The Executive Council of the Northern Nigeria Writers’ Summit (NNWS) has approved the constitution of a strategic committee to draft the blueprint for literature in Northern Nigeria.
A statement signed on Thursday by the NNWS Chairman, BM Dzukogi, said that the committee would be headed by Professor Yusuf M. Adamu and assisted by Prof. Asabe Kabir Usman while Richard Ali would serve as the Secretary to be assisted by Friday John Abba.
Other members of the committee include: Ismail Bala Garba, Dr. Kamar Hamza, Aisha Umar, Isyaku Bala Ibrahim, Dr. Bashir Abusabe, Prof. Alexander Kure, Dr. Maria Ajima and Mr. Nurudeen Busar.
The chairman noted that constitution of the committee was a follow-up to the Maiduguri conference which held last month.
He said that the committee which was given three months duration, from August 16 to November 16, is expected to furnish the Executive Council of the summit with a work-plan within two weeks of her constitution.
According to him, the committee has a 10-point terms of reference: “Formulate the blueprint from all the papers presented at the Maiduguri conference, formulate the blueprint from all the sub-themes of the Maiduguri conference and request specific Northern Nigerian writers, academics, publishers, booksellers, parents, students, teen authors, art administrators, institutions, librarians, governments, and others deemed necessary to make inputs to the blueprint.
Other terms of reference include: “Attention MUST be given to the development of literatures of the indigenous languages of Northern Nigeria, prominence should be given to mentoring and publishing young writers, teen authors as a generational strategy for growth and development of literature in Northern Nigeria.
“Define clearly, sources of continuous funding of creative writing and the sustained execution of projects and programmes designed in the blueprint, state in unambiguous terms how governments, individuals, organisations, communities and cities could undertake literary art projects and programmes on their own as primary contributions to creative writing in Northern Nigeria without recourse to Northern Nigeria Writers’ Summit.
“Develop practical ways for publishing, marketing and distributing books in Northern Nigeria, recommend ways the Summit can identify, encourage and partner with organisations in the region or around the world to key into the organisation’s new initiatives of developing Literature in Northern Nigeria; and any other action that may help in developing the blueprint.”
