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Nigerian writers
have given a cautious welcome to President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘Bring
Back The Book’ campaign, launched in a high profile series of events at
the Eko Hotel, Lagos, on Monday, December 20.

Joining the
president for the first event of the day, a reading session with 400
pupils from about 20 schools, was Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, who read
from an abridged version of his childhood memoirs, ‘Ake’. Soyinka said
the draw to the event, for him, was the idea of reading to children,
likening the experience to an early Christmas present for himself. The
laureate explained the irreverent nicknames he coined for his father
and mother, Essay and Wild Christian. The elder Soyinka was known to
his friends as S.A, and the way they said the initials, sounded like
‘essay’ to the son. As for his mother, Soyinka told the children that
“her Christianity was on the wild side,” hence her nickname, which he
never dared utter in her presence. “I hope you have more respectful
names for your parents,” he told the pupils, who were all given gift
packs of reading materials at the occasion.

President Jonathan
had earlier tried to impress on his young audience the imaginative
power of books, while introducing his own choice of reading material
for the event. “You don’t have to go to the South East to know about
the place; you can read about it,” he noted, while summarising the
adventures of the protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Chike and the River’,
who wanted to cross the River Niger in order to get to the big city,
Onitsha. Jonathan then read from Achebe’s book, sustaining the
attention of the children, who opened their own copies to follow the
narrative. The mention of the word “kidnapper” in the 1966 publication,
got the attention of the adults in the gathering. “So, kidnappers have
been in the system for a long time!” said one. Other references like
gramophone, six pence and one shilling, led to some discussion during
the interactive session, when the children put questions to the high
profile readers about the excerpts read. There was an unintended
commentary on the quality of Nigerian publishing, when the president
said of his copy of ‘Chike and the River’ that “There are some errors
in the print.”

Goodluck’s friends cannot spell

Not even the
president’s own book, presented to coincide with the ‘Bring Back The
Book’ campaign, is free from error. In the opening dedication of ‘My
Friends and I’, Jonathan pays homage to “my friends on facebook, for
keeping me engaged and encouraging me to keep this national
conservation (sic) on our country’s future going.” And there the
unintended errors end. The 357-page ‘My Friends and I: Conversations on
Policy and Governance via Facebook’ is riddled with comments like “U
will not make mistakes, only because u listen 2 d voice of the masses.
GOD be wit u. U are good 2 go 4 d next 8 years mr president.” Even
Reuben Abati, the book’s reviewer, could not but respectfully state
that, “Many of Jonathan’s friends cannot spell.”

‘My Friends and I’
is a collection of the interactive exchange over a four-month period
between (supposedly) the president and the 350,000 friends on his
Facebook page. It is not known whether the ‘friends’ gave permission
for the publication of their images and the often badly written
commentary originally posted on the internet. Abati observed that
President Jonathan, “is the first Nigerian leader to adopt this
technological mode of interaction with citizens,” after being
influenced by the Obama campaign. The reviewer said the book
underscores “the inevitability of digital democracy or electronic
democracy… This book demonstrates the passion of Nigerians for their
country.” While suggesting that the president’s Facebook publication
“makes the political process more participatory,” Abati showed little
enthusiasm for the computer language on display on the pages, riddled
with jargon and typos. These, he declared, are “a threat to literacy.”

Who’s who

Prominent on the
high table were poet Odia Ofeimun; President of the Association of
Nigerian Authors Jerry Agada and US Democratic campaign worker, Joe
Trippi. In the audience were Petroleum Minister Diezani
Allison-Madueke; Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji
Bankole; Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel; Minister of National
Planning, Samsudeen Usman and Labaran Maku, Minister of Information and
Communication.

The carefully
stage-managed event was not without glitches. Maku committed a major
gaffe on live television at the event, when he claimed that President
Jonathan “has brought Facebook to Nigeria.” He was not alone; a singer
who appeared to have been flown into Nigeria to sing the national
anthem, not only could not get her pitch right, she got the words of
the anthem wrong. The prominent photographer on the day was TY Bello,
the woman responsible for the very flattering images of the president
that adorned the Eko Hotel lobby.

A sizeable
contingent of writers were in attendance, including John Pepper Clark,
Helon Habila, Sefi Atta and Lola Shoneyin. For an event designed to
promote books, it seemed more like a day for musicians. Some of
Nigeria’s biggest pop stars held sway on the stage, just across from
the smiling, ‘casual’ jean-and-T-shirt clad Jonathan, who sat rigidly
in his chair as D’Banj, Tuface and P-Square rocked the house with
singing and dancing. Other performers were rapper Mo’Cheddah and Zakie,
who sang a specially composed Hausa number in praise of Jonathan’s
election campaign.

What they said

“I decided to
publish because I wanted to promote a reading culture and accountable
governance,” said President Jonathan about ‘My Friends and I’. He
further stated that, “At all times, we should have a book in our hand.
This is the way of civilisation.” In his speech on the podium, Odia
Ofeimun praised Jonathan as “a new type of leader… who does not put on
the airs of an overbearing patriarch or Philosopher King but is
prepared to read to children like a next door neighbour.” Reading, he
noted, “is an equaliser of peoples. By giving all of us common access
to knowledge and entertainment, the art of reading mobilises
consciousness, in favour of human empathy and solidarity.”

Ofeimun welcomed
the president into the ranks of those who champion a reading culture,
saying, “This is the first time a national leader at the apex of
decision making would be identifying with the campaign for the
development of a reading culture without minding the cynicism of those
who believe the situation is too far gone to be remedied.” The poet
however decried what he called the “derailment” of public education in
the country, the death of libraries in schools and local governments,
as well as the “defeat” of the bookshop culture. All of these lead to
poor results in the West African Examination Council, he argued. “We
have an educational system which gives poor education to poor people in
order to keep them poor and unmobilisable,” Ofeimun declared, to
audience applause. He called for the provision of the US Library of
Congress-styled libraries, to be spearheaded by the National Assembly.
He also called on every local government to buy at least 1000 books a
year, to revive the reading culture.

Other speakers at
the event included TY Bello, Ken Wiwa Jr and Toyosi Akerele, who, in a
seeming endorsement of a Jonathan candidacy, declared, “I’m tired of
seeing 80 to 85-year-olds determining a future they are not going to be
part of.

Labaran Maku and Oronto Douglas, Special Adviser on Documentation
and Strategy, represented President Jonathan at a special writers’
event in the evening. Mr. Maku redeemed himself somewhat in a short
speech, acknowledging the great strides made by females in current
Nigerian writing. “The next phase is the women’s phase,” he declared.
There were readings as well as frank discussions about the Bring Back
The Book campaign with some like writer Simi Dosekun questioning the
value of the president’s book. Douglas, who mounted a spirited defence
of the publication, promised to take the writers’ suggestions on
publishing and the reading culture, back to the presidency.