Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC, Mallam Mwajim Maidugu has pledged support of the agency towards the forth coming Abuja Book Festival being put together by the Association of Nigerian Authors ANA, Abuja chapter.
Mallam Maidugu stated this when ANA Abuja team led by its state Chairman, Mr. Edwin Eriata Oribabhor paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja last week.
According to the D-G, books promotion falls under the core mandate of the agency, because books are one of the important modes of documenting the culture of a people.
In his word, “We promote Nigerian culture through the visuals, literature and performing arts. Books fall under the literary mandate of the agency.”
He also acknowledged the efforts of the Association in its active involvement in inducting Nigerians into the culture of reading through its various activities.
He pledged that henceforth, books will become prominent part of the annual National Festivals for Art and Culture, NAFEST, which the agency organise annually and invited ANA Abuja to be part of NAFEST holding in Yenagoa later this year.
Earlier in his remarks, the Mr. Eriata Oribabhor said the aim of the courtesy call was to engage the agencies which work in the areas of arts, culture and literary development towards exploiting areas of common interest all in the areas of literary development in Nigeria.
He noted particularly, that a number of the agency’s staff who are members of ANA were committed and outstanding, a relationship he said the association wanted to leverage.
In ANA’s team were state Chairman, Eriata Oribabhor, Book Festival Chairman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, PRO, Izuchukwu Okeke, Project Coordinators, Uduakabong Kaniko and Ejiro Eghaha and Halima Usman.
