Abuja Writers Forum: Celebrating talents, honing skills

You have heard that readers are leaders. How about readers being writers? You heard that too. Now, AWF is a convergence of writers…and thinkers. And writers, for the most part, is the clan of a people you call “intellectuals”. Seen a nation without intellectuals? It must be a doomed one. Hmmm!

The June edition of Abuja Writers Forums’ guest writers’ session saw the duo of Paul Sawa and Asma’u Baikie read to an enthusiastic literary audience while guitarists Tokumbo Edward and Blessing Tangban spiced the event with live soothing cadences. It was pure bliss. My only surprise, as I rejoined the literary family, was the level creativity and immense intellectual spectacles produced by the guest writers, and the artistes. This edition of AWF’s guest writer’s session is something to rave about. I do not lie.

The AWF is more than just a meeting of people. By design, it is intended to encourage creative writing potential of Nigerians and of course Africans. But more interestingly, I found, it is home to radically creative thinkers. So if you are a writer of any sort, or even more particularly, a budding one, Abuja Writers Forum is your place: Ideas. Inspiration. Motivation. Plus the commensurate verve needed to carry on in your literary odyssey. Is it not said that iron sharpens iron? I didn’t learn to write until I was close to books, and consequently, my interest grew the closer I got with writers and people of like minds.

And still, today my creative appetite, to a great measure is whetted. God is alright.

Whoever thinks Paul Sawa is just an environmentalist needs to think again. But then there is no twisting it, professionally he is, just  that there is something phenomenal about this enigmatic young fellow; a man whose dreams and vision extends far beyond the peripherals of environmental issues. Paul Sawa is such an eccentric muse, a powerful thinker and writer whose brilliance defies all shades of naivety. He read few pages of his “soon coming” book (to be called) Green musings. It is amazing how Paul cautiously draws from his background to compares Nigeria to “a poorly tended garden.” He makes deliberate collocation of his profession and the socio-political realities in Nigeria. So, it is understandably not surprising that his writings appear, more or less, as parables, and then broken down into bits and pieces for easy assimilation. The desire to hold the Green Musings in my hands has since enveloped me, and kept me musing…until that day…

Asma’u Baikie, the dark, chatty, elegantly tall lady is author of four novels: Kabira, Kabira’s Friends, The Father’s Love and Father’s Sunbeam. Baikie is a story teller, I make boast to say. There is more to a writer than mere ability to scribble words on plain papers. A writer is a creator, a little god; he looks around his environment, observes something, forms it into meaningful ideas and translates them into relevant story. And he does this in a manner that raises questions or even proffers solutions to the issues. M. K. Asante, the award-winning author, filmmaker and professor was right when he said: “if you make an observation, you have an obligation.” Asmau Baikie, reading from the last of her books, Kabira’s Friends x-rayed the vulnerable female gender in northern Nigeria and captures the ordeal of young helpless girls who in their ignorance suffer pains of the dreaded obstetric fistula. Asmau’s exposition as seen in the book raises doubt of government commitment to girl child education in the north and the extent of local health campaigns to ensure that young women don’t go through avoidable health challenges.

The June guest writers’ session wasn’t just all readings and readings. It was adequately flavored with a touch of live music performance, and this time, like I told you, Tokumbo Edwards was handy to water the raining words down our literary bowels, with Blessing Tangban, the American based guitarist treating the audience to several quiet numbers of soul searching songs. It was just like heavens.

This piece is not just about Paul Sawa, Asmau Baikie, Tokumbo or Blessing; however, discussing the guests, these busy mind and hands, I believe is a necessary distraction. The idea however, is to bring you up to speed with what AWF represents.

By every measure, it is clear that AWF is particular about appropriately redirecting energy, encouraging creativity, and of course celebrating achievements. If you are a good writer, it is time to get better. And if you think you just have the potential, it’s time to take a leap. After all, as Paul Sawa would say, “what use is potential which perpetually lingers…?”