The Awakened World of Nigerian Writer: An Open Letter to Nigerian Writers II
By
Sam Abbd Israel
Dear
Fellow Writer,
The
first letter we wrote to Nigerian Writers caused a little flutter in some
quarters judging by the responses that came through in the mail. It is not our
intention to ruffle egocentric feathers but we intend, all the same, to wake up
Nigerian Writers to the reality of the moment. It is an acknowledged fact that
mankind is in a precarious state globally, nationally and privately. Our world
is going through great turmoil of gigantic political, economic, social and
spiritual upheavals. It is the contention of this writer that the only group
naturally chosen to see this spiritual decadent state of our world are the
writers. Writers, by their callings, are special breed of people. From time
immemorial writers have played the roles of spiritual guides to the world. They
are the only group of people that, as a result of their introspective
engagements, commune with the spirit world. By their intellectual activities on
a daily basis, writers are more alert than any other group of professionals to
sense the winds of both physical and spiritual changes in their environment. It
is this awareness that compelled this rookie of a writer to use the big stick in
language and intention to attract the attention of Nigerian Writers.
Now
that this little fly has attracted your attention, it is necessary to wrap up
the discourse we started in that letter. The purpose of these letters is to draw
out the attention of writers away from their hitherto accustomed lethargy and
easy-going lifestyles that love to play academic game with words. It is also to
point your attention to a new career path of onerous and momentous engagements
geared towards the rescuing operation of Nigerians and Nigeria from their
comatose and dying states. This writer is aware without being told in many words
that fellow Writers are wondering who this loud-mouthed one is and what gives
him the right to talk to other writers in this fashion?
Yes, you are quite right to wonder. It is a known fact that Nigerians are
crazy for titles, big names pedigree, glamorous track records, even if they are
of fudged merits and phoney pretensions. The alarm bell must have gone out,
asking, who is he? Where does he come from? Does anyone know him? Is he one of
us? Is he Birom, Edo, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Kataf, Tiv, Yoruba, etc.? These
are the kind of mundane questions that would be expected from Nigerians in line
with our culture and Nigerianess. We are a people that have been brainwashed
with all kinds of cultural prejudices that teach us to listen to only those of
our own. We’ve been taught that the words of the ‘outsiders’ are never
worthy of our consideration but of our instant condemnation even before the
words are out. We are able by instinct and acculturation to tell what the
strangers are on about even before they open their mouths. This is the way we
are but these myopic cultures are weaknesses that must be understood and to
which every enlightened Writer needs to wage a personal battle.
This
writer is a common Nigerian, one that developed late and an age-long honorary
member of the Silent Majority Party of Nigeria. He is just one of the early
birds among the silent majority to have woken up from his deep careless slumber.
Other Nigerians of my party, the Silent Majority Party, shall also be arisen
shortly in large numbers to demand for a right to be heard and to be listened
to. They shall be telling the chattering class, who have hitherto been playing
academic games with words and their lives, that enough is enough. The awakened
members of the Silent Majority shall take Nigeria by storm with knowledge, truth
and love. Before then, this writer shall continue to sing a unique kind of song
of liberty, of redemption, of hope, and of love. He will be urging every one
that cares to listen to bury the hatchet of hate, anger and fear and to embrace
the spirit of forgiveness after repentance, and the spirits of love and truth
after knowledge and understanding. And he will be warning that without allowing
these divine spirits to envelope and to refashion Nigerians, the nations of
Nigeria shall finally tilt into avoidable dangerous waters.
The
omens of such calamities are already in place for all that care to use their
eyes to see. This is why there is urgency to wake up and to touch writers who
have the skill of communication to spread the words around so as to alert every
Nigerian that there is fire on the mountain of Nigeria, to call and cause every
hand to be placed on the deck as we put out the fire, and to urge those that
wish to run away to wait or those that have run away to come back and join hands
with other Nigerians to put out the fire. Writers need to pass on this urgent
message that the fire on the Nigeria’s mountain can only be put out under a
cooperative team spirit, under a united front, and with a concerted effort that
shall not veer to the left or to the right of truth but focussed and unrelenting
on truth and justice at all times until the fire on the Nigeria’s mountain is
totally extinguished.
The
Nigerian Writers must realise that the issues facing Nigerians are serious and
deadly. There is an endemic sickness of intellectual and spiritual malady in the
country. As a result, a complete darkness like a full eclipse has overshadowed
the nations of Nigeria. Writers constrained by this intellectual and spiritual
darkness, like every other Nigerians, are also groping in darkness. This is why
writers can no longer differentiate substance from pettiness, edification from
slander, building from destruction, peace from war, cohesion from disarray, love
from hate, unadulterated truth from tainted truth, and sacred from carnal. Every
one that has the skill to string together words and sentences automatically
becomes qualified to comment and to pontificate on national and local political,
social and economic issues before winning the battle over immoral self, before
overcoming the human foibles that afflict all mortals, before emancipating the
soul from the shackles of ignorance and before awakening the soul to the level
of the reborn and the redeemed. Since these serious battles of life have not
been fought and won, the writer’s comments and erudite scholarships are
powerless to effect the positive changes expected in the readers. The essays
remain just banal words without power to revolutionize the evildoer unto
repentance, without potent balm to heal the sickly souls, and without compassion
to comfort the injured and the forsaken.
The
Nigerian Writers need to understand the power of words when they issued forth
from the hearts of those that believe with passion and conviction in what they
write. Words are known to have power to move mountains literarily, to shake and
soften the most hardened heart, to give eternal life to the living dead, to set
into motion the process of rebirth of souls and to liberate all those under the
yoke of slavery of all kinds. As a matter of fact and experience, the liberation
of mankind has always started from within the soul. When Nigerian Writers begin
to write sanctified words from the heart, these words shall have power to heal
Nigerians from their spiritual blindness, deafness and dumbness. Words are the
spiritual medicines designed to set into motion the healing process of all
humanity from within. Every type of healing starts from within, because the true
healer of the body as well as the soul is within each creation. All that the
Doctors of Medicine do and can do is to help the sick to kick-start the healing
engine within. As soon as this supernatural engine is given the opportunity to
take over the healing duty, the work of the doctor is completed.
Also
from personal experience, this writer believes that writers do not have to see
or know their audiences personally or physically before they can touch them
spiritually. There are some ancient writers that up till today are still
touching intimately the souls of millions of all those that read their words. I
believe, this is why most edifying books are called living words. The love,
affection and wisdom that these books dispensed thousand of years ago are still
as effective as when they were first put down in writing. These are the examples
of living words and this is the path that will be recommended to Nigerian
Writers as worthy of emulation. We have no alternative than to adopt this
edifying strategy when we come into full understanding of the high stake ahead
of us. The liberation of Nigerians from all inconceivable slavery is a serious
task that should no longer be handled with levity and carelessness or with
deceit and hypocrisy.
To
a Nigerian Writer who has seen the light of the truth of existence, the
suffering of one Nigerian is the suffering of all regardless of tribe, religion,
or sex. This is the first sign that a writer who has seen the light of truth
will intuitively understand. It is called a revelation. This is when an insight
of a mystical truth strikes you from the blues. An enlightened writer cannot be
a defender of narrow interest, cannot be a bigot to some narrow religious
beliefs, and cannot be xenophobic to some narrow cultural interests.
An enlightened writer is a universal person. Every suffering creature
attracts his/her interest, passion and compassion. The total motivation of an
enlightened writer is to serve the benefit of many and not of the few, to defend
truth at all cost and be willing to lay down his/her life for the freedom of
others, if necessary.
However,
writers who wish to defend ethnic or religious or sexist interests should always
remember that a writer’s interest should be broader than sectarian or
sectional issues. And that it is in the context of the larger ideals and issues
that the minority interest can have meaning. When the concern of a writer is
premised on the defence of naked truth that is based on the natural laws and on
the philosophical, intellectual and commonsense understanding of the principles
of equality, liberty, and justice, it becomes naturally effortless to separate
the chaff from the wheat. These edifying ideals - equality, liberty and justice
- can never be relative anymore unless such a writer is a two-faced character on
some dubious commission to sow seeds of ruin and sorrow amongst people.
The
truth of these principles shall remain absolute to an awakened writer regardless
of where on planet earth he/she is writing from. Until a writer is redeemed or
reborn by the spirit of truth, there will always be a tendency to fall prey to a
jaundiced and myopic campaign of relative values of justice, of liberty and of
equality amongst the people of the world. Therefore, when writers have been
healed from their spiritual deformities whatever Nigerians call liberty,
justice, and equality in the north or south or west or east of the country shall
hold true and shall have the same meaning at all times in any of these regions.
I believe, it is on the fundamental understanding of these principles that
well-meaning Nigerians have been calling without ceasing for the establishment
of appropriate forum to dialogue in order to set national standards for these
values below which a Nigerian must not fall and to set the benchmark for
evaluation and monitoring of the well being of Nigerians.
It
should be mentioned that it is only when writers are dancing around the
periphery of the truth of liberty, justice and equality that the defence of the
present civilization of our world becomes visible and possible. It is only when
writers have failed to dig deeper in the realm of knowledge that the present
economic global system can become permissible and tolerable. It is only when
writers are still under spiritual and intellectual darkness that a favourable
relativity argument can be adduced for the disturbing poverty that pervades the
entire continent of Africa. And it is only when Nigerian writers have not been
touched by the truth of the meaning of life that they can continue to make
favourable case for the economic integration of Nigeria into the odious and
heinous global economic order.
It
is on the basis of this awareness that this writer is calling on all Nigerian
Writers that you should endeavour to raise your collective imagination and those
of other Nigerians to a higher and broader challenges and expectations. We must
help the people through edifying words to start to believe in their own innate
and potential abilities as they gather their mantle to redress the calamities in
their lives. We must educate the people of Nigeria on the need to withdraw the
trust and faith they have religiously placed on the feckless groups that answer
to the title of leaders in Nigeria. These are the true challenges facing
Nigerian Writers. These challenges, if properly handled and pursued with passion
and genuine interest, are capable of transforming the age-long submissive
doormat Nigerians that every ruler has kicked about and has taken for granted
into a formidable, vibrant and articulate personality. This new creature shall
be ready to stand up in the defence of his/her belief and interest without any
external covert prodding. This is the path that can lead to the design,
construction and beautification of the nations and peoples of Nigeria. It will
be of a New Nigeria and of new nations without rulers or subjects but of
partners of people with common equal stakes that decide voluntarily to work
together for the common good and to share equally as well the fruits of their
equal labours.
Dear
Fellow Writers, let us call a stop to non-edifying polemics and to the academic
game of words. Let the real battles for the soul of Nigeria and Nigerians begin
in earnest. This is my testimony that this writer was once as equally blind as a
bat, chasing the shadows and the noises but now that his cataract and deafness
have been cured he is now able to see clearly and to hear properly. As a once
blind fellow to another he is aware that when a person stayed too long in the
dark he/she runs the risk of total blindness when suddenly exposed to powerful
rays of a bright light. This natural fact of life might account for the
inability of writers in the Diaspora to see the great challenges brewing in the
fatherland. It might also account for why some of them are still trapped with
the mentality of the past and are unable to shake off the biases of the past.
The glare of the fiction of the western world might have been too strong for
their frail eyes and they might have inadvertently lost their sights completely.
The over-exposure to the fictions and the glitters of America and Europe must
have done serious damages to the senses of some Nigerian Writers. It was the
need to draw attention to this unforeseen deformity that dictated the writing of
these letters.
Dear
Writers, let the words of your essays speak to you. When a writer’s essays
ceased to talk to a writer that writer should understand that the engine of
his/her life has stopped to function. A writer’s intellectual output is a form
of ablution, a spiritual cleansing ointment for the soul. It is also a mirror
for looking inwards to ascertain the state of the spiritual well being of the
writer. This is why an adage says ‘out of the abundant of the heart the mouth
speaks’. In order to understand the kinds of materials present in the heart of
a writer, you need go no further than the essays of the writer. If the heart of
the writer is full of hate or anger or fear or love, the intellectual output of
the writer will confirm this unmistakably. Dear Writer, if you are not sure of
the state of your soul, go back to the past essays you wrote and read them
afresh. You will be able to deduce instantly the nature of the forces you are
fellowshipping with. It will reveal where the passion and the motive that drives
you to spit venom, hell and brimstone at every opportunity you have to commit
your mind into writing is coming from.
And
if the words of this writer give you pain and indigestion, it is a good sign
that there is still some life in your soul. It is like when iodine is poured on
an open wound, the unbearable pain that follows is accepted as a good sign that
the wounded part of the body still has living nerves running through it. If
there is no pain, the Doctor will recommend amputation to safe the rest of body
from poisonous infection. In this sense the pain you feel at being insulted by
this Mr Nobody should be taken as a healing balm that will eventually help in
setting into motion the healing process of your soul. Surely, we all need
healing and until we recognise our spiritual sicknesses and our intellectual
weaknesses, the New Nigeria of our dream shall forever remain a dream, an
illusion, a scientific and sociological fiction, an economic aberration and a
political mirage.
Dear
Writers, this is not an issue about going to paradise in heaven or about how to
escape from fire and brimstone in hell. This writer is firing a millennium
challenge at every writer as he summons you to see the urgent need for the
building of our own paradise and our own heaven here on earth, on our own native
soil and on the continent of Africa now. This is the vision of a new reality
being offered to fellow writers for your consideration. This vision calls for a
change of gear in our mode of thinking and in the way we see the world. It
challenges us to raise our goals and our horizons higher towards more noble
ideals that can in its wake bring a true paradise to all our citizens. This
writer writes in pain and ache in the knowledge of the lost opportunities we
carelessly threw away as a people. But again what keep him going are the hope,
the vision and an intuitive assurance that there is a brilliant and fruitful
future ahead of us. This writer desires to ignite other Nigerians with the fire
of similar hope and confidence that will be powerful enough to cleanse and pack
away from our souls the thorns and thistles of anger, hate and fear. And he
desires that The Creator shall rewrite new programmes on the chips of our souls
that shall be based on the values of truth and love, that shall be strong enough
to free up our energy and creativity for the great sacrifice ahead and inspiring
enough to spur us on to achieve our true potential as human beings.
May the spirit of truth bring us into the awakened state of the truly enlightened writer. May our spiritual blindness, deafness and dumbness be truly cured. And may the spirit of truth give us powerful wings to fly higher above trivialities so as to behold the glory of the New Nigeria ahead of us in order to realise that it is worth fighting and dying for.
Yours truly,
In
The Spirit of Truth
SamAbbdIsrael
SAM
ABBD ISRAEL
A Concerned Nigerian