BM Dzukogi, the pioneer Director-General of the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA), former National Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), founder of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation and pioneer chairman of the Northern Nigeria Writers Summit (NNWS), in this interview with Adewale Oshodi, speaks on his writing activism, passion to develop more writers in the country and why he quit his membership of ANA. Excerpts:
FOR years now, you have been helping people, especially the younger generation, develop their creativity in literature; when you look back to what you have achieved, how do you feel?
I feel great that my vision to do so has been achieved, we are just consolidating now to stabilise at the peak. It has been a long journey since 1997 when I first published the students of Hill-Top Model School, Minna, Niger State. It was a poetry book. That time, I gathered them in a class until the school gave me an accommodation. Small things lead to big things. Today, I have not only published many of them, created many programmes and festivals but we are now going to start building the national headquarters of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation in Minna having created many chapters around the country. I feel grateful to God for the inspiration, and to have contributed something tangible to the society. I feel great listening to young writers across the country speak well of me in a manner that suggests they look on to me for hope and guide.
You founded the Hill-Top Arts Centre in Minna, Niger State, where raw literary talents are developed and exposed to the world; however, of late, the centre has been spreading like wildfire, having branches across the country; how have you been able to achieve this?
“Spreading like wildfire,” I love this. I think consistency in operation led to the spread of the Foundation. Another thing is that our centre has many activities that attract young writers from across the country. At the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, we create many opportunities for young writers without asking them to pay for anything. They have never paid for anything. We are the ones spending millions of naira on them through our sponsors. For long, we have a general Whatsapp platform in which teen and young writers join from around Nigeria, where mentoring and other art discussions take place.
Having realised that we have members from many states, the ones in Abuja, through Usman Odu Ode, decided to have an end of year literary feast, about 10 of them which I urged them to turn into forming the Abuja branch. When we inaugurated the Abuja branch, members in the group from other states started congregating to inaugurate theirs too. In fact, a young writer, Adamu Usman Garko, after creating Gombe branch, went ahead to form the Bauchi branch. We now have 19 branches in less than seven months. Abuja, Kaduna, Benue, Kano, Bauchi have been physically inaugurated.
Kebbi and Sokoto branches were formed in 2017; the physical inauguration of our branches is only a formal activity that brings them into public glare in a particular state otherwise they are all meeting physically except a few who are still confined to virtual activities. So, we are the fastest growing art organisation in Nigeria. Physically-speaking (at our current headquarters), Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation is 17 years old this year. Before registration, we were known as Hill-Top Art Centre but now, it is Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation. The Art Centre is now our mentoring facility.
Don’t you think the Hill-Top Art Centre will reduce the influence of ANA?
Well, there are many privately initiated art platforms in the country, today. These platforms are being created by young people. Nothing old can withstand the surge of the young ones. These new platforms are not only modern but they run activities that attract young writers from every corner of Nigeria. So, what would have ordinarily gone to ANA are taken elsewhere. In fact, the most serious ANA members have their own private platforms. And they are many. So, how can ANA not lose its influence. ANA loses its influence if it does not modernise.
It loses its influence if it continues to ignore the young writers in Nigeria. ANA is on the decline because nothing profound comes from it these days. With Hill-Top and others on the rampage, ANA’s influence decreases, naturally. Under the law, the status in the same as registered art organisations. In Niger State, there is no ANA, anymore, nothing serious there, they don’t even meet. However, ANA’s existence is not a thought in the configuration of Hill-Top, not even any other platform. We are just doing our things. We are publishing young people, ANA does not. We have the largest teen arts festival in Africa, ANA has only former name for which I also helped to create, anyway.
You used to be the secretary-general of ANA, but since you failed to emerge as its president, your interest in the association has waned, and with you focusing on the Hill-Top Centre, have you cut ANA off completely?
I cut-off completely two weeks ago to focus on Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation. I am a member of the 19 Hill-Top Whatsapp platforms across the country. The branches are currently gathering materials for state anthologies. I mean, Hill-Top would be publishing 19 books for our 19 branches, this year. Currently, one Hassan B. Etsu is publishing eight teen anthologies for local government areas in the Niger South senatorial district. We are publishing seven books that won the Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors, this year. We are building our national headquarters.
We are running our online journals. We are running our monthly prizes. We are organising HIASFEST; the largest teen arts festival in Africa. We are planning the maiden edition of our annual conference to be inaugurated in 2022. My energy is waning, so, what time do I have for ANA?
Being a former high-ranking member of ANA, what problems did you notice in the association and how can it be solved?
People go to ANA leadership for selfish reasons. And those who want to do the real thing, are blocked. Some come to ANA for promotion at their work places or self-promotion elsewhere. All these must be discarded in ANA if it must work again. Then, ANA must modernise and allow young people who have the energy and are very enterprising to take the lead in its structure. Anyway, that is their business. I am done there.
You were one of the coordinators of the Annual Muazu Babangida Aliyu (MBA) Literary Colloquium, which brought together scholars and also put the state on the world literary map, but since the former governor left office, the government no longer shows enthusiasm to literary matters, would you say the government has more on its hands now, or what benefit can a government facing banditry derive from literature?
I was the coordinator, while Professor Kuta was the initiator. He called me to do a proposal for colloquium in honour of Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, I converted the idea to an international literary colloquium and invited young people like Gimba Kakanda, Saddiq Dzukogi Terfa, Abubakar Akote and others to join me. There is a legislation that made the event a state affair under the Niger State Book Agency. The current governor has killed the agency and killed the colloquium. We cannot abandon the state and her activities because of banditry.
How much do we need for book development? How much was I given to create the book agency? We needed only 20m annually to do the colloquium, publish young people, create a decent environment, pay part-time staff and keep the agency running. Is it N20 million they cannot afford every year now? The current governor does not have time for book development. I guess the problem is from the agency itself for lack of leadership; for lack of visibility through ideas.
Literature can help to neutralise banditry through targeted stories. We write the stories, convert them to short films and spoken words, into our languages, render and disseminate. There are many ways that literature can intervene if government and citizens want.
With the spate of kidnappings, especially in schools in Northern Nigeria, will this not erode the gains made in the education sector over the years?
That’s when we gained something in education in the first place. I don’t even know what we have gained in education. The primary schools are as useless as they have ever been. The secondary schools are as wretched as they have ever been. The IBB university, for example, is grossly underfunded. It is currently under epilepsy as it drags itself alone trying to educate children. No facilities, no light, no sports facilities, no lecturers, the medical school has no equipment to begin running courses even when all the buildings have been completed.
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