The Garden City Literature festival
Okey Ndibe on the recent literature festival in PH, here. It seems like the embattled denizens of the 'garden city' were desperate for some good news and turned out in huge numbers. Good stuff. Meanwhile, corporate/govt sponsorship of meaningful creative programmes that promote the telling and re-telling of Nigerian stories remains dismally low. This means in turn, that re-imagining a future for Nigeria remains under-developed. Without a dream and a meaningful vision for Nigeria (as opposed to 'vision 2020' and all its historical precedents), its hard for any long-term strategic planning at any scale, whether in the public or private sectors, or within civil society. People will remain stuck in the neediness of the present, rather than make sacrifices in planning for the future..
As a young hyper-achieving Nigerian told me in London a few days ago, Nigeria suffers from two failures: a failure of the imagination and a failure to implement..
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4 comments:
This is the problem I have with Nigerians: It's all very well sitting around a table, drinking Guiness and eating isi-ewu and bemoaning the fate of Nigeria. A 5 year old can point out a problem..what people are interested in listening to are solutions.
What I never hear are is anyone standing up and saying this is what I can do, in my own small way, to address this problem.
Let's have solutions and stop the moaning.
Nigerians are not terribly imaginative and lack creativity
I'd rather not wallow in despair, when you are studying 120 million people, it is easy to seen the trees for the woods. The Nigerians I know everyday are imaginative in a very practical way. They are reading, thinking and living. They are not waiting for government or foreign investors to help them.
Well said anon @3:01
"Nigerians are not terribly imaginative and lack creativity"
@anon 3.01PM, I beg to differ. In fact, I think that's complete nonsense. The problems that Nigeria has are enormous and no single individual can address any of these problems on their own.
There can be no solution to nationwide problems without discourse on a broad scale. Issues that affect a whole society are not resolved by single individuals.
And for your information, Nigerians are seen by other Africans as being extremely creative, enterprising and industrious. Let us watch how we run our mouths on blogs and on Internet messageboards. By the way, its you who is moaning...
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