WHAT spurred you to write on an environmental topic' The Missing Clock' is indeed environmental in scope and outlook. It is a timely word on sustainability. There are many environmental time bombs ticking away all around us that I hope this book, and others like it, will help rouse people to take action to defuse. My choice of primary audience is rather simple: none better than children to actually do something once informed, about a situation.Mind you, 'environmental' transcends physical surroundings to include socio-economic and even political settings.All the spur I needed was the maddening fact that our people just don't care what they do or don't do; what the impact of their actions is today and, more importantly tomorrow during the lifetime of their children and the rest of us.Environmental degradation and sundry challenges arising from maintaining it has been my reality in stark terms growing up.Take the lingering ongoing famine situation in the Horn of Africa. The landscape is devastated, denuded, to all practical purposes. But it all started with the desecration of landscapes within, to borrow Ben Okri's book title. People simply have lost connection with their environment, both within and without.I grew up with the spectre of desert encroachment stretching mile after mile all around me. (I am writing shortly 'Hamada's Coming': one rural girl's rage against desertification.) That particular environmental challenge was an ever-present prospect that loomed on the horizon of my life, threatening to unravel it in more ways than one.Why include Alphonso and Mrs Ekwensi as part of the plot'Because they are a part of the story! Not apart, mind you, but entwined as strands in the tapestry. Veritable working components of 'The Missing Clock' they are... oh, yes!Banji and his parents couldn't have done it all by themselves. That would have violated the universal principle of uBuntu, as it is expressed by people in Azania (the name I had hoped Mandela would rechristen his nation, post-apartheid): 'I am because you are' or 'People are people because of other people.' Indeed, as St. Paul put it: 'None of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.'Consider: Wouldn't the story have turned out differently had Alphonso not been true to his name (it is simply French for 'mango') and been up his cherished mango tree'And had Mrs. Ekwensi not been such a good neighbour, to be on lunch-swapping terms with the Tobes; and had her son, Rum, not had an entrepreneurial bent that enabled him see clearly enough to combine academics with acumen when he smelt a business opportunity...Have you had any affiliation with IITA or any other agricultural institutions'I was resident on the beautiful campus of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for a period of time in 2009. It was as part of a UK-based radio production company's charge undergoing 'Better Science Reporting' training. Our crop of young men and women had been selected from West Africa to be groomed to scout for and package agriculture stories from the sub-region and beyond for the agricultural world.And while at Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U), Zaria, I was particularly fond of the sprawling Agric Research complex there. It's eponymously referred to as Shika, after the name of the district of town it's situated in.Do you have any other advice concerning environmental issues'The nouveau classique mantra of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Repair as a philosophy and way of life is a square deal I believe we all can, nay should, buy into as the operational paradigm to adopt in all our dealings with our environment.It would give Earth huge releaf (oh, I meant relief) if we all made periodic tree-planting a habit, even way of life. And so, for my next birthday, I have planned to plant a tree for every year I have lived, in every place I have deposited carbon footprint over the course of my life so far. Perhaps you will borrow a leaf from that...With children being your target audience, what message do you hope to convey'I am on a mission: to get people, starting as children, using language correctly and communicating ' not sounding off or haranguing. We no longer talk to each other, or hold conversation; we now merely retort. Language at its most vigorous and robust is when it is expressed as story. And story remains, in my opinion, the best way to inculcate a sense of process and also to transmit values ' what have been lost somewhere along the line in our societal evolution.Someone has said: 'The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them'... from which I have written a song: 'The stories people tell/ do indeed take care of them./ By these others can tell/what a life you share with them./Tell, share your stories '/glean, drink their glories:/I can tell they tell on you!'Why do you write children's books rather than pieces aimed for adults'Although I actually write for both, I definitely do have a bias for the former; it is the same with my reading. I am with Mohandas Gandhi here: 'If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.' And start we must with ennobling narratives, stories that inform and reform ' until what seems to be the status quo: imitation stories that deform and detract from what it means to be human.I write for children (adults are welcome to partake) because I want to help grow them into human adults, not caricatures.Hence I will not indulge and seek to be patronised by people who take to reading only as adults, and merely for making a living ' not for life. The latter is what you get with children. Stories help safeguard our humanity and make us amenable as partners and witnesses to excursions and intrusions by divinity into the human realm. Only children (and childlike adults) can 'see' Goodness in all its glories.What would you describe this book as: informative, entertaining, heart-warming, or all of the above'In a very sense I'm convinced it's all of the above, really. But I think I should let one of the book's many previewers, Joe Fresen, 16, of Spalding, England, answer the question: ''The Missing Clock' is a fascinating tale which people of all ages can enjoy. The story gives off a thoroughly enjoyable 'feel good' vibe whilst also encouraging and setting an example of kindness, care and consideration towards our fellows.'Do any features of this story, i.e. the plot or character names, stem from personal experiences'I grew up the most in Katsina, in northern Nigeria, among other places. I was only a boy there when I heard (and investigated; yes ' so intrigued was I) the story of a polytechnic lecturer (they were not any well paid in those days, you see) who, broke and at his wits' end, followed divine injunction ' 'if you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land' ' and turned his backyard into an ugu farm. Yes, that's right. And from the down-to-earth venture he, quite literally, made a fortune for his family. And, yes: they lived happily ever after!Ugu is the leitmotif in 'The Missing Clock', as 'green gold', waiting to be discovered.From where do you draw your inspiration'Growing up! I grew up on so much radio (and so less TV!) such that everything I ever heard stayed with me, so visual is the medium. Only they multiplied as many, many variations on the same theme. I have always been hugely into Science; I was into Biochemistry then Geology, in which I have a degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. And Science doesn't get more fundamentalist, if you like, than those two! I always go after every natural (and not so natural) phenomenon with the journalistic jabs of 'What' 'Who' 'Where' 'Which' 'Why' and 'How'. Oh, yes ' I read lots and lots of science fiction growing up, as well as Yoruba literature, notably the fantasist D.O. Fagunwa. Reading the Bible in Hausa, Yoruba and English has been a tremendous boon, and also the Arabian artistic oeuvre, Persian poetry and Greek and Norse mythology.What's the purpose of the questions at the end of the book' How important were they to the completion of the novel'As a catalyst to stimulate conversation around the many different but not unrelated themes in 'The Missing Clock' ' in the living room, on the dining table, everywhere. And thus to set people who read on a quest, or voyage of discovery, every time they talk around/about the book.The questions are chapter-specific. Each is to help fix (as fertilising nitrogen in soil) the chapter it stems from in the long-term memory of the reader, to lead him to action.The back-of-book questions and to-dos, compiled as a Discussion and Activity Guide on 'The Missing Clock', coming to round off the novel, are reminders to help you with hints for tackling the question: 'So, how did you find 'The Missing Clock'''Are there any aspects of the book you are not content with'Maybe the story rendering; I would loved to have achieved versification of some sort, to make the story go 'tick-tock-tick-tock' all the way! Seriously, though, I believe the story is compact as it is. Any further inspection of aspects for possible improvement would belabour the story, nay denature it.Are there any aspects you think you could have improved upon'A story is a story is a story..! There will always be variations on a theme.What are your other publications''The Mandate', a play for radio. I have written and got published tens of articles and also poems.How was it entering the Nigeria prize for literature'Hope and aspiration!How does it feel being on the shortlist' What does it mean to you'Distinguished, definitely. It's proof, I think, of promise and potential. As my 70+ Canadian retired teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) friend, Diane Jones, wrote in her assessment of 'The Missing Clock': 'You definitely have talent and the story is indeed timely. Your English is excellent.' It's really nice to have a second opinion, one from some highly regarded a panel of judges; and one so resounding... with the promise of abundance of rain, if you get my drift!What are your expectations from the prize'One would expect the relevant authorities to pay attention to the objectives of the prize and consider works shortlisted for it (and specifically the one(s) declared winner) for adoption as English Language/Literature reading/exam texts nationwide. When education and the tools called on to impart it are not dynamic, in keeping with the times, students will not be carried along; they will drop out, first in spirit and mind, then in body. Impress them with the stories pronounced the most outstanding in the land and see them 'make the connection'.On a personal note, I expect the prize to impress on me the high-wattage spotlight that is now on me so intensely to perform... so as not to turn out a flash in the pan! It's good to have faith boosters like the present prize; more than good: it's downright affirming.What would winning do to your career as a writer, and to you as a person'It would make me sit up to write, write, and write! That would keep my Muse gurglingly happy, and I back-breaking busy.What should the public expect from you in future'I'm working to grow things into a Reversal-Of-Fortune (ROF) series, as a distinct subgenre or category of Children's Literature. Next in line is 'Danfo Boy', the story of an 11 year-old bus conductor, Sylvester, and his driver, Baba Sadiku. My collection of poems for children, 'The Baker's Dozen', has been ready for a half decade. I hope to write film scripts with radio's theatre-of-the-mind quality for production by major Hollywood studios, preferably animated.Of course, my network of libraries for children. Books written are meant to be read.'Interview and review by Korinayo Nathaniel Thompson, a 15 year old pupil of Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, USA, was first published on these pages in August on occasion of the CORA Book Party organised by the Committee for Relevant Art in honour of the Six Shortlisted writers for the $100,000Nigeria Prize for Literature, which Mai Nassara eventually won.
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