Nigerian Authors gets N3m for literary awareness campaign

By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) said it has received a grant worth three million naira to fund its annual ANA/Yusuf Ali Nationwide Literary Awareness Campaign.

Malam Abdullahi Denja, president of ANA made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

Denja said that the association received the funds for the 2018 project from the donor, Yusuf Ali (SAN), an Ilorin-based renowned legal practitioner, author and dedicated philanthropist.

“The 2018 Yusuf Ali grant will be deployed to facilitate a comprehensive media supplement on the projects executed over the years since 2012 to date.

“Also, a workshop for 15 selected chairmen of ANA chapters focusing on innovations in contemporary literary awareness campaigns’ to deepen the execution of the project in the coming years,’’ Denja said.

According to the ANA president, the grant was first secured by the ANA National EXCO in 2012.

He explained that state chapters of the Association received sub-grants of N150, 000 between 2012 to 2014, for local literary awareness campaigns involving secondary schools across the country.

He further noted that in 2015, the grant was applied by the then National Executive Council of ANA to host a workshop on fiction writing in Abuja.

“In that workshop, about 25 students, drawn from tertiary institutions across the country, via a competitive process, participated.

“In 2016, the National Executive Council took the literary awareness campaign a notch further by focusing on innovative literary awareness campaign among tertiary institutions across the country through the States’ chapters.

“State Chapters submitted proposals on envisaged activities based on which they were assessed and sub-grants finally awarded to 16 Chapters that met the provisioned requirements.

“The grant was used in 2017 to publish three children’s literature titles under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS) which have been distributed to chapters of ANA Nationwide.

“The essence is to power the ANA’s `A-Book-A-Child’ nationwide project that was flagged off at the ANA’s 36th International Convention held in Makurdi, Benue State in October, 2017,’’ Denja said.

He further commended Ali for his consistent generosity in supporting Nigerian literature and call on other well meaning Nigerians to emulate Ali’s gesture of support for the literary arts.