There is a saying in Tiv language where I hail from that says, when a child messes up, it is the responsibility of the elders to fix up the mess or destruction, for that is why they are elders. This maxim attempts to illustrate the ignorance of a child and the divine wisdom of elders in a society. In other words, the elders of a community play very vital roles in keeping the moral fabric of the community intact, by looking beyond the foolishness of a child, for if they say that they would not perform their duties because of the folly of the child, anarchy would be loose upon the land. The role of the elders is therefore to ensure that a bad situation doesn’t get worse and consume the entire community. They apply prudence and the experience afforded them by age in proffering a workable solution to the crisis before them. The Tiv people, for those who know are a very clever set of people, who are also versed in oratory and court meetings, in which the elders sit over the affairs of the community. They place high esteem in their cultures and tradition, and especially in the wisdom of their elders, for the elders are wise. I want to believe that this high moral duty expected of elders is not synonymous with just the Tiv people alone, but with most traditional African societies.
However, it becomes an aberration unheard of when elders of a community negate their duty in the face of pandemonium and become the spoilers for war. Such an unfortunate community often ends up in the ashes of history as a community with unwise elders. This appears to be the fate that the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has fallen into today, a community whose elders have proven to be less clever than their young ones. Since November 2019, the association has been engulfed in a crisis that is threatening to destroy the literary legacies and honour earned by the ingenious sacrifices of the forefathers of modern African letters, who are renowned across the world, proving further how inefficient and incapable we have become in running our own affairs. For if writers who are supposedly the cleverest among human beings have shown wanton incapacity in managing their affairs, where would they find the moral compass to speak truth to power or even guide their society aright. This is unfortunately the reality of the Nigerian writer today, a paradox of shame. The one penny question on the lips of many spectators is, are there no elders in the association, what are they doing to salvage the ludicrous situation the association is engulfed in today?
Well, here is the fundamental problem with the association. After the botched election at the Enugu convention in 2019, state chairmen with the permission of congress agreed that the ELCOM that was inaugurated by the congress should go ahead to organize a fresh election within the next 180 days as stipulated in the constitution of the association. The ELCOM constituted by the congress had the following members, Mr. Odia Ofeimun, Professors Remi Raji, Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Mr. Diego Okenyodo and Mr. Yemi Adebiyi, as representatives of the aspirants on the committee. After Enugu, the committee set to action and within the course of preparing to conduct an election within the 180 days, several issues cropped up, and Professor Raji voluntarily resigned from the ELCOM. Mr. Odia Ofeimun, who is a founding member of the association, raised the issue of membership audit of the association, a positioned he had made during the congress at Enugu, presided over by Mr. Denja Abdullahi, but which was brazenly ignored by the congress before the dissolution of Mr. Abdullahi’s Executive Council. It is significant to stress that part of the major setback of the committee after Enugu was Mr. Ofeimun’s insistence that a membership audit must be done before the election could be held, of course this generated a lot of debates and counter debates leading to the exposition of several issues including the allegation of corruption on the ANA land perpetuated by some key figures in the association including former presidents. It is still not clear why Mr. Ofeimun would insist on an issue which he raised at congress but was ignored, and insist that it must be adopted outside of congress. That was the first oversight on the part of one of the elders of the association who should have known better and advised accordingly.
While these issues generated serious debate on several platforms and groups both on Whatsapp and Facebook, Professor Femi Osofisan, who is the chairman of the Advisory Council and a high standing elder of the association, but who was not at the Enugu convention, released a statement in which he suspended the congress’ inaugurated ELCOM, that was already busy working on modalities for the conduct of a fresh election, and described same as illegal. This was a major oversight yet again, by an elder of the association. Professor Osofisan did not stop at just proclaiming the ELCOM as illegal, he went ahead to constitute a fresh ELCOM comprising of former presidents of the association with Professor Jerry Agada as chairman. Meanwhile, Professor Agada was also not at the convention. After series of discussions, Prof. Osofisan agreed to have members of the original ELCOM included in the new ELCOM formed by him. It is important to note the autocratic method with which Prof. Osofisan came into the picture of things, declaring a congress decision as illegal without recourse to the constitution of the association and the feelings of the parties involved in the dispute. This was clearly an unelderly approach to resolving a serious election crisis. By the way, his ELCOM, still standing has all the members of the original ELCOM except two members, Mr. Diego Okenyodo and Mr. Yemi Adebiyi who are the representatives of Barrister Ahmed Maiwada and Dr. Ofonime Inyang. This betrays the absence of truth and honesty in Professor Osofisan’s intervention. It suggests that his intervention has an ulterior motive attached to it. Did he attempt to engage the aspirants so as to understand the dynamics of the situation or did he even call for a meeting of the Advisory Council to review their roles according to the constitution? If he did, he never released any statement to that effect for the education of members.
People have continued to wonder what the exact roles of the Advisory Council is in the ANA constitution, well, here is what the constitution says about the role of the Advisory Council in summary; Article 8 of the ANA constitution states that; “There shall be an Advisory Council for the Association, which shall be responsible for advising the National Executive Council on any project to be undertaken or already initiated by the association before their inauguration.” If the constitution is to be respected as many are pretending to do, then we would realize that the Advisory Council has no business in delegating or even setting up an ELCOM for the conduct of a fresh election. This is another giant oversight by the conscionable elders of the association, extending their responsibilities beyond their statutory duty as prescribed in the constitution. On the likelihood that the association is unable to conduct an election, the constitution stipulates that a caretaker committee be set up to oversee the conduct of an election within 180 days. At best the Advisory Council could have reasoned with the Board of Trustees in order to form a caretaker committee as required by the constitution which they have failed to do. This equally tells discernible minds that there are no elders in the association, if not, how could the constitution and regulation of the association be gruesomely flaunted by those who are supposed to be its custodians? If they held any meeting, we the members are unaware of it.
As if to further worsen their own case, the Advisory Council went on to announce a timetable for a new election to be held in Makurdi, the hometown of the ELCOM chairman, Professor Jerry Agada. This shows clearly the contempt with which they hold other members of the association; they clearly are on a mission to impose their will on members without proper consultation with chapter chairmen. Interestingly, Benue State is the biggest support base of Mr. Camillus Ukah, one of the aspirants, and Makurdi is just a stone throw away from Enugu state where the last convention was held. If they weren’t too clever as elders and have no other agenda, they would have considered a neutral ground like Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Ibadan, Edo or even Minna as possible venue. But no, it has to be Makurdi where Professor Agada lives, and the foster home to Mr. Ukah. The Advisory Council from one decision to another shoots itself in the leg by their as inefficient and inconsiderate elders without the interest of the association at heart. Their actions haven’t shown us that they understand the nature of the calamity that has befallen the association nor have they proven to us that they are willing to resolve the problem. What we have seen is a military styled autocracy just like during the reign of ignobility of the Mr. Denja Abdullahi led administration.
Considering the actions of the Advisory Council, it has become clearer that a legal interpretation of the constitution has become imminent and seems to be the only right thing to do in the face of a literary tyrannism being executed by the Advisory Council in connection with Mr. Denja Abdullahi’s led group. This is because, what is happening is just what Mr. Abdullahi wanted at Enugu but could not achieve because of the resistance that met his tyranny. Our elders have joined the younger ones in adding petrol to the burning fire instead of omo. In fact, the bigger shame is that these are highly respected intellectuals and accomplished individuals who are role models to a thousand or even million people around the world. They are misguiding the younger generation by pretending not to understand their roles and the implication of their actions on the larger literary society. People now refer to ANA as body of failed intellectuals who are incapable of organizing themselves and putting their house together. One journalist recently asked me if we don’t have elders in the association, “Paul, do you people not have elders in the association?” he queried. I was ashamed to tell him that we have elders who have betrayed us and we can no longer trust their neutrality in handling the affairs of the association without bias.
A proposed meeting by state chapter chairmen was proposed by ANA Abuja chapter chair and deliberations were ongoing as I have come to understand by those concerned, but desperation would not allow the Mr. Abdullahi-Ukah led camp to think properly, so they hurriedly announced a timetable to destabilize the association even further, the unfortunate thing is that the supposed elders who form the Advisory Council have allowed themselves to be used. An even bigger issue is the question of the legality of the Advisory Council which many believed was never ratified by the congress at any point in time. Nobody has been able to provide the minutes of the congress meeting where the appointment of the Advisory Council was ratified by the congress. This alone raises a moral question on the personality of members of the Advisory Council, if they were legally constituted and affirmed by the congress, where is their letters of appointment and why is none of them coming out to discredit the controversies surrounding their appointment. If they were elders with integrity, they would simply step forward and clear the air, because their sole objective would be to protect the sanctity of the association and not their ego.
I would end by asking this pivotal question, are there elders in the association of Nigerian Authors? If there are, where are they? Now is the time to prove that writers and indeed elders are the epitome of wisdom and integrity. It is time to teach the younger ones the right thing to do. I suggest that a legal interpretation is necessary at this juncture in order to avoid a situation that might finally lead to the ultimate death of the association.
Paul Liam
