinators in about 27 states in Nigeria. Therefore, we thought we should create a national platform where teen artists from around the country can meet to compete, showcase their books and other artistic skills towards professionalism and good citizenship. Indeed, we have as objectives the inculcation of reading habit as one primary focus. We want the student artists to speak to themselves through art, what they think of society, how they want it to be and work towards creating one during their lifetime. The reasons for NIFESTEENA are many, including developing critical citizenry, student authors serving as role models in classrooms, as well as appropriation of student’s habits towards good through the good their peers have written.

 

Participants from about nine states witnessed the first edition; are you planning to have more participants for the second edition?

About 27 states will be taking part in the 2018 edition. Some states like Bayelsa, Katsina, Niger, Kebbi, Abuja, Kaduna, Osun, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Sokoto, Oyo, Anambra, Ekiti, and Rivers are coming with more than three schools each. We are looking forward to having more than 700 active participants/contestants, this year. There are about five categories of artistic expressions or contests in NIFESTEENA. We have creative writing where contestants have to be published teens whether as single authors or authors in an anthology. There is spoken word and poetry performance, there is painting and photography. We have contemporary song as a category too. We have folksong as a category. This year, our folksong shall be in Yoruba. We have cultural display as a category too. The team is Tiv culture. We shall be having mentoring sessions, nights of performances and workshops. There are 39 trophies to be won. NIFESTEENA is a new national event in the arts.

 

In what ways do you think the festival would promote arts, and particularly literature, in the country?

It is serving that purpose already. The trick is that students who are growing with the spirit and skills of art in mind are likely to become excellent ones at adulthood. The books they are writing and we are publishing for them becomes life-long documents that keep them on track. One of the primary features of this year’s NIFESTEENA is the public presentation of the Nigerian Anthology of Teen Authors by the initiator of Yasmin El-Rufai Literary Foundation, Hajiya Hadiza Isma El-Rufai. In 2016, our foundation published 11 teen authors as single authors each. That’s eleven titles or eleven new teen authors with a book of their own each. Imagine if each state in Nigeria is producing 11 teen authors annually. You have about 400 new young writers into the Nigerian society.

 

Considering the economic situation in the country, how do you get funding for NIFESTEENA?

The first edition was almost solely sponsored by the Niger State government through the Chief of Staff. The former provost of Niger State College of Education, Professor Faruk, gave the halls, accommodation and the entire college to us to inaugurate the festival. We don’t know whether the governor knows about it or not, but they provided the funds. The Commissioner of Education, Mrs Madugu, made her contribution, as well as the Speaker of Niger State House of Assembly. Hajiya Ramatu Yar’Adua and Engr Yahaya Daudu did too. However, the festival needs big sponsorship from donor agencies and individuals. The second edition shall be sponsored by the Kaduna State government, hopefully. You know governor El-Rufai said in his letter to the president that art could be an instrument of soft power. It was an advice to the president but it was a call to us as artists that here is a governor who could be our potent partner and friend. He organised KABAFEST, National festival, so, why not NIFESTEENA? More, his wife runs a formidable Literary Art Foundation; the first of its kind in Northern Nigeria by a First Lady to any state governor. That her foundation is for book development makes her exceptional among first ladies in Nigeria. She’s a writer, and her daughter, in whose name the Foundation is immortalized, was a writer. So, NIFESTEENA is in the right place for 2018. In fact, the First Lady is delivering the keynote on child-to-child advocacy as a strategy for behavioural change in the society at the event.

 

You established the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA) during the tenure of the immediate past governor of the state, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, and it was responsible for pioneering several literary projects in the state and Nigeria, however, what state is the agency in at the moment?

At the moment, I think the Agency is in a state of coma. Those running it now said they have no funds. I think since we left, there has not been any serious programme again. The facilities we created have been taken away by a new Teachers Institute which came to squat there only to begin to take ownership of our agency. The bookshop (Book hawker) and the ICT centre we built have been taken away by the institute. I blame the poor leadership at the Agency.

 

 

You are also a strong member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), and you have contested to be its president on two previous occasions but lost; why do you think members did not connect with your message, considering your giant strides in Niger State ANA?

I can’t say. I am surprised, looking at the fact that we did more than those who are there now. It is a fact that all Nigerian writers know. I guess Nigeria played out. On the second attempt, I stepped down after being advised to do so. Writers wanted the house to be orderly. They said I should wait-by for the next election when the current president would have finished his second tenure. It is not that writers do not connect with me, I am the one they connect with. Almost all love me and the programmes we initiate have been unmatchable. They always say so. NIFESTEENA was introduced after I lost election in 2015. Now see where we are with the event, taking it to Kaduna state where the state government is giving us a brilliant attention. When it comes to election, writers become Nigerian politicians too. Lol. That aside, I head the Northern Nigeria angle of Nigeria as Chairman. That’s even more challenging for me.

 

 

You also hosted the MBA International Literary Colloquium, which brought several literary giants and former heads of state to the state, but it has not held since the former governor, Dr Aliyu, left office. Did you not plan for the colloquium to be self-sustaining other than through support from government, which is probably why it has died a natural death?

It is a Niger State government project under the Book Agency. It looks like the present governor has no interest in book development activities except one or two of his lieutenants. Our saving grace is the current Chief of Staff who has sympathy for our art foundation and my bid to become ANA president. The colloquium will hold only if the governor wants it. Annually, Niger State House of Assembly appropriate funds for the agency to run her programmes but such funds are never released. Non-release of the book agency’s budget complicates the matter. We need the governor to understand that the state has a vibrant literary tradition right from the time of Abubakar Imam, which governments in the past have supported to grow.

 

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