WHY WRITERS ARE THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA by Arthur IWUALA
WHY WRITERS ARE THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA by Arthur IWUALA
Growing up, we were all told by our parents that to be successful, you had to be a lawyer, engineer, banker or medical doctor.
And maybe they were right. The society then had been engineered to view only such professions as the true paradigms of fulfillment. The reality at hand then made more soulful and talent-based aspirations such as the life of a writer something impractical and sure to land you in the abyss of abject poverty.
However, to quote the most recent laureate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan, the times are a-changing. The world is changing and despite the backwardness of our nation in nearly every way possible, we are catching up with the trends. And the most important revolution the world has faced in the 21st Century is digital – the internet. Every aspect of our lives is being converted into software and we all live on the internet. So many of us have alter-egos created for the digital space. We have become so comfortable with the existence of such a non-physical world that we have conformed to it with alternate identities.
Now, when we get to the internet, where do we go? Chat sites, blogs, news sites, you name it. Every single activity we involve ourselves in occurs in a space made possible by content creators which are majorly writers. You are reading this post today on the internet because someone through the art of writing did so. Believe me, writers own the future.
When the tariff on internet data charges was announced earlier this year, the internet went bezerk. The youths began protesting such policy because it trampled on their rights to the internet. In fact, such fundamental human right should be included in the constitution. They cannot possibly do without consumption of the goodies present within the internet, those which were created through a form of writing or the other, and they expressed their frustration.
In this Information Age, there is no denying the power of writers. We all go online to get information for one thing or the other. Even if your go-to site is Youtube, the captions which attract you are the works of writers. Nigeria especially is transiting into that world of the non-physical and the chosen profession to herald that change is those whose fibre of their being is writing.
Conclusively, the idea of writing as an art of the paupers is now an anachronism. It is impossible for you to hold the key to the creation of an entirely different world and be the dirge in a romantic musical. You cannot be a writer, knowing how to play your cards well, and fail to succeed in the country. Note that being a writer is not simultaneous with being a novelist. There is only so much space for all novelists to succeed. There is more to writing than penning the next “Things Fall Apart.” We writers need to know how to make the best use of our talent in this era of endless possibilities.
© ARTHUR IWUALA
Mr Proboscis
Growing up, we were all told by our parents that to be successful, you had to be a lawyer, engineer, banker or medical doctor.
And maybe they were right. The society then had been engineered to view only such professions as the true paradigms of fulfillment. The reality at hand then made more soulful and talent-based aspirations such as the life of a writer something impractical and sure to land you in the abyss of abject poverty.
However, to quote the most recent laureate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan, the times are a-changing. The world is changing and despite the backwardness of our nation in nearly every way possible, we are catching up with the trends. And the most important revolution the world has faced in the 21st Century is digital – the internet. Every aspect of our lives is being converted into software and we all live on the internet. So many of us have alter-egos created for the digital space. We have become so comfortable with the existence of such a non-physical world that we have conformed to it with alternate identities.
Now, when we get to the internet, where do we go? Chat sites, blogs, news sites, you name it. Every single activity we involve ourselves in occurs in a space made possible by content creators which are majorly writers. You are reading this post today on the internet because someone through the art of writing did so. Believe me, writers own the future.
When the tariff on internet data charges was announced earlier this year, the internet went bezerk. The youths began protesting such policy because it trampled on their rights to the internet. In fact, such fundamental human right should be included in the constitution. They cannot possibly do without consumption of the goodies present within the internet, those which were created through a form of writing or the other, and they expressed their frustration.
In this Information Age, there is no denying the power of writers. We all go online to get information for one thing or the other. Even if your go-to site is Youtube, the captions which attract you are the works of writers. Nigeria especially is transiting into that world of the non-physical and the chosen profession to herald that change is those whose fibre of their being is writing.
Conclusively, the idea of writing as an art of the paupers is now an anachronism. It is impossible for you to hold the key to the creation of an entirely different world and be the dirge in a romantic musical. You cannot be a writer, knowing how to play your cards well, and fail to succeed in the country. Note that being a writer is not simultaneous with being a novelist. There is only so much space for all novelists to succeed. There is more to writing than penning the next “Things Fall Apart.” We writers need to know how to make the best use of our talent in this era of endless possibilities.
© ARTHUR IWUALA
Mr Proboscis
No comments