The Coal City Book Convention Ends With A Song

THE third edition of Coal City Book Convention ended in a vaudeville of music, dance, citations and personal life stories. It owed much of its spectacular success to a full attendance in the 1000-seater Federation Hall of Hotel Presidential, Enugu.The coveted Olaudah Equiano Life-Award drew the cult-followership of the celebrant, revered, larger-than-life thinker and educationist, Monsignor Sir (Prof.) Stan Anih, to his support.Pupils from Gab-Selina Secondary School, who lauded in music and poetry recitals the virtues of President Goodluck Jonathan's Bring Back the Book campaign, received ovation for their efforts, just as the address of the keynote speaker, Rt. Hon. Sir Ugwu Ujam called for reflections.His brief paper adopted a more objective critique: 'Did the President say it because it is right' OR ' is it right because the President said it'' he charged. 'Let us gather enough momentum for the quantum jump into the millennial destination: what one gets out of a book is directly proportional to what one brings to it: The Book is you. It is a literary exchange of gifts. But it presents a challenge to the reader. So get well ' read, work hard to make up for any deficit that may occur'Hence, to unravel the conundrum, the President said it because it is right. The world is an open book, with hidden treasures as content''Organiser of the convention and president, The Delta Book Club, Dillibe Onyeama, likened the achievements of the three heroes, Igwe (Prof.) Sam Ukpabi, Ugwu Ujam, Dame Bernice Agbo. who were awarded with great ceremony as personifying 'the best-sellers which every author dreams about writing. By the time of next year's convention, we expect them to have published their memoirs in book form to seal their places as eternal reference points for our intellectual and creative consumption'.The Coal City Book Convention was created to celebrate literature east of the Niger and to immortalise Olaudah Equiano, the 17th-century Igbo slave-turned-writer, who became one of the first black authors in the history of literature.
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