A novel ‘The Paths That Take Us’, written by a young aerospace engineer, Aliyu Baba-Ari, was presented to the public in a colourful ceremony at the weekend.
The event, which held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Saturday, September 25, had many dignitaries from across Nigeria, including top functionaries from Borno and Yobe states, as well as colleagues family and friends.
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Speaking at the event, Baba-Ari, a 2020 Runner-up for Quramo Writers’ Prize, said, “You ask so many writers why they write and they tell you and they give you answers like ‘I write to send a message’, or ‘I write out of my love for literature’ or ‘I write as a passion or something’.
“Then you ask me, may be deep down in my subconscious I have one of these reasons for writing. But, personally, what got me into writing was anger and malice, and I will tell you why.
“It all started about seven years ago, shortly after we graduated from secondary school. My friend, for legal reasons I will call him Vangol. My friend Vangol wrote his book and, just like anyone of you, I attended his book launch.
“I grabbed a copy of his book and went home, and the first person I saw at home was my wonderful, caring, compassionate loving mother… and my not so caring sister Feena.
“So I showed them a copy of the book and I said look at this book, my friend wrote this book and my mother was so impressed because the book was bigger than a dictionary.
“And my sister Feena is always trying to get me in trouble with my mother. So read the cover of the book and said hmmm Vangol, ‘how comes I never heard of this name before in this house?’
“I said no he is my friend, we went to school together, in fact, we were roommates in the hostel and in class his seat was adjacent to the seat behind my seat. I was just trying to make connections to show that we were friends.
“And then my mother asked, she said: So, this guy is you friend, I said yes. She said you went to the same school? I said yes; you had the same teachers, I said yes.
“And talking about Nigerian parents, you know the question that was coming next. You know the one like the number of heads someone has.
“So my sister Feena asked, this guy Vangol does he have two heads? How comes he is writing this book and you are not. Why can’t you do something like this?
“So the for the next about 15 minutes, they kept grilling me, asking me questions, why can’t you do something like this? So I picked up the book after they had finished with their overenthusiastic, positive reinforcement and I went to my room to try and read the book
“I opened the pages and all I could hear in my head were ‘why can’t you do something like this’. So I slammed the book shut and I opened my laptop and I started writing my first book. I called it something like this. Well the book, as you can imagine, was complete rubbish…”
A North-easterner telling the story of the insurgency
The author said: “Being someone from the North-east, I wanted someone from the North-east to tell the story of the insurgency. Even though it is fictional, events similar to the ones in the book have occurred in the past or are occurring in the present.
“More awareness needs to be created on the insurgency because the people experiencing it are more than just the number of victims you read about in the media. And I am not just talking about the civilians; the plights of the brave troops trying to put a stop to this insurgency needs more appreciation from the public. The book sheds some lights on their situations.”
Dateline Nigeria reports that “The Paths That Take Us” is a 315-page novel.
