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By Henry Akubuiro
The life of a writer is a study in curiosity. Even on a cool Sunday afternoon like this, Nduka Otiono, an award-winning writer, General Secretary, Association of Nigerian Authors; an associate lecturer, English Department, University of Ibadan; a journalist and a freelance publisher; an active member of the National Committee on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural heritage, is busy somewhere you may not expect.

He bids you welcome in a low drone from his dim-lit rich study, which he likes to a fault. "It gives me a great deal of joy that whatever I want to read for my research is within reach in my library," he tells you, adding, "I am not a book worm, but I can’t do without books." Frankly, most of the books in the study cannot be found in any bookshop around.

The literary output of a writer is not measured by the number of works he has in the market, but by the quality.

In the case of Nduka Otiono, the few he has published have received rave reviews. "I published my first book in 1995, The Night Hides with a Knife, which jointly won the ANA/Spectrum Prose Prize. In 1997, I published the second, Voices in the Rainbow, and in 1998, I published an anthology of short stories,which turned out to be controversial. The first book was controversial as well," he recalls.

In between creative writing, Otiono dedicates valuable time to journalism, especially literary journalism. In fact, his love for literary journalism has made him digress from reporting politics and the economy. Apart from establishing The Post Express Literary Supplement", which he says was a big hit, he doubled as the Literary Editor of ThisDay (Sunday) while an editorial board member of the paper. Having quit active journalism, he now edits the literary page of NewAge newspaper as a consultant.
Words roll out of his mouth with percussions, like poetry in motion.

According to him, one of the risks of being a writer and a journalist is that "you may find yourself expending choice expressions, or what great writers refer to as ‘touch stones’, using some great expressions, gems, jewels and phrases that otherwise would be reserved for creative writing to journalism." Besides that, journalism, from his own experience, “has the capacity to drain the writer". His reason is "because the exercise of writing is a continuum, and after expending your energy pursuing stories for journalism, there is no energy left for creative writing."

Certainly, there is a symbiotic relationship between writing and journalism, he notes. Among others, it serves as a source for the creative worker to expand his intellectual horizon. Reaching out for an omnibus book entitled Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Author’s Ideas and Literature published from the New York Times, he informs you of a similar compilation in progress. "More recently, I am trying to see how I can harvest the work I have done as a literary journalist in two volumes, and it is already in a CD, which I am editing at the moment."

ANA, the organisation, that he is the scribe, has a daunting task re-invigorating our literary enterprise. As the General Secretary of ANA, how can we chart a new course for Nigerian literature? He says that “ANA needs to play a prominent role in this regard, and that is what it’s been trying to do, but it’s hamstrung by paucity of funds.

However, there are other indicators of chatting a new course. The NLNG prize for literature is one of them. It has served as a stimulus for creative writing - besides ANA prizes. Nevertheless, the essential aspect of discovering new talents and enthronement of exceptionally new writers hasn’t been part of the bill. One would have expected to be also reflected in the interest publishers show in creative writing. Surprisingly, most of them are still much committed to publishing children literature, which is the fastest selling, in addition to text books. But, ultimately, publishing should go beyond economic decisions.

"Be that as it may, we (ANA) have started collaborating with the Nigerian International Book Trust, and the writers’ forum has become essentially part of the book fair, which is going into the forth year. Great things are happening. The special guest writer for this year is the Kenyan writer, Ngugi wa Thiongo. But the most important structure that needs to be set up is the establishment of the writers’ publishing collective, which should be responsible for not just publishing but harnessing structures for works, whether self-published work or not – especially the important self-published ones."

As a creative writer with bias for poetry and prose, he may be writing from a particular perspective. Does he have any ideological leaning? He pauses for a moment, and then says matter-of-factly, "I am not known for rag-tag or dog-tag labels. Basically, I am a creative writer. And I work within the idioms that appeal to me at anytime. I see myself as somebody who has a large canvass, as it were, and I try to explore, depending on my temperament.

The everyday experience conditions my writing."
Role models oftentimes influence people. Does he have role model(s)? "I don’t have a singular role model in the real sense of it," he begins, however, he enjoys reading certain authors: the Columbia writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Chinua Achebe, Derek Walcott, T.S. Eliot, and late Zimbabwean writer, Dambudzo Marechera, the latter whom he says had an overpowering effect on him. "I discovered that I have been somewhat influenced by his writing," he confesses.

Against the backdrop of the insinuation by new generation of Nigerian writers that their achievements have been beclouded by their predecessors, who were more recognized because of their little number, does he share the same view, since he belongs to the new generation of writers, and what is his assessment of contemporary Nigerian literature?
"Contemporary Nigerian literature is robust," he allows. "We have since moved from a generation of writers, where you had a handful of writers on your finger tip to several writers writing in several ways". However, he believes the standard is uneven.

"I would say the standard is uneven, which is expected of any generation, because, even among the Achebe generation, there were also many other writers who did not win the kind of renown that Achebe, Soyinka, Clark and others won." Nevertheless, he is upbeat about the future of Nigerian literature. "Right now, we are witnessing a distillation of the important writers of this generation, and this is going to become clear in the next couple of years. But, he adds, "we equally have totally disappointing and disgraceful pieces of writing in this age".

Does it follow then that the disparaging remarks of the NLNG literary prize is an indictment on Nigerian literature? He doesn’t think so. "No, it is an indictment on the state of publishing in Nigeria. Publishing in its finest sense, with regard to creative writing, is in a comatose stage.

That was the point that Professor Soyinka made at NICON NOGA Hotel, Abuja, when the award went awry." Apart from problem of publishing, Otiono states that a major challenge facing today’s writers is "finding space to write and priming oneself in a way that enables one to sustain creative impulse and inspiration," and by that he means " the daily struggle to eke out a living is enough to throw the writer off balance. There are no libraries, fellowships and residencies for writers in this country”.

Though he believes that the likes of Chris Abani, Chimamanda Adichie and a few other Nigerian writers based abroad have continued to put the country on the world map of literature after the exploits of the Achebes and Soyinkas, he is not in tandem with those who argue that the new Nigerian writing is based abroad.

"I don’t share that sentiment, although I agree that considerable achievement is being recorded by a few of Nigerian writers in diaspora. Again, one way of looking at it is that there has been some kind of exportation whereby some of our home-spurn writers have gone ahead to make impact on the international scene. The best example will be Helon Habila, who won the Caine prize and went ahead to win the Commonwealth Prize for the African Region.

Relaxation is a luxury few people enjoy in a hostile economy. Does he find time to relax, and if so, how does he relax? "I hang out with friends, sharing drinks, but you could not call it so much of relaxation, because oftentimes they turn out to be a forum for literary arguments. Then, I like sharing time at home, especially on weekend like this, relaxing in my study as you can see. A lover of ethnic music, Nduka Otiono can play the music of the South African Black Mombaza featuring Joseph Shabalala, over and over. He has the same affection for jazz, especially the music of Earl Clugh. Just then, he releases the knob of the CD player in the study, and a jazzy sound floats across the room with a flourish, dulling all sound.

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