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I paint the picture of the period about which I wrote the novel —Omo Uwaifo
(Vanguard)

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T H E A R T S: Fattening House:

OMO Uwaifo is one of Nigeria’s oldest, yet newest writers who is still very much active in the literary horizon of the country. Trained as an electrical engineer in the likes of T.M Aluko, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wale Okediran, a medical doctor turned-writer and others, a professional field from which he spent twenty years of his life justifying his competence and indispensability in the utility industry. He took seriously the hobby of creative writing in his early 60s and like a landing eagle, broke into the mainstream creative writing last year when his work titled,Fattening House noted for its vent on societal nuances, got nominated for the LNG Literature Prize. At 73 years now, Uwaifo is not the least of Nigeria's most gifted writers who has shown strong zeal to live the rest of his life for writing. His latest book, That Nigeria May Survive, which is due for public presentation, May 26 bears testimony to this claim. He shares his dreams with BENJAMIN NJOKU. Read..

WRITING at old age: Writing is something a lot of people aspire to do. As a boy of nine years, we had what we used to call the Ibota. At dusk, children of my age then, usually gathered together to engage in all kinds of plays. One of our favourite plays then was story-telling. That was my specialty. I like telling stories of our past heroes and what they were able to accomplish during their lifetime. But between ten and fifteen years ago as I looked forward, I discovered that things were no longer the same in Nigeria. And I asked myself what I could do to help my country, given the situation. Engineering, my first love, has become a very corrupt field.

As a consultant, one must practically earn a reward for his labour. To get paid after performing your duty, one is compelled as well, to give a kick back. As a man of principles, I dislike the practice and refuse to be part of the system. Over the past fifteen to twenty years, consulting appeared no longer viable for anyone who hates to give or take bribe. As a result, I started practising how to write. In 1998, I travelled to the United Kingdom to learn the art of writing. There, I spent about nine months.

While sojourning in UK, I met with notable writers and also took courses in writing. For me then, writing started becoming quite interesting. Although, before I travelled, I have written my first book titled,"Electric Power Distribution, Planning and Development." But since 1999, when I came back to Nigeria, I have also written three more books, including ," Let Them Bleed", "Fattening House" and now, "That Nigeria May Survive" which is going to be presented to the public on May 26.

I am also working on my fourth book, "Walls of Fear." The book is in its last stage of editing.

Apart from the fact that better writers than myself often allude that the environment is not conducive enough to encourage writing, owing to the incidence of instability in the country, but for me, on the contrary, it is quite possible to stay here in Nigeria and write as those in the Western world. A writer has to be able to create a cocoon for himself and get used to it, while conditioning his mind concerning how to forget all the irregularities that frequently happen around him. I, particularly experienced it but I still believe that I am capable of writing more books even before I join my ancestors.

Any existing difference between writing in Nigeria and overseas?

There was no real experience I acquired while in the United Kingdom. I only went there to learn the techniques of presentation and writing works of fiction. The world market today requires some kind of methodology to enable a writer’s work meet an acceptable international standard.

Nomination of Fattening House for LNG literature prize

I wasn’t actually expecting the nomination. I didn’t enter for the prize either. It was my personal assistant who saw the advertisement in the dailies and advised that I should enter for the prize. So, I decided to enter my book. Not long after I entered the book, I travelled out of the country and never returned until September last year. When I came back home, I got a telephone call breaking the news to me that the book has been nominated alongside thirteen other works for the LNG literature prize. Eventually, the LNG organizers got in touch with me and I was later invited to Abuja for the award ceremony. When I got to Abuja, the judges told me that I tied myself up with two younger writers for the prize. They also reeled out reasons why they couldn’t award the first prize to anybody. But thirteen of us whose works were nominated for the prize received a certain amount of money as compensation. It was a great thing for me.

Particularly, what was important to me was the limelight. That my work is considered acceptable in a country as large as Nigeria,. I thought, was very gratifying. It also serves as the beginning of a greater thing to come from me. My readers can be assured that I will always do a better work than "Fattening House".

LNG literature prize and the aftermath of criticism

What was important to me was the limelight. The decision of the judges belong to them entirely. I can’t really quarrel with their decision. What I do know is that there are international standards for works of fiction. And I believe that my book, "Fattening House" met such standards as spelt out internationally.

The idea behind the literary prize is very healthy for the development of Nigerian literature. I think we have to be very careful to ensure that our judgement of various works are not influenced by extraneous matters. Both men of letters and respected individuals in the society who were assembled to look at these works ought to be able to divorce themselves from external considerations and concentrate entirely on the literary merits of the works they are adjudging. What LNG is doing is essential for the development of literature in this country. And I only hope that people who are engaged to judge these works are not only being objective, but imperatively, should try and avoid messing what LNG is doing for the literary community in Nigeria. I also hope that corruption which has eaten into everything in Nigeria does not affect the literary prize as I pointed out in "Fattening House" which denounced corrupt practices in this country.

Being the thrust of my book, the judges while passing their judgements, noted that in "Fattening House", that I painted a very bleak future for this country. Their judgement reads: " This work is a reading material only for mature and sophisticated audience. That it is rooted in a sound ethical tradition or grounded in his own firmly held moral principles for the world it depicts, lacks tentative moral centre.".I think that judgement captured the essence of the book. At the time I wrote "Fattening House", there was no Obasanjo to fight against corruption in Nigeria. So, at that time too, there was no moral centre that any Nigerian can look at and emulate from it.

As a matter of fact, I was painting the picture of the period about which I wrote the novel. I wasn’t trying to make a moral judgement for the future. Certainly I was not. But my understanding thereafter indicated that it was on the basis of the aforementioned excuse that made me not to win the prize. It was quite unfortunate. But I couldn’t have created a moral centre when non existed at the time I wrote the novel.

Like I said, I just started writing .I can’t certainly predict my future in terms of writing. My immediate concern is to see how to fight against corruption that is threatening to destroy every good things of life in this country. I want to address that first through my works before any other thing. Already, I have started working on the Benin culture. The book is a collection of essays written by a number of people including my humble self. It is titled, "Edo Cultural Voyage ". I also have another book on Benin culture called "Edo, The Living culture". The cultural concern in my works are not mixing in the book.

Having started writing when you were above 60 years, did you envisage someday that you were going to attain the height in which you are today in the literary circle?

I remember that when I was the area manager for ECN in Kaduna in 1972, I bought some exercise books and eventually marked on one of the books, ‘The Dawn" which I used in writing short stories. Then, I was so consumed by the job with ECN. As a result, I had no time to do serious writing. But since early 90s, having retired as an engineer, the first thing that occurred to me was to consider the option of writing particularly about the job in which I have been trained over the years.

That Nigeria May Survive, and the fight against corruption You may be surprise as how many Nigerians are aware of their rights and privileges when it comes to dealing with the electricity supply in the country. It seems to me that in the last fifteen to twenty years ago, that the electricity power industry in Nigeria had decided to be playing tricks on Nigerians. For instance, NEPA authorities over the years have subjected Nigerians to undue power slavery by means of charging them exorbitantly on meter maintenance as against the rules and regulations guiding power supply in this country. As a public utility, there should be a service contract between NEPA officials and power supply users. And the details of that contract remains the responsibility of the NEPA authorities to make available to their numerous customers.

The pamphlet is supposed to serve as guide to the customers concerning their rights and privileges when it comes to dealing with power supply in Nigeria. These are the kind of things I try to explore in the book, That Nigeria May Survive

I want to use the book as a medium to enlighten Nigerians on the need for them to know their rights and privileges especially in dealing with electricity supply in the country; to educate them also of the danger inherent in some of the high tension cables scattered all over the cities. The book will help Nigerians to have access to some of the information already privatize by the NEPA officials which supposedly meant to be in the public domain. It is ahead of government current effort at fighting against corruption and still, it serves as a continuation of my previous work, Fattening House which equally pricked on the evil of bribery and corruption that has become a norm rather than a plague in Nigeria.

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