WITH the Arab Spring revolution that started with the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouzazi in Tunisia last year, the world has since witnessed a new political orientation, with the masses at the core of initiating a change from the bottom-up. Such popular uprising, it has been argued, could only mean that for once, reality is sitting alongside fiction in a brave new world of mass awakening.Nigeria had a taste of it in January in the open street protests over fuel subsidy removal. Occupy Nigeria was the country's equivalent of the wind of change that was brought to a rude end when the guns and tanks were rolled into town. But proponents ' civil societies organisations ' have promised a second coming of such street protests to demand greater accountability from government. But one writer who believes that street revolution is an unfinished business is Ajegunle-based schoolteacher, poet and chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos chapter, Daggar Tolar.For him, therefore, 'Nigeria is akin to a kind of an Amos Tutuola's unending gyration in a forest of dead ghosts masquerading as helmsmen holding the rest of us hostage in a journey to nowhere' To think that writers allowed their minds to be entrapped into the possibility of this merry-go-round coming to an end with a new helmsman at Aso Rock has been the greatest undermining that literature has suffered in recent years.'With so many writers in a hurry to attest with their arts and persons to the so-called new dawn of a 'Transformation Agenda' that would in no way make any difference in the living conditions of the working masses, as the recent increase in the pump prices of fuel has made clear; indeed, living conditions are bound to get worse. And literature as a consequence, would suffer the loss of more readership, as people are forced to conserve their dwindling earnings to meet increased cost of living.'Also last year, we had a presidential candidate whose spin doctors made him sell a clear dummy in the name of Bring Back the Book campaign, hoodwinking so many writers into believing that betters days are here for the literary art, when the fundamentals that would bring it about are still in complete rot. Again, it's clear that this crop of rulers is in no way interested in the art any less than the previous rulers under whose reign literature long became a dying specie hanging on the will of a few enthusiasts to go on squeezing blood out of stone to give reign to their passion. With the economy still in the doldrums, it can only mean that fewer writers, no matter their passion, can and would be able to sustain themselves on their writings.'For all writers the highpoint cannot but be a continued commitment to their craft by being creatively productive, but production does not end until it reaches the end user. This is the lowest of point when having expended energy and time to put a manuscript together only for it to end up not finding a means of outlet. As bad as this is, writers must constantly challenge themselves to keep writing and explore the evolving new media to document their manuscripts for posterity, unmindful that they may not necessarily earn immediate income from their writings.'Taking world history as the point of reference is the singular import of the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouzazi in Tunisia which spurred the Arab working and toiling masses into the arena of struggle, giving reign to the consciousness that the present world order is not just right and that things have just got to change.'For too long this consciousness only hangs on the imaginationof writers seeking change as a fictive utopia; but it is now being imprinted on the pages of history, by a series of street occupation and battle with the forces that seek to keep the human race imprisoned in complete hopelessness. This is a welcome development. The import of this is that such change-seeking writers would only be further challenged to task their imagination further now that reality is racing side by side with fiction, now that there is a growing interest in such issues by the working masses. No nation arrives at rebirth without the creative minds exploring and bringing into the consciousness of the rest of society just such possibility'.Tolar believes writers must dig deep and explore themes that are relevant to the struggle of liberating the mass of the people from directionless leadership, as symbolised by the January street protests, which 'would no doubt unleash a plethora of materials that creative minds can fall back on to produce future masterpieces. Importantly, poems and stories will be written to explore other possibilities like Eghosa Imesuen did with the February 13, 1976 coup in his novel, To St. Patrick.'Also, we need to see more writers stand up for all others and for the cause of Nigeria and the wellbeing of the majority of the people, as the guiding philosophy of governance and break the ranks of the first generation of writers'.AS a teacher and literary enthusiast who believes a crop of better future readers could only be raised if youngsters are encouraged to read more literary texts, the dreadlocked writer is uneasy with the way Literature has been subsumed under English language at the junior secondary school level. He is advocating that Literature should stand on its own so a reading habit could thereby be inculcated in young people.He says, 'At ANA Lagos, we would like to commence an advocacy for the restoration of Literature as an independent subject of its own in Junior Secondary Schools, instead of the present status, where it is being lumped together with English language. It is a most harmful service than good to the reading culture, and we would be counting on the support of publishers and all other stakeholders in making a success of it. The quest to restore more confidence of writers in ANA Lagos, to broaden our reach and organise more activities outside of the monthly reading circle remains a priority of the executive'.He has some projects he is working on, as he states, 'Personally, I am rounding off my new collections, Love in the Memory of Pain and Tears this Country out of my Flesh, which is as good as done, alongside my other completed titles like Passport out of a Country of Words Alone, Republic of the Sickening Public Heart, Woes of a Woman Being, Outside this Cemetery is not my Country, Beyond the Borderland of Unexistence, etc. My major challenge would be seeking publications for some of these titles.'There is also Aj. House of Poetry and its commitment to performance and nurturing of new poets. Our dream is to become a school housing the very best of the future of poetry in this clime. There is also the BornTroway project'.
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