The Awakened World of Nigerian Writers
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NIGERIAN WRITERS II
Dear Fellow Writers,
The first letter we wrote to the Nigerian Writer, which was titled The Little World of Nigerian Writers caused a little flutter in some quarters. Judging by the responses that came through in the mail. It is not our intention to ruffle egocentric feathers but we intend, all the same, to wake up Nigerian Writers to the reality of the moment.
It is an acknowledged fact that mankind is in a precarious state globally, nationally and privately. Our world is going through great turmoil of enormous political, economic, social and spiritual upheavals. It is my contention that writers are the only group of Homo sapiens who are divinely gifted to perceive and understand the decadent spiritual state of our world.
Writers, by their callings, are a special breed of people. From time immemorial writers have played the roles of spiritual guides to the world. They are the only group of people that, as a result of their regular introspective engagements, commune with the spiritual world. By their intellectual activities on a daily basis, writers are more alert than any other group of professionals to sense the winds of both physical and spiritual changes occurring in their environment.
It is this awareness that compelled this rookie of a writer to use the big stick in language and intention to attract the attention of Nigerian Writers in the first letter. Now that this little fly has attracted your attention, it is necessary to wrap up the discourse.
The purpose of these two letters is to draw out the attention of writers away from their hitherto accustomed complacency and the easy-going lifestyles that indulge in playing rhetorical games with words. It is also to point the writers’ attention to a new career path of onerous and momentous engagements. A new path that is geared towards a determined operation to rescue Nigerians from the present comatose and dying states.
Overcoming Ethnocentrism
This writer is aware, without being told in many words, that fellow Writers are wondering who is this loud-mouthed one? What gives him the audacity to talk to other writers in this fashion?
Yes, you are quite right to wonder. It is a known fact that Nigerians are a people crazy for titles, for big name pedigree, for glamorous track records, even when they are fudged merits and of phoney pretensions. The alarm bell must have gone out, asking, who is he? Where does he come from? Does anyone know him? Is he one of us? Is he Birom, Edo, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Kataf, Tiv, Yoruba, etc.?
These are the kind of mundane questions that would be expected from Nigerians in line with our archaic insular culture of ‘Nigerianess’. We are a people that has been brainwashed with all kinds of cultural prejudices that taught us to listen to only those of our own.
We’ve been taught that the words of the ‘outsiders’ are never worthy of our consideration but disdain and instant condemnation, even before any word is spoken. We are able by instinct and acculturation to tell what the strangers are on about even before they open their mouths. This is the way we’ve been raised. But these myopic cultures are our greatest weaknesses. We must understand this shortcomings. And every enlightened Writer in Nigeria ought to wage a personal battle against it.
This writer is a common Nigerian, one that developed late. He is an age-long honorary member of the Silent Majority Party of Nigeria. He is just one of the early birds among the silent majority to have woken up from his deep careless slumber. Other Nigerians of my party, the Silent Majority Party, shall also be arisen shortly in large numbers to demand for a right to be heard and to be listened to. They shall be telling the chattering class, who have hitherto been playing the game of rhetoric to impress each other and to bamboozle fellow Nigerians, to stop the foolishness. That the lives of fellow Nigerians are precious and must no longer be toyed with. And that Enough is Enough of silliness.
The awakened members of the Silent Majority shall take Nigeria by storm with knowledge, truth and love. Before that time comes, this writer shall continue to sing a unique kind of song of liberty, of redemption, of hope, and of love. He will be urging every one that cares to listen to bury the hatchet of hate, anger and fear; to embrace the spirit of forgiveness after repentance; and to give room to the spirits of love and truth to reign based on the knowledge and understanding of the meaning of life. Furthermore, he will also be warning, solemnly and humbly, that without allowing these divine spirits to envelope and to refashion the hearts of Nigerians, the nations of Nigeria shall finally tilt into avoidable dangerous waters.
Fire On The Mountains Of Nigeria
The omens of dangerous calamities are already in place all over the country, if we care to use our eyes to see. This is why there is urgency to wake up and to touch writers who have the skill of communication to spread the words around. To send an alert to every Nigerian that there is fire on the mountain of Nigeria. To call and cause every hand to be placed on the deck as we put out the fire. And to urge those that wish to run away to wait or those that have run away to come back and join hands with other Nigerians to put out the fire.
Writers need to pass on this urgent message that the fire on the Nigeria’s Mountains can only be put out under a cooperative team spirit, under a united front, and under a concerted effort that shall not veer to the left or to the right of truth. But shall be focused and unrelenting on the pursuit of truth and justice at all times. And to agree that until the fire on the Nigeria’s Mountain is totally extinguished, we, the Awakened Writers shall remain steadfast on the noble path of establishing an inclusive culture of freedom, equality and justice for all.
Intellectual And Spiritual Malady
The Nigerian Writers must realise that the issues facing Nigerians are serious and deadly if not cauterised. There is an endemic sickness of intellectual and spiritual malady in the country. As a result, a complete darkness like a full eclipse has overshadowed the nations and peoples of Nigeria.
Writers are not exempted. They are also groping in the darkness just like every other Nigerian who are constrained by intellectual and spiritual maladies. This is why writers can no longer differentiate substance from pettiness, edification from slander, building from destruction, peace from war, cohesion from disarray, love from hate, unadulterated truth from contaminated truth, and sacredness from profanity.
Everyone that has the skill to string together words and sentences automatically becomes qualified to comment and to pontificate on local or national political, social and economic issues. These comments are offered before the commenter has won the battle over immoral self; before the commenter has overcome the human foibles that afflict all mortals; before the commenter has gained mental emancipation that would have set the soul free from the shackles of ignorance; before the commenter has awakened the soul from its age long slumber; and before the commenter has been truly redeemed and reborn in knowledge and spirit.
Since these serious battles of noble life have not been fought and won, the writer’s comments and erudite scholarships are powerless to effect the positive changes expected from those that read them. The essays remain just banal words without power to revolutionise the evildoer unto repentance, without potent balm to heal the sickly souls, and without compassion to comfort the injured and the forsaken.
Healing Powers In True Words
Nigerian Writers need to understand the power of words when they issued forth from the hearts of those that believe with passion and conviction in what they are putting out. Words are known to have power to move mountains literarily, to shake and soften the most hardened heart, to give eternal life to the living dead, to set into motion the process of rebirth of souls and to liberate all those under the yoke of all kinds of slavery.
As a matter of fact and experience, the liberation of mankind has always started from within the soul. When Nigerian Writers begin to write sanctified words from the heart, these words shall have power to heal Nigerians from our spiritual blindness, deafness and dumbness.
Words are the spiritual medicines designed to set into motion the healing process of all humanity from within. Every type of healing starts from within, because the true healer of the body as well as the mind is within each creation. All that medical doctors do and can do is to help the sick person to kick-start the healing engine within the soul. As soon as this supernatural engine within is given the opportunity to take over the healing duties, the intervention of the medical doctor is over.
Also from personal experience, this writer believes that writers do not have to see or know their audiences personally or physically before they can touch them spiritually. There are some ancient writers, who are still touching intimately the souls of millions of all those that care to read their words today. This is why most uplifting and edifying books are called the Living Words. The love, affection and wisdom that these books dispensed thousand of years ago are still as effective as when they were first put down in writing.
These are the examples of living words and this is the path that will be recommended to Nigerian Writers as worthy of emulation. We have no alternative choice at this eleventh hour than to adopt this edifying strategy when we fully understand the high stake ahead of us. The liberation of Nigerians from all inconceivable slavery is a serious task that should no longer be handled with levity and carelessness or with deceit and hypocrisy, as it is being done at the moment.
The Awakened Writers
All Nigerian Writers who have seen the light of the truth of existence, know that the suffering of one Nigerian is the suffering of all regardless of tribe, religion, or sex. This is the first sign that a writer who has seen the light of truth will intuitively grasp and deeply understand. It is called a revelation. This is when an insight of mystical truth strikes a person out of the blue.
An enlightened writer cannot be a defender of narrow interest, cannot be a bigot to some narrow religious beliefs, and cannot be prejudiced to some narrow cultural interests.
An enlightened writer is a universal person. Every suffering creature attracts his/her interest, love, passion and compassion. The total motivation of an enlightened writer is to serve the benefit of many and not of the few; to defend the truth at all cost; and willing to freely lay down his/her life for the freedom of others — if it is necessary.
However, writers who wish to defend ethnic or religious or gender interests should always remember that a writer’s interest should be broader than sectarian or sectional issues. And that it is in the context of the larger picture of universal ideals on common human issues that the minority interest can have profound meaning.
When the concern of a writer is premised on the defence of naked truth that is based on the natural laws and on the philosophical, intellectual and a common sense understanding of the principles of equality, liberty, and justice, it becomes naturally effortless to separate the chaff from the wheat on every social issue. These universal edifying ideals – equality, liberty and justice – can never be seen or taken as relative concepts anymore. Unless and only if such unconscionable writer is a two-faced character on some dubious commission and contracted to sow the seeds of ruin and sorrow amongst people.
The truth of these principles shall remain absolute to an awakened writer regardless of where on planet earth he/she is writing from. Until a writer is redeemed or reborn by the spirit of truth, there will always be a tendency to fall prey to a jaundiced and myopic campaign for the adoption of supremacist or relative principles on justice, on liberty and on equality amongst the people of the world.
Therefore, when writers have been healed from spiritual deformities, whatever Nigerians call liberty, justice, and equality in the North or South or West or East of the country shall hold true and shall have the same meaning at all times and in all the regions.
I think, it is because of an understanding of the fundamental beneficial promises of these ideals and principles to peace, unity and progress that inspires every well-meaning Nigerian to trenchantly call, without ceasing, for the establishment of appropriate forum for amicable dialogue in the country. The need for dialogue is to set out the national standards for these ethical principles and moral values below which a Nigerian must not be allowed to fall. And to set down the benchmarks for constant evaluation and monitoring of the quality of life and well being of Nigerians.
The Upside-Down World
It should be mentioned that it is only when writers are dancing around the periphery of the truth of liberty, justice and equality that the defence of the present civilization of our world becomes admissible. It is only when writers have failed to dig deeper in the realm of knowledge that the present economic global system can become tolerable.
It is only when writers are still under spiritual and intellectual darkness that a favourable relativity argument can be adduced for the disturbing poverty that pervades the entire continent of Africa. And it is only when Nigerian writers have not yet been touched by the truth of the meaning of life that they can continue to make favourable cases for the economic integration of Nigeria into the odious and heinous global economic order.
It is on the basis of the awareness of our upside-down world that this writer is calling on all Nigerian Writers to make additional endeavours to raise their collective imagination and those of other Nigerians to a higher and broader challenges and expectations.
We must help the people through edifying words rooted in truth and knowledge to start to believe in their own potential innate abilities as they gather their faculties together to redress the overwhelming calamities, which are destroying our lives.
We must educate the people of Nigeria on the need to withdraw the trust and faith they have religiously placed on the feckless groups that answer to the title of leaders in Nigeria. These are the true challenges facing Nigerian Writers.
These challenges, if they are properly handled and pursued with passion and genuine love, are capable of transforming the age-long submissive doormat Nigerians that every ruler has kicked about and taken for granted, into a formidable, vibrant and articulate personality. This new creature shall be battle ready to stand up in the defence of his/her beliefs and interests without any covert external prodding.
This is the path that can lead to the design, construction and beautification of the new nations and peoples of Nigeria. It will be of a New Nigeria and of new nations without rulers or subjects but of partners of people with common equal stakes that have voluntarily decided to work together for the common good and have agreed to share equally as well the fruits of their common labours.
Lies, Deception And Pretences
Dear Fellow Writers, let us call a stop to the non-edifying polemics and to the academic game of words. Let the real battles for the soul of Nigeria and Nigerians begin in earnest.
This is my testimony. That this writer was once as equally blind as a bat, chasing the shadows and the noises but now that his cataract and deafness have been healed he is now able to see clearly and to hear properly. As a once upon ago blind fellow to others yet to receive their healing, I am aware that when a person stayed too long in darkness he/she runs the risk of total blindness when suddenly exposed to powerful rays of bright light. This natural fact of life might account for the inability of Nigerian writers, particularly those in the Diaspora, to see the great challenges brewing in the fatherland.
It might also account for why some of the Writers In The Diaspora are still trapped with the mentality of the past and are unable to shake off the biases of the past. The glare of the fiction of the western world might have been too strong for their frail eyes and they might have inadvertently lost their sights completely. The over-exposure to the fictions and the glitters of America and Europe might have done serious damages to the senses of some Nigerian Writers. It was on the need to draw attention to this unforeseen deformities that dictated the writing of these two letters.
Learning From One’s Essays
Dear Writers, let the words of your essays speak to you. When a writer’s essays ceased to talk to a writer that writer should understand that the engine of his/her life has stopped to function. A writer’s intellectual output is a form of ablution, a spiritual cleansing ointment for the soul. It is also a mirror for looking inwards to ascertain the state of the spiritual well being of the writer. This is why an old adage says ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’.
In order to understand the kind of materials present in the heart of a writer, you need go no further than the essays of the writer. If the heart of the writer is full of hate or anger or fear or love, the intellectual output of the writer will confirm this unmistakably.
Dear Writer, if you are not sure of the state of your soul, go back to the past essays you wrote and read them afresh. You will be able to deduce instantly the nature of the spirit/forces communing with you. It will reveal where the passion and the motive that drives you to spit venom, hell and brimstone, at every opportunity you have to express your mind in writing, is coming from.
And if the words of this writer give you pain and indigestion, it is a good sign that there is still some life in your soul. It is like when iodine is poured on an open wound, the unbearable pain that follows is accepted as a good sign that the wounded part of the body still has living nerves running through it. If there is no pain, a medical doctor will recommend amputation to safe the rest of the body from poisonous infections. It is in this sense that the pain of a bruised ego you felt, because you are supposedly insulted by this Mr Nobody, should be taken as a healing balm. It will eventually help you in setting into motion the healing process of your soul.
Certainly, we all need healing from our intellectual and spiritual maladies. And until we can recognise our spiritual sicknesses and our intellectual weaknesses, the New Nigeria of our dream shall forever remain a superfluous dream or a mere illusion, a scientific and sociological fiction, and an economic aberration. Hence, it will remain as an unreachable political mirage.
The Great Expectations
Dear Writers, this is not an issue about going to paradise in heaven or about escaping from fire and brimstone in hell. This writer is firing a millennium challenge at every writer. He is summoning you to see the urgent need for the building of our own paradise and our own heaven here on earth — on our own ancestral soil and on the continent of Africa Herenow. This is the vision of a new reality, which is being offered to fellow writers for your consideration.
This vision will call for a change of approach in our mode of thinking and in the way we see the world. It will challenge us to raise our goals and our horizons higher towards more noble ideals that can, in its wake, bring a true paradise to all our compatriots.
This writer writes in pain and in ache because of the knowledge of all the lost opportunities we have carelessly thrown away as a people. However, what keeps the spirit high and positive is the hope, the vision and an intuitive assurance that there is a brilliant and a fruitful future ahead of us.
This writer desires to ignite other Nigerians with the fire of a similar hope and confidence. To have the compelling belief in ourselves, so strong and so powerful enough, to cleanse and pack away from our souls, all the thorns and thistles of anger, hate and fear. And he desires a divine wish from The Creator of Life to rewrite new programmes, based on the values of universal truth of divine love, on the software of our souls. To give us a gift of divine love that shall be strong enough to free up our creative energies for the great sacrifice and work ahead; and inspiring enough to spur us on tirelessly until we achieve our true potentials as a people who are spiritually endowed and materially blessed on planet earth.
May the spirit of truth bring us into the awakened state of the truly enlightened writers. May our spiritual blindness, deafness, dumbness and paralysis be truly cured.
May the spirit of truth give us powerful wings of inspiration to fly higher above the present social and mental trivialities that are holding down our lives from looking higher to behold the glory of the New Nigeria ahead of us.
May every Nigerian Writer be blessed with the supernatural conviction and a superhuman belief that A New Nigeria, worth fighting and dying for, is still possible and achievable in our lifetime.
Yours truly,
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
A Concerned Nigerian
20 March 2002
(Updated: 5th May, 2026)
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