The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has secured the 2018 ANA/Yusuf Ali nationwide literary awareness campaign grant of N3,000,000, which was donated by Yusuf Ali (SAN), an Ilorin-based legal practitioner, author and philanthropist.
ANA in statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, South, Wole Adedoyin, said this year’s grant would be deployed to facilitate a comprehensive media supplement on the projects executed over the years since 2012 to date.
He said, “Also, a workshop for 15 selected chairmen of ANA chapters focusing on ‘innovations in contemporary literary awareness campaigns’ will be conducted in order to deepen the execution of the project in the coming years.”
The publicity secretary recalled that since the inception of the grant in 2012, it had been variously channelled these grants towards the promotion of literature across the state chapters of the association.
According to him, of note is the last year’s grant which was used to publish three children’s literature titles under the Nigerian Writers Series (NWS).
He disclosed that these books have since been distributed across the chapters of the association to power ANA‘s ‘A-Book-A-Child’ nationwide project, flagged off last year at the 36th International Convention of the association in Makurdi, Benue state.
Speaking on the donor, he said, “Yusuf Ali, who in 2015 promised to sustain the annual grant to ANA for life, is a Nigerian lawyer who received the highest honour available to practising lawyers in 1997 when he was called to the inner bar as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
“His reputation in the Bar has been balanced by a deep interest in literature which has seen him supporting the Kwara state Chapter of the association as well as serve as an Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Bar Journal.
“Yusuf Ali in 2017 presented a book: Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria to the public in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. He has also been consistently hosting the National Executive Council members of ANA and chairmen and secretaries of chapters in his office during their annual meeting in Ilorin since 2012,” Adedoyin noted.
