By Tunde Olusunle
*Mamman Vatsa Writers Village,* tucked amidst igneous rocks and ranges, vales and valleys in Abuja’s *Mpape District* is rapidly contesting the medal of Nigeria’s most vibrant headquarters of literary activity. The physical location of the ever-growing permanent headquarters of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), was, for several decades after it was allocated to ANA in 1986, a forlorn wasteland. The soldier-poet, Mamman Jiya Vatsa, who was a member of the association and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA) in his time, was concerned about the serial mendicant nomadism of the association. ANA forever quested, cap in hand, for host states across the country, for its activities. Vatsa, an army General and poet himself, concurred with the request of ANA’s primordial leadership, for a settled operational address and allocated the present site, to the association. The bounteous parcel of land survived attempted takeovers by successive regimes and capricious trespassing. These chopped off nearly half its original span of over 60 hectares.
Under the leadership of Denja Abdullahi a few years ago, ANA secured partnership with *KMVL,* a construction firm headed by Kolawole Shaw, also a retired military officer, for the actualization of the dream of structured physical development of the hectarage. The breathtaking, still-in-progress complex, already features well paved, substantially tarred network of roads complete with drainages. There is a large auditorium, parking areas, secretariat, library, luxury suites, apartments, bars and African-themed gazebos. There are residential blocks by way of fully detached, semi-detached and terraced houses. There is even a modern shopping centre, as part of the enterprise of making the village self-sufficient. The names of famous Nigerian writers echo from the doors and signages of structures and facilities, beginning with the revered African master storyteller, Chinua Achebe, after whom the conference centre is christened.
*Chairman of the Abuja chapter of ANA, Arc Chukwudi Eze, (left) and former FCT Minister, Engr Muhammad Abba-Gana, CON, welcoming former President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, to the weekend ANA event in Abuja.*
The secretariat of the association pays tribute to Emeritus Professor Femi Osofisan, one of Africa’s most profound and most prolific dramatists. Suites in the residential area, voice the names of past leaders of ANA, notably Odia Ofeimun, Kole Omotoso, Abubakar Gimba, Olu Obafemi, Wale Okediran, Jerry Agada, Remi Raji and Denja Abdullahi. The two-storey standalone “writers residency” is tribute to the memory of former ANA President and Ogoni rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. A prominent playwright, novelist and essayist, Saro-Wiwa was, sadly, executed alongside eight others under the military government of Sani Abacha in 1995. They were allegedly complicit in the murder of four of their kinsmen, months earlier, a development which stirred restlessness in the oil producing area. The *Mamman Vatsa Writers Village* is rapidly assuming the status of the new *Mecca* for African literature, an evolving pearl of the continent.
Between the monthly activities of the Abuja segment of ANA and the quarterly events organised by the national body, the writers’ facility is regularly kept alive. Literary juggernauts like Osofisan, Obafemi, Ofeimun, Ernest Emenyonu, Okediran, Raji, Abdullahi, Niyi Osundare, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Shamshudeen Amali, Idris Amali, Al-Bishak, Udenta Udenta and Sunnie Ododo, have been guests and pilgrims at the resort. Same for Tony Afejuku, Razinat Mohammed, Mabel Evwierhoma, Dul Johnson, Joe Ushie, Maria Ajima, Rasheed Na’Allah, Amanze Akpuda, Greg Mbajiorgu, Isiaka Aliagan, and indeed the recently transited literary luminary, Nuhu Yaqub. The diaspora component of Nigeria’s formidable literary harvest, as well as foreign writers, are also regular callers at the village. Voices and laughters; “hi fives” and backslaps, typically activate and enliven the slumbering boulders and sleeping bedrocks in the commune, whenever literary adherents, pilgrimage.
Saturday February 22, 2025, the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village hosted an unusual guest. The airwaves had become frenzied weeks and days before when it became public knowledge that the first President in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, Olusegun Obasanjo, would be the distinguished guest at the month’s edition of the regular reading and writer’s dialogue. The planning was competently steered by the Abuja zone of ANA, led by Chukwudi Eze, the veteran architect who designed the *Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library,* Abeokuta, Africa’s first such purpose-built resource. Obasanjo was to speak to the topic: *The Writer’s Role in Nation Building and Africa’s First Presidential Library.* Obasanjo’s life and career as a soldier; military Head of State; world statesman; death row prisoner; democratically elected President, traversing aeons and times, has spawned a luminous repertoire of books and publications. These include *My Command,* (1980); *Nzeogwu,* (1987); *Africa Embattled* (1988) and *Not My Will,* (1990). There are also *This Animal Called Man,* (1998), and *My Watch,* (2014), which is a hefty three-volume work. To be doubly sure, Obasanjo’s oeuvre spans over two dozen books straddling several subjects and preoccupations.
A three-man panel made up of Professors Emeka Aniagolu of Veritas University, Abuja; Razinat Mohammed, University of Abuja and Onyinye Nwagbara of the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA), were billed to engage with Obasanjo. The imminence of Obasanjo’s return flight, however, altered the plan. Obasanjo opted to speak to the first part of the topic, the role of the writer in nation building, deferring the discourse on the presidential library until another encounter. He decried the poor reading culture in Nigeria which is on the rise, and warned it could be antithetical to the preserved of the nation’s literary heritage. According to him, Nigeria has produced some of the world’s finest and most respected writers, a situation which he observed compels the evolution of new writers to sustain the trajectory. Obasanjo noted that despite the advantages provided by technological advancement, many youths do not apply themselves to the grindstone of rigorous reading and intellection. He noted that if this *laissez-faire* attitude is not corrected, it could backlash vis-a-vis the emergence of uninformed and incompetent leaders. The former President noted that the internet provides limitless opportunities which must be leveraged by the younger generation. His words: “Many of them no longer do serious reading. Reading makes an effective and productive human being. A reader is a leader, a leader must not necessarily be a writer but must be a reader to be up to speed with trends and happenings.”
Speaking further, Obasanjo noted that “Nigeria is blessed with good writers who have used their craft in nation building and one of such distinguished authors is Chinua Achebe. He showcased Nigeria’s culture to the world and elevated our culture in his writings.” The former President charged the youths to take bold steps in shaping their own futures rather than wait for opportunities to drop on their laps. He noted that the recurring mismanagement of the nation’s human and material resources were at the roots of the nation’s travails. He canvassed the application of political will in the nation’s policy formulation and execution, noting that limited bureaucratese in military dispensations was instrumental to better effectiveness under martial rulership. He commended ANA for its impressive work in developing the writers village and in championing initiatives to inspire up and coming writers.
ANA Abuja Chairman, Chukwudi Eze noted that the power of writing is evident in the motivational phrase: “Give me liberty or give me death,” which birthed the American revolution and built the nation into a global colossus. He thanked Obasanjo for according him the special privilege of designing the Abeokuta-based presidential library. He applauded Obasanjo’s initiation of the *Africa Leadership Forum,* (ALF) back in the days, which sought to broaden the worldview of the continent’s potential leaders. Eze expressed the hope that Nigerian leaders across levels will emulate Obasanjo’s uncommon Pan-Nigerianism and the placement of competence and merit, over and above clannish parochialism. ANA National President, Usman Oladipo Akanbi who flew in from Ilorin for the programme, thanked Obasanjo for the honour done to the association by his keeping a date with the writers body like he promised. The gesture, he noted will spur the association to greater heights. Akanbi noted that the former President indeed brightened the weekend of youths and teenage students who attended the event, who never believed they would ever see him in flesh and blood.
Former Minister of the FCTA, Muhammad Abba-Gana, CON, who attended the event, commended Obasanjo for liberalising property ownership in Abuja by approving the mass housing scheme, proposed during his period in office as Minister. He observed that before Obasanjo’s coming, workers were predominantly resident in faraway communities and had to commute through the stress of heavy vehicular traffic to the city centre everyday, and back home. Abba Gana acknowledged Obasanjo’s courageous liquidation of Nigeria’s foreign financial commitments and his bequeathal of a very robust foreign reserve to the successor administration. Senator Shehu Sani who shared the same section of a jailhouse with Obasanjo when they were both incarcerated by former military leader, Sani Abacha, was equally in attendance. A published author himself, he applauded Nigerian authors for deploying their creativity to drive societal change towards the attainment of an egalitarian nation.
Jerry Alagbaoso, a former Member of the House of Representatives and prolific playwright; former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Shamshudeen Amali, and Obasanjo’s private secretary during his stint as military Head of State, Ambassador Albert Omotayo, were also at the programme. The Chinese Embassy was represented at the gathering by a three-man delegation led by Yang Jianxing, the Cultural Counsellor and Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Nigeria. Al Bishak, Vicky Sylvester Molemodile, Professors at the Federal University Lafia and the University of Abuja, respectively, and Colonel Shaw, lead developer of the ANA behemoth and member of the association by adoption, were also present. Etim Oqua, a retired police Commissioner and Otunba Abiodun Fagboun, graced the occasion. On Obasanjo’s entourage were his longstanding ally, Otunba Oyewole Fasawe and Obasanjo’s children, Obabiyi, and Funke. Obasanjo received an ANA-branded commemorative souvenir presented by Usman Akanbi, in recognition of his untiring contributions to national development, through the decades.
*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*