Barely a year ago, 200 girls were taken captive from a secondary school in Chibok, a town in Borno State, by Boko Haram fundamentalist sect. The girls, till press time, were still said to be in Sambisa Forest with the terrorists.
Having waited for government to rescue the girls, to no avail, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has decided to take 60 pupils from 35 schools in Lagos State through ‘The Road to Sambisa’; though armed with pen and paper. The literary powerhouse may be following the expression, “the pen is mightier than the sword”, coined by English author, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in 1839 for his play, Richelieu.
It is Season 4 of the Vision of The Child (VoTC), a yearly programme inaugurated in 2012 for pupils between nine and 12 years. However, one of the new sponsors of the programme, Microsoft, has promised to up the ante by involving teenagers.
Finalists of the 2015 edition emerged from a three-day intensive interview of 250 participants from 60 schools (primary and secondary) within Lagos held on January 26 to 28 at the Freedom Park, Lagos. Their entries were assessed by a panel of eminent jury comprising teachers, artists, child-carers and social workers.
They shall be invited on March 7, 2015 to the Conservation Foundation Park, Lekki, provided with a brush, paint and easel, to illustrate their literary presentation in the complementary medium of painting.
On April 3, winning entries will be mounted for viewing at the gala event to mark the conclusion of the festival.
According to the organisers, as a further incentive, this year, there will be three prizes in all – one in painting, another in literary (poem, prose, essay or fiction), while the prime prize will go to the combined product of the pupil’s dexterity: painting and literature.
Participants of the 2015 VoTC – the children/student segment of the yearly Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF) – were told to express their vision in two creative media: painting and literary arts, instead of the uni-disciplinary interpretation of the given theme.
At a press conference at Freedom Park, penultimate Thursday in Lagos, Prof. Soyinka said the 2015 theme was deliberately chosen, as “it is difficult to think of the future of this nation without thinking of the Chibok albatross.”
He added that he had 60 reasons for discouraging anyone from voting for the continuation of the present federal government. “The reason is (the 60 finalists). Anyone who thinks otherwise must be living in Sambisa Forest.”
Executive Director of Diamond Bank (one of the sponsors), Victor Ezenwoko, expressed delight with the crowd at the event.
“What happened at Chibok hurts till tomorrow; but looking at the faces of the pupils around brings hope. Nigeria will be much better, considering the skills of the kids of the present generation,” he said.
Echoing Microsoft representative at the briefing, Executive Director, Honeywell Flour Plc, Benson Evbuomwan, said: “Honeywell believes that children are leaders of tomorrow,” adding that his company has plans to support the kids’ creatively.
Since inception of the VoTC, Diamond Bank has collaborated with Lagos State Government. Microsoft Nigeria and Honeywell Noodles recently joined up as supporters of the project.
