When we had no oil, we were happier and in peace,” says Dr. Uzo Nwamara, a former Chair of the Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA) in Rivers State about the social and security distortions in the Niger Delta following the discovery of oil in the region.
Nwamara spoke at the reading of Dance in the Delta, a literary work he created in response to the call for peace when Port Harcourt and most parts of Rivers State were embroiled in violent conflicts among contending cult groups in 2007.
Dance in the Delta and Dr. Ebideyefa Nikade’s 14 Letters to My Lazy Lover were the two works that came up for reading recently at Alliance Francais, Port Harcourt where connoisseurs of poetry, prose and drama meet every month to dissect and appreciate creative works of authors resident in the city and visiting authors.
The readings are organized by Nigerian Literary Society in collaboration with Reading Society of Nigeria and English Language Teachers Association of Nigeria.
Nwamara says when Rotimi Amaechi became governor of Rivers State in 2007, the city of Port Harcourt was boiling. “The (violent cult) boys were all over the place. Amaechi called a town hall meeting. ANA was invited. After that meeting we met and discussed the meeting and it occurred to me to write a story of the Niger Delta that the problem is not only the government and the oil companies. Our problem is that of leadership at all levels,” Nwamara says.
Encouraged by Dr (Mrs) Scholastica Amadi to put his thoughts in a book form, Nwamara said he took up the challenge and “completed the book in three days.”
Dance in the Delta replicates the state of affairs in Port Harcourt at the climax of the cult wars, the issues they raised and factors that could have resolved them.
The author, who honed his writing skills at the famous Government College, Umuahia reveals that failure of leadership is at the heart of the crises in the region. He points out though most of the crises are centred around the exploration and exploitation of crude oil, providing leadership at every level of community in the region can go a long way in resolving the crises in the communities.
But he admits that greed is one issue that has to be tackled decisively if the present situation has to be overcome both in the region and indeed the Third World. “We have left greed to take over us,” he says.
Dr. Joel Leeba, who anchored the event, commends Nwamara for leveraging literature to tackle societal problems. “Literature has come to a point where, whether as writers or authors, we have to use it to solve our problems,” he says.
Ebidenyefa Nikade, whose 14 Letters to My Lazy Lover created excitement and interest among the audience, says the work zeroed into the conflicts that often arise in the minds of lovers who at some point doubt if the affection they have for their partners is mutual.
Nikade who is based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, says 14 Letters to My Lazy Lover is the child of letters she wrote on her social media handles. While serializing the letters, one of her followers asked if she had published. That was the motivation she needed to put the letters together and publish them in book form.
With the support of her followers, Nikade says they decided to time the 14th letter to coincide with the 14th February of that year being Valentine’s Day otherwise known as the lovers’ day.
The letters are written by Eiyefa, a lady who is sure of her love for her lover but is not sure of what her lover had in mind for her because he did not often reply her letters.
Interestingly, Eiyefa’s lazy lover, Jude, also replies her letters. But he does so using one letter to reply several letters she had written him. Apart from being a lazy lover, Nikade says Jude is also a lazy writer. It could be very frustrating when your expressed love is not requited in the same way. The point now is not about whether he also loves you. Let him reply to your love letters.
“Love is life. You cannot run away from love. Once you are concluding one love situation, another one is opening up. If you cannot find love in the opposite gender you can find it in nature or in other things. It doesn’t have to be about human beings only,” Nikade says.
She traces her foray into creative writing to her early years when her stepfather encouraged them to read. “My first set of books was romantics like Mills and Boon. My stepfather got us to read those books. I love teenage experiences, the crushes and fantasies. I grew up with such stories like Casanovas, crushes, bad boys and heartbreaks etc,” Nikade reveals.
She points out the need for men to lower their tough guards and also get absorbed in emotional things because being emotional can boost a man’s economy. “A man’s productivity depends on his emotional stability.”
The reading sessions also provided an opportunity for some participants to perform their poems. One of them was Jonah Okpabi Jr, who did one on Agbonchia and one of late Ibiwari Ikiriko’s poems. Emmanuel George performed Poverty Valid Card (PVC), in which he declares that poverty traps people in a web of emotional crisis. Dr. Wellington Nwogu performed a poem titled, Please Possess me.
Done with the reading and performing sessions, the participants took a look at other issues in the literary world. One of them was literary criticism, which Dr. Nwamara says writers and authors must embrace. “Criticism is the sauce with which works are eaten,” he says, pointing out that a lot of writers have ego issues and do not accept criticism.
“When you write, be ready for feedback. When you write, you cannot determine how your work is interpreted. When you are criticized, it’s a call to do more research,” he adds. Nikade admits that the conversation at the reading session was very helpful to her.
Curator of Nigerian Literary Society, Dave Chukwueke, uses the sessions to encourage established and upcoming authors to showcase their art and raise awareness for literature and boost the reading culture.
