In Abuja, Mbarisession dissects Jeyifo

Yes, he was once the president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).  He fought the military regimes in Nigeria to a standstill.  Jeyifo was brave in his reactions and utterances and relationships with his colleagues and the larger society.  These and more were the areas the Mbari people zeroed their attention on. 

In his opening remarks, President of ANA, Dr. Dipo Akanbi said: “I commend the members of ANA who are here today.  I commend Udenta Udenta.  His commitment to ANA, to the affairs of this body is huge.  Udenta is dedicated to literature, to literary matters generally.  Since the inception of Mbari, Udenta has never failed to honour us with his presence”.

An excited Akanbi went on: “Udenta has been with us even now that Mbari is on a quarterly basis.  He is always here and also attends other ANA programmes.  Also Mallam Denja Abdullahi has been consistent.  Any time we call on him, he answers.  He is also one of the bedrocks of our administration.  The convention play last year, he was the one totally in charge.  And of course the art exhibition that took place, he was the brain behind it”.  Denja is a former president of ANA.

Akanbi did not forget to remind writers that it is their duty to write to energise the society, to make leaders see truth, live for the truth and then come to save souls.

Even then, Denjo was the one that moderated over the Mbari session.  He handled it with measured professional decorum.  People spoke on various ideas and perspectives relating to the theme.  But the issues that dominated the academic and literary times of Jeyifo were placed on the front burner.

“We are talking about topical issues today”, Akanbi said further.  “Writers connected with the inners workings of government should have been here also.  This is so because the theme of discussion also pertains to them all”.  He then made references to some of them he knew who are already in government who also should have been made to appear before Mbari to make their contributions.  Those artists who fought during NADECO, some of whom are in government and some of whom also wrote brazenly should have come over to heighten the debate in Mbari.  Those who fought for June 12, who were indeed on the side of the masses then but are now in government, have they done well?  Have they now spoken for the masses while in government?

Akanbi insisted that this and some issues of the times, were what authors gathered to interrogate.  Writers have to be brave, no matter whose oz is gored.  People like Achebe, Soyinka and some authors in the second generation of writers in Nigeria never relented in their firebrand works that unearthed everything.  So the present writers have to maintain the same tempo or even surpass it.  At a time like this when the society is at a crossroads, when the economy is in tatters, when political leaders seem to be working for self and not for the people, then the writer also needs to become bolder, braver and more audacious in his writings.  “So if we say we are in crises, should we be thinking or working towards change?, the president pondered, while looking his colleagues straight in the face.

At this, the room became more charged, becoming more alive for the debates to commence in earnest.  Change is necessary and writers are conveyors of change.  Writers are usually agents of that change that a rudderless society and its leadership need to move to the next level.  Yet there are writers who do not fear nobody.  Writers like Senator Shehu Sani, Udenta and more.  These people often speak their minds to power.  Even in their literary offerings, they never shied away from being honest to their calling.  But ANA needs more people in this category to be able to make the concerted inroads.  Promote social justice in whatever you write.  Let those truths be said.

In this way, Dr. Abba Abba of the Federal University, Lokoja was singled out to lead the debate.  Aba, an Nsukka trained literary egghead is not only an award winning author, he is a critic, an outstanding scholar and one who travels the world for the sake of literary awareness.  He noted that with the works of Jeyifo, and others, literature in Nigeria, and indeed Africa have come to gain more prominence.

“Critics are necessary for the growth of scholarship, Jeyifo's inclusive”.  Abba teaches modern literary values and he knows the depth of Jeyifo's criticisms on African literature and African literary scholars.  “Not all critics are popular”, he noted.  “But literature needs people like Jeyifo for the kind of works they do to make literature truly come alive”.  This is why it is dedicated to Jeyifo.

Dr. Olatunbosun Taofeek, chairman of ANA, Lagos, spoke at length about authors who only propound but are not realistic in their offerings.  Writers totally have to march their works with actions, actions that help to make a change in the larger society.  Authors are agents of change in writing and in action, Taofeek insisted.

“Here we are to talk about Professor Jeyifo, his life, his criticisms and social comments.  We can spend a whole day dwelling on him”, Denja said in his opening remarks as the moderator.  “By the time we engage more people, more information about him will come out”, he said.  “Yet, Jeyifo was a Professor of English at the Cornell University, USA.  A Professor of African and African-American Studies in Comparative Literature.  A first class graduate of University of Ibadan, Jeyifo was an academic enigma, stoic, solid, unwavering in his beliefs and thoughts”.  He was from Edo State but earlier his forebears had migrated to Ibadan where they settled ever since.

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Udenta noted that Jeyifo was never afraid to take on any literary personality no matter how big.  He criticized works based on the contents and merits of those works.  He never looked at faces.  He was able to bring out those big issues in the works of African and Nigerian literary bigwigs.  This way he was able to let the world appreciate those works better.

He took on Osofisan, he took on Soyinka.  He never spared others.  He was able to introduce or take some Nigerian authors and scholars to foreign bodies to get international exposures and connections.  Others spoke.  They included Professor Ifeoma Onyemelukwe of ABU, Zaria.  She titled her contribution “narratives of now: writing through crises and change”.  Her opinions dwelt on how authors have to write on economic equality, poverty, racial and ethnic tensions and more.  She drew attention to gender-based violence and discrimination and refugee and migrant crises.  Onyemelukwe referred to the issues of climate change and why and how authors have to be brave in their offerings.

Also present were some state chairmen and secretaries of ANA.  Some of the states included Kwara, Benue, Ebonyi, Enugu, Edo, Kogi, Kaduna, Niger, Kano, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Lagos were all there.  It was a robust gathering that truly sought the way forward for authors to write to save a nation.

Ever since it began, Mbari has remained the true tonic to sensitize and reawaken authors and give them renewed impetus into writing for the progress and defence of the larger society.  The conversations reappraised even the incursion of AI into writings and what teachers should teach or not teach.  In all, authors have to be authentic, natural and largely daring where necessary.