Welcome to a new week readers.
We are happy to publish the concluding part of Bruce Silton’s beautiful short story, The White Place.
We also feature On Water, another nice oil painting from Rasaq Arinla.
Finally we feature an interesting interview with Mr. Caleb Akinmola, Publishing Manager of Literamed Publications, the leading publisher of children books in Nigeria.
We shall return with more paintings, poems, short stories, and interviews in Week 40.
Have a great week!
Welcome to another great week readers.
We start with The Wizard, another charming poem from Michael Silton. We also feature two fresh and beautiful paintings by Rasaq Arinla, Legend and Gossip.
As promised, we have also published the second part of Bruce Silton’s short story, The White Place, which is a personal favourite of mine. The concluding part will be published next week – the story is so sweet, I really wish it would continue indefinitely.
And finally for this week, we have a great interview with Professor Nwando Achebe, author of the award-winning book, The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe. Professor Achebe was appointed a full professor at Michigan State University at the age of 39.
You are not only going to love the interview, you’ll love everything else we have on offer for this week.
Enjoy!
Welcome to another week readers.
For starters check out Out on a Ridge, a beautiful poem by Michael Silton. We also feature two oil paintings from a remarkable Nigerian painter, Rasaq Arinla: Time is Money, a painting depicting the hustle and bustle on an overcrowded Lagos street, and Ona Oko, a painting showing a bushpath to a farm in the village.
Starting this week, we have started publishing Bruce Silton’s short story, The White Place. The first part can be found under the short stories page.
And last but not the least is our interview with Literary Agent, Laura Blake Peterson of the prominent New York literary agency, Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Quite a handful or eyeful you’ll agree.
See you next week!
Welcome to a new week readers.
As promised, we are starting this week with a great interview with Sefi Atta.
Sefi Atta’s debut novel, Everything Good Will Come won the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.
Check out the interview and see for yourself.
Welcome to a new week readers.
Check out this week’s interview with Mr. Gbenro Adegbola.
Mr. Gbenro Adegbola is the Managing Director and Publisher of Evans Publishers (Nigeria) Ltd. He was kind enough to share his experiences in and insights on the publishing industry in Nigeria.
Also check out “Being“, a brand new and awesome pastel painting by our new contributor, Bruce Silton.
Look out for next week’s interview with Sefi Atta, author of Everything Good Will Come and inaugural winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. As well as more paintings, poetry, and short stories.
Happy new week readers. This week’s interview is with Kaine Agary. Ms. Agary is the author of the award-winning novel, Yellow Yellow, which won the 2008 Nigeria Prize for Literature.
Watch out for more paintings and poems, this week as well as next week’s interview with Gbenro Adegbola, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished publishers.
Watch out for our forthcoming interview on Dr. Lizzy Attree, Administrator of the Caine Prize for African Writing
Painting by Leslie Silton
On Sunday, 3 June 2012, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft operated by Dana airlines crashed in the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos state. 153 passengers died in the crash and over six people reportedly died on the ground.
As is usual with disasters, especially of the man-made type, that occur in Nigeria, a lot of dust has been thrown up nationwide by all stakeholders: the citizenry, government, the press, industry operators and the like.
One of the direct consequences of this development has been the re-playing of the blame game among the perceived actors in the disaster. To be sure the government quickly went on the offensive by suspending the license of the beleaguered airline. While a section of the citizenry welcomed the sanctions, others were quick to indict the government, specifically the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA and the Aviation Ministry for lax supervision and regulation of the airline industry. Dana Air, on its own part has been quick to issue a press state statement stressing its non-culpability in the disaster.
While arguments over who or what is responsible for the crash will continue for some time, the fact remains that the crash has occurred and nothing is likely to bring the dead back to life. For me personally, the Dana air disaster is another one of those negative occurrences in Nigeria for which every party can hardly be exonerated. The government-citizenry and the operator-regulator all fell short of playing the part they should have played in helping to avert disaster.
Taking the operator-regulator as a starting point, and regardless of the arguments and counter arguments that have been parried about the faulty state of the crashed aircraft, the fact remains that Dana Air’s continued operation of a twenty three year-old aircraft calls into question the willingness of the airline to streamline its operations with world standards as a means of ensuring the maximum safety of its passengers. Obviously Dana Air is not alone in this regard but it is hoped this incident will serve a useful lesson to it and its counterparts in the Nigerian airline industry.
The role of the regulatory bodies in the Nigerian airline industry also qualifies for condemnation. The regulatory loophole, allowing an airline operator to operate an aircraft over twenty years old as long as it was not twenty years old at the time of purchase, should be reviewed with speedy dispatch. More and regular maintenance checks should also be carried out on commercial aircrafts to determine their airworthiness; the fact that there is no last word on the airworthiness of the ill-fated aircraft covering the controversial week before its fatal crash is a testament to the lax supervision of the aviation body tasked with that function.
The failure of the government to take concrete executive and legislative measures to tackle the relative rot in the airline industry, despite similar disasters in the not too distant past, reflects poorly on its administrative record and calls into question its perceived bereavement at the deaths of some of its citizens. Tears will solve nothing, the right actions will, and the sooner the government recognizes this, the better.
On its part, the citizenry has reacted with shock and anguish to the disaster. Unfortunately the citizenry too, in their own way, have fallen short of fully playing their part in averting the disaster. The citizenry themselves have often been content to ignore the sorry state of affairs in segments of the Nigerian economy – in this case the aviation sub-sector, as long as they remain unaffected by the concomitant disasters. While Nigeria admittedly boasts one of the most pathetically deaf and nonchalant governments in the world, it still pays to continue trying to point out their failings to them. At the very least, our voices will be on record as having forewarned them to events such as this. Waiting for disasters to occur before raising hullabaloos, lawsuits, and the like, amounts to little more than tongue-in-cheek protests.
Also up for condemnation is the action of some unscrupulous citizens at the crash site who reportedly stole jewelries and other valuables from corpses on the crashed craft. Even allowing for unemployment and other factors, the actions of these citizens still fall short of socially acceptable behaviour.
On the side, an interesting dimension to the disaster was the news that Ehime Aikhomu, a son of Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the former Chief of General Staff under General Ibrahim Babangida, also died in the crash. That regime was largely responsible for the decay that still affects all facets of the Nigerian economy – the aviation sub-sector inclusive. At the very least, I feel this is the most important lesson Nigerian rulers of today should imbibe: when you run the economy aground when you are supposed to resuscitate it, the consequences will return to haunt you – one way or the other, sooner or later.
Sheriff's Shelf 