Wife of the Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has urged Nigerian authors to write in order to make the society a better place. She was speaking in Lagos at the weekend during the opening ceremony of the 37th edition of the annual international convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).
Fayemi, who is also an author, said that writers should write to express themselves and to attack the ills in the society.
Whether it is poetry, prose, drama, children story or novella, she said, it is for writers to teach to extend the frontiers of knowledge.
“It is not basically for money making but to create, encourage and envision a better society,” she said.
She explained that books must be written to x-ray the economy and facilitate the social transformation and development of the society and there was no better time to do this than now.
“We need to look at issues of leadership, the ecological and environmental situations in our country and be creatively involved in our efforts to make them better,” she said.
Using herself as an example, she said that what she sees around her makes her write.
“It gives me joy to write for I want to be heard. Indeed, I write to bear witness and I feel that is what most of us should be doing so that our volumes of works will give us the worldly reward we envisage,” she declared.
In his opening remarks chairman of the occasion and a former president of ANA Professor Femi Osofisan commended writers but advised them not to always convey negativisms in their works.
He said we may have terribly bad leaders but we also have those who do good works.
“Let us not be negative so that our younger ones will not continue to run away from home,” Osofisan said.
The conference held under the theme- ‘Literature: Mega-cities and mega narratives’ with Prof. Karen king Arisala of the University of Lagos as the keynote speaker.
Delegates from all over the country attended the three-day event which ended on Saturday night with a dinner and awards ceremony.