By
BM Dzukogi
MONOGRAPH 008
First published in 2012
COMTENTS
- Essays
- Types of Essays
- Narrative
- Argumentative
- Descriptive
- Expository
- Collected Love Letters
- Personal Letters
- Collected Important and Unimportant Notes making about Events in Life
- Community or any other Aspects of Living
- Marriages
- Festivals
- Burial
- Naming
- Biographies and Autobiographies
- Where are Books on Nigerlites?
In the days before, only adults were seen to be writers, but today, like in the banking industry, lecturing, politics, civil service, young people are now principal actors. Writing books should have young people doing it too. By the time they are adults, they would have attained the proficiency and quality that would bring out good thoughts that would be available for the community to use. Therefore, citizens, both young and old must develop the habit of writing and recording the matters of their lives for posterity and development.
Don’t you see almost all the Presidents of the United States have penned down their experiences in office for the world to share? This does not mean all Presidents of the United States are writers. Their venturing into writing autobiographies is simply out of the recognition of the fact that both tangible and intangible aspects governing a society must be recorded for those wishing to become such in times ahead.
Such write-ups are also intended to give background and focus to future policies or actions of occupants. Indeed, such pieces give explanations to what led to an action, whether popular or unpopular, in each of which citizens would draw values in defining future direction for the individual or the whole of the community.
Autobiographical pieces are just an example of the need for each individual to record part or parts of his life for others to draw from. Now, it must be understood that, writing about people is not measured or needy because he or she has attained certain status according to the views of others. This could be a valid reason for writing, but, largely, writing should be about the intrinsic urge of an individual who by his internal reckoning feels he has words for the community based on the personal illumination he has about a strong feeling or subjects upon which the society is constructed and needed to be propagated or being deconstructed and needed to be halted through enlightenment and educating everyone. An insight or revelation about certain phenomenon is not an exclusivity of those that have attained statuses in the community. Therefore, let each soul say to his community what will keep it in shape through book development; say to it what will destroy it by their actions or inactions that they be warned.
The individual must write about the variety of attributes that define his society; what are the things that give shape and meaning to being in an environment? What are the head or tail of how our forefathers explained and framed and erected our society? Where did those attributes take them? What where their drawbacks and what were the high points? What distinguishes ours with others that make us what we are? These things can only be explained to the world and our offspring through book development. So, citizens must write, today!
Write about your customs, beliefs, art and crafts? Write yourself down through this and be counted as one of the world’s potent dwellers who contributed to its wellbeing. These write-ups do not have to be extensive essays, but written through the type of essay pieces you were thought in college. Essays were taught not necessarily for examination, but that each individual should, at the end of the day, be able to explain himself or have, at his disposal, a facility of communication where when bugged by want to propagate idea would be able to do so in an articulate manner, suing the acceptable form and dexterity that would aid understanding and pleasurable reading of curious minds waiting to learn from you. This is one of the ideas behind the Intellectual Capital Project of Niger State Government- to encourage a wide range of writing so that our actions are induced by quality and creative thinking that will produce novelty and beauty in products and services for ourselves and export to other worlds.
Similarly, what has been said or written and published will forever remain as an existing knowledge upon which more may be built, tomorrow. This means, anytime someone adds to it growth, knowledge is recorded until peaked at a point. The more knowledge is made available, the better the quality of living in the community.
Essays
Essays are the most important and easiest form of documentation. An essay on any of the above subject does not have to run into hundreds of pages. It could be as small as 20 pages. A simply well thought out and documented sentence is enough for humanity. A voluminous book is not the target of book development, but just a good thought in a verse could help redeem humanity elsewhere. So, pamphleteering is also a formidable form of writing. In fact, flyer system of writing is as valid as a book. It even travels faster than book. An individual can undertake to do a piece on olden and new forms of marriage ceremonies in Gbagyi land and distribute or sell at occasions. This will contribute largely to the intellectual development of the state.
Types of Essays
The word ‘essay’ is from the French word ‘Essai’ meaning ‘trial’ or attempt’. If this is what the essay means, then it falls in line with what the state government is encouraging the citizens to do, attempting to document or pen down events of life through this medium. There are different types of methods of essay writing but we will briefly talk on a few to enable our citizens to begin attempting to revolutionise the society through documentation:
Narrative
To narrate is to tell a series of event in a story form. So, this type of essay is written through telling it in a process of occurrence. It is like a recital of events that are either factual or imaginary. Using this medium depends on what the subject matter is. You might decide to do the narration in a subjective manner where the writer or narrator also expresses his feelings about the events he is narrating. The other one is the objective narration which allows the reader to pass his judgement on the events being narrated.
Argumentative
This one as the name implies is to prove with sound reasoning and logic one’s view point about a subject. Therefore, the trend here is to advance concrete reasons why an event or phenomenon is what it is. The arguments must be stated dispassionately and objectivity. The reason is to persuade the reader to understand the view point of the writer to enable the reader change his stand point or to influence a change in behaviour of the reader. It is largely about opinion, therefore, the writer concentrates more on serious points than frivolous ones.
Descriptive
According to Gbededio & Anene-Boyle (2004), “description is telling what something is like and maybe either about a concrete object such as a scene or a person or about an abstract idea as fear”. At the end of the description, a picture is supposed to appear to the reader. Therefore, an essayist of the intellectual capital could use this method in doing his writing about a subject or object. Here too, there are basically two types: the one that is coloured with the writer’s feelings (subjective), and the one that is not mixed with his feelings (objective). The objective type is the one used for scientific exercises. Therefore, the writer of the intellectual capital project would have to decide which suit what exercise. If you are writing about Kambari Wedding which requires a lot of description then you will have to choose which method is appropriate.
Expository
This type of essay demands the writer to give explanation of an information or an idea. They are usually written from the angle of history, biography, philosophy and scientific views. By the nature of the expository essay, it is always about the facts of life or a social reality. An individual might have spent years contemplating on a phenomenon of life upon which he wishes to write down his observations to inform or educate people. For example, you may wish to treat a social reality of why sexual activities are rampant in society, today. Or why do people get angry quickly today than in twenty years back?
Collected Love Letters
Love letters are important aspects of family development which in totality contributes to the effective stabilisation of society. A parent should understand that those passionate missives between loved ones done at secluded times of courtship are genuine intentions and feelings of people wishing to establish a formidable future where good children could be raised to become important contributors to the development of society. Now, the important thing to note is that a collected love letters serves as a primary reminder of what pledges, promises, intentions, interests expressed at sublime times of impending family life. The reminder is for both parties involved (man and woman), the beauty of which is submissive contemplation in times of heat in the family, reflections of sound how being planned and solidification of souls that will stabilise hearts for a peaceful community for development.
Love letters are important teachers and counsellors to children who would inherit tomorrow. A collected love pieces give a silent direction to children about the values we used to attach to ourselves as women and men, thus enabling quick resolution of conflicts that have the potential to cause breakages, divorce and separation. All of which harbours the danger of retardation in the effective functioning of community towards development.
Published Love letters serve as an effective document for comparative development of social relations in a specific community which enable such society to draw lines of trends, style, value, history, morals and interrelatedness of families within a given period or generation. By this, the community’s identity is not just retained, but citizens will be able to appreciate why restraint and accommodation is necessary for community’s progress. Refusal to document these unpronounced but very important aspects of our life leaves children and youth with no option than to go elsewhere copying the trends and identities of others such that, at a point, we lose our identity completely due to imitations and unnecessary assimilations of cultures that devalue ours. Before long you become a second tier world citizen without even knowing it.
Personal Letters
Closely related to the above is the exchanges of letters between citizens in a given region or community or among cultures of a given society. One point that man misses at the point of existence is that, the goal of life on earth is to bring people together. Man himself finds value in existence because he is relating with others whether far or near. Without this social engagement, life simply does not become meaningful. Individuals must record and document a type of social, business, artistic, educational relationships they had with people of different cultures or persuasions. For example, a Muslim Kambari’s trade-relations with a Nupe-craftsman spanning a long period of time requires a documentation that will educate the world about movement and junctions upon which cultures function in the yore. Now, a written record of this relationship from divergent cultures does not just promote trade but increases the chances of transfer of other values of development to other parts of the state, which facilitates the quick spread of development. This also will facilitate educational, political and marriage alliances that will come to play in times of governance and other unlimited partnerships that will promote communion and co-existence on the land.
Collected Important and Unimportant Notes making about Events in Life
The habit of note-taking should be developed by citizens. The general practice is that people only take notes in the classroom or workshops and conferences but independent note-taking should be developed by a variety of people during important occasions or events in the community. Events, ceremonies and gatherings whether formal or informal usually provoke high thoughts by speakers, elders or even young people attending them. Therefore, such places can form a veritable arena for the development of a genre called ‘Noterite’. Sometimes, a profound statement by a speaker in a public function can inspire a greater thought in the listener. Even if this is what an individual collects as his piece of writing, it can go a long way in redeeming society tomorrow. What is important is that the writer or collector acknowledges the speaker, time, date and the occasion. Once this is voluminous enough for publishing, you do. You may give it a title, thus: Unwritten thoughts, Informal Verses, Eavesdrops, White Gossips. We can’t allow the most important aspect of our language development to melt away without recording them. You may even decide to have with you a mini-tape as your regular companion so that at free times, you may transcribe them. Don’t forget to give titles to your pieces of note so that they stand on their own evoking different values and lessons for the reader. But, a collector could be more daring and adventurous by trying to stitch together the collected notes using a technique he could develop by himself. This form of writing does not require any specialised rule.
Community or any other Aspects of Living
You can decide begin to write out your community by selecting a specialised or specific area and focus on where you will produce small pamphlets or 20-page books for the preservation of an aspect of community, tribal or ethnic life. It is important to have people to volunteer to do these charitable life-rewarding exercises that will form the fulcrum of the continued existence of a nation, community or human group. Write about the following:
Marriages – What was marriage like in your tribe before? What does it look like today? Do a book that explains this bit-by-bit; and step-by-step the process from beginning to the end. Ask the remaining old people in your community how marriages were done in the past in your community. Compare with the present and pass judgement if need be on the path the society should tow. Remember to deploy descriptive method of essay writing when doing this kind of small book. Marriages are colourful so make colourful description as the case may be. This all important institution must be preserved and taught to our children in the future. The absence of books on these subject matters is almost late, so people must take up the challenge before we lose everything that makes us.
Festivals – These are ceremonies, rituals, spiritual occasions that members of the community hold sacred and dear to their hearts. Each culture has its peculiarities that must be passed on to subsequent generations. The cultures that our children assimilate like gluttons today, gain currency because we have allowed the peculiarities that gave us our identity to melt away. The identities of a people melt away because citizens ignore book development about the minute ways they live in their highly cherished environments.
Burial – Document how burial ceremonies are performed in your area. Make slight compares with what is obtained elsewhere. Let the young people understand where they are coming from and what has changed over time. Once these texts are available for them to read, that is when they will appreciate themselves when you tell them not to copy alien cultures. Or that is when they would be able to know which of the alien cultures fit into theirs before without intellectual digestible and you still want to bar children from gulping what others have made available in written texts.
Naming – This type of ceremony is one that gives form to whom we are and how we welcome our children who will inherit our ways. Names define people and their places as well as their domicile. It tells of linkages between cultures and how much influences there are among spiritual gathering that brings the community together where a new member is officially ushered into the big arena. Therefore, members of the community register on their consciousness the existence of yet another future changer, scientist, leader, or astronaut who must be well looked after, guided, trained ethically and professionally for the common good of society.
Biographies and Autobiographies
Biographies are also important in the evolution of society. People must document their ways from the scratch to the time of penning them. This is called autobiography. Biographies or autobiographies do not have to come from elites or those who think they are important in the community. This is a serious misconception. Who says it is only governors, presidents or ministers that have done worthy things in the community? What about the life of an important teacher, craftsman, blacksmiths, farmer, shoemaker, imam or pastor? These people are worth recording their lives as much as those of any other high society person. In fact, a life of a notorious drug addict or thief in the community should be recorded for tomorrow’s use. We must all become one form of a writer or another. A society that does not record each passing minutes of her life didn’t exist at all. This is what the policy of Intellectual Capital is all about. Let each soul write about what interest him or her for the benefit of others. In this business of massive writing, productions are the main focus. Period! The goal is not to be Abubakar Gimba, Yahaya Dangana, Achebe or Soyinka. The goal is for citizens to take the obligation of writing down events of their lives and the community for development. It is also about the most potent medium for appropriating the society in the most fashionable way we want it. This is what the government of Niger State is urging the citizens to commence doing in large scale. Your effort would be complemented through a policy of publishing that is being put in place to facilitate the printing of the written text, all of which would be unfolded soon.
Where are Books on Nigerlites?
We are aware that some Nigerlites have penned down pieces about their government or career, but they are countable. This is not the goal of intellectual capitalism. The Intellectual Capital Project of the state government seeks to proliferate books across our communities, to present to the young and old experiences that will consciously or unconsciously reframe their lives towards the good of the society. Ambassador J. T. Kolo has a biography to his credit today, which is being published. As a diplomat and a technocrat from the Sardauna era, the life and times of JT Kolo on earth becomes a well that generations would draw from. He is not the only diplomat from Niger State, where are others? Where is Ambassador Zubairu Dada’s account of his experiences as a diplomat? Young Nigerlites need to learn and aspire to become what you are. This creates addition for the communities. Where is a book on General AbdulSalam Abubakar? What made him to go democratic in an era where every military officer would wish to seize power? Where are books on his diplomatic missions in peacekeeping? Where are texts on his farm which will readily benefit a young Nigerian in Niger State? Where are the narratives of their wives as first ladies? Where are books on their pet projects? Don’t they want more first ladies from Niger State? Where is the account of the energy with which Professor Jerry Gana pursued MAMSER? I mean his own account as a principal actor there. Where is a book on Mallam Nuhu Galadima, the potent historian and our teacher? What did Mallam Nuhu put down himself for tomorrow? Till today, no Nigerlite can lay his hand on the business sagacity of Mallam Ibrahim Aliyu, let alone inspire young Nigerlites towards that direction. I am always in F-Layout and I feel, all the time how these young people around him but where are his personal literature on how these boys and girls could privately aspire and pursue to glory? None! This is sad.
Where are texts on or by Hajiya Jummai Agwai about her famous Hill-Top Model School going extinct today? If that school disappears today, there is hardly anything to account for its existence. Where is a formidable text on Rev. Father O’Connell, whose entire life is for Niger State? How can you as a community not record Father’s educational fertility in the face of celibacy to tell the world his mountainous volunteerism to a culture that didn’t give birth to him? Haba!
For example, how many Nigerlites know that Aliyu Makama Bida was equal to Sir Ahmadu Bello in every sense of statesmanship. How many Nigerlites know that he was more of their senior in thought and actions; the very attributes that Sardauna has acknowledged of the Makaman Nupe himself. Where are are the books on him and the huge contributions he made to the making of Northern Nigeria? Recording these are not the sole duties of writers alone. Essays by anyone would take care of the job. Everyone can write essays. Local Government Councils should queue behind the policy of Dr. Aliyu to redirect society through intellectual competence. LGAs should undertake the task of commissioning their citizens to identify peculiar attributes of their localities and commence critical documentation about such endowments, including personages that the world would come to share with us. This is what government is asking citizens to undertake, today.
With the coming of the administration of Dr Babangida Aliyu, book writing and production has increased tremendously among young and old members of the society. This is good for the community, for a generation that takes interest in book development will gradually walk into other spheres of development, unimaginably. It is the extra-ordinary thoughts of individuals that concretises as lofty products that we see today. And God has so made it that to be in possession of such ideas does not mean you must have gone to school first, every common and uncommon man can have an uncommon thought that no one has. School or formal education only sharpened such possession, which is good. However, what we see of recent about every young person wanting to write about the governor is a little bit misplaced. How many books are we going to have on one Nigerlite, most of which are recycled? Why not take interest in the policies of the man and expound on them for the greater benefit of society.
Young people must write about other Nigerlites without being patronising: I haven’t seen any book on Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, Mr. Peterson Kaura, Sarah Jubril, Hajiya Lolo, Kabulu Dancers, Gwape International, Ahmadu Bahago, Mamman Kontagora, Alhaji Umaru Eggan, Idris Kuta, and others. A book on Ladi Kwali as written by an Edo man. Where are books on Tswata Mukun, Masaga Brass Work of Bida, Gani Festival of Kutigi, Zuma Rock of Suleja, Kagara Talc, Umaru Nagwamatse, Professor Shehu Bida, Shehu Musa, Jonathan Ndagi, Sarkin Sudan of Kontagora, Tanko Salihu of Kagara, where are formidable texts on these citizens of Niger State? Are there no educated people who lived and shared life with these icons of the state? Can’t they write or contract interested people around those localities to pen down the life of these society-developers whose narratives would inspire a thousand more young people to tow their exemplary lifestyle?
The Intellectual Capital Project of the Niger State Government seeks to populate the society with books so that young and old can have texts of quality thoughts and experiences that would touch on the way we live to accelerate development and peace. You don’t achieve these when people are not recording their thoughts for others to read. Reading is the primary triggers for the development of any community. Set your target and audience and start.
Here is a list of other things you could write about:
- People or peoples
- Places
- Customs
- Beliefs
- Art and craft
- Building
- Animals
- Bird
- Plants
- Trees
- Rocks
- Mountains
- Rivers
- Numerals
- Vocation
- Trade
- Dams
- Baro Port
- Fillin Kaci Uwaka of Minna
- Kasuwan Dare, now turned to Obasanjo Complex
- Pamphlet about the history of a school like Niger Baptist College, now Ahmadu Bahago
- Anything of your interest