Women Authors From Nigeria

"The information support of IFEX has really helped press freedom NGOs around the world to lift advocacy work to new heights so that there was pressure everywhere Abacha’s government reared its head...Without the work of groups like CCPJ, the tyrannical grip on Nigeria would have been tighter. The widespread negative publicity and the groundswell of consciousness it raised neutralized the millions of dollars they spent laundering the image of a sick regime."

"The Nigerian press, the human rights groups and the few vocal individuals and politicians have been alone in the war on the home-front and they have been clobbered by the massive force of repression. While they remain willing to fight on, they need the power of the people behind them for the battle they fight is for the true emancipation of the people. A man who cannot speak out, cannot express his opinion in his own land is not free. Freedom, total freedom should be the goal of every Nigerian now."

"Boko Haram is a curse to humanity and all Nigerians at all levels should reject it in its entirety, knowing fully well that it is an issue that does not affect only the Chibok girls but affects the entire Nigerians."

"I infuse influencing into my lifestyle, I make sure I take every brand like it’s my first and I try to create content that flows naturally and can be related to my followers in the best way possible"

"Knowing that I can achieve more is what inspires me"

"Senator Anyanwu has no moral justification to run down Governor Rochas Okorocha, whose achievements in less than eight years have surpassed the achievements of all those who had governed the State before him put together”."

"There is not enough variety to cater to the sheer range, kaleidoscope & palette of human experience and feeling. No sense of what music is in appropriate for certain settings."

"People are always looking for labels, boxes, compartments, a so-called easier way of dissecting what you write and I think in that process, they miss out on the real wealth of engaging your imagination. Having said that, I am a woman who is writing from my varied experiences (as a citizen of the world, Nigerian, daughter, sister, mother, wife, and mentor) and those of other women in my society. I see myself as a voice for woman, child and man. I advocate for woman rights and human rights. I am not inferior to anyone and I never hesitate to take my place. How does that describe me?"

"I do not see how it is possible to live in Nigeria or be Nigerian and write art for art’s sake. I think a poet should be the voice of her society. It has been so from ancient times. Contemporary Nigerian poetry still reflects the pulse of the society, the disappointment with our poor leadership and a voice for the common man. There is a lot more innovation now, the use of multimedia, fusing music and drama, a marriage of the arts. Admirable efforts to actually make a living from writing."

"I am a woman of faith and l find the Bible inspirational for living and writing."

"We are not short of talents in this country. We are not short of art practitioners who give a lot of thought to what they do."

"We have to realize that the time one is giving to writing reviews is time that could be devoted to personal work."

"There’s a kind of generosity about pushing the works of other people, even when there is no reward."

"It’s a relatively new platform offered by technology for us to continue to express ourselves; for us to continue to reach out to others and to facilitate conversation. And so, we have to embrace it. It’s the way the world is going. We have to embrace it."

"When it’s your goal to bring more people into the life that the art can spring, what do you do? You have to find other ways of giving expression to that side of yourself."

"I was working with the poems as visual imagery, how it impacts the reader on paper and how it can be read in different directions with various layers of meaning, reflecting the many-sidedness, the enigma that an individual is. I think, often times, the poem decides how it wants to take life. Sometimes, you try to develop it in a certain direction and you see that’s not working, so you just let it be."

"Poetry is always my best friend, a ready platform, when l need to testify for myself and society."

"I am a poet. Poets take the beauty from ashes."

"Sometimes its blood and tears; at other times, it falls easy like rain. I have note books, filled with the scraps of words. I try to catch the moments… a flock of birds on the wings of twilight, the moon majestic on a tableau of darkness. I am a scribbler. I go back to weave the various scraps into the cloth that becomes a poem."

"I started out writing poetry and it’s the bedrock on which my work rests. So yes, my primary identity will always be hinged on that. For prose, you need to do more research. Obviously, it’s not as spontaneous as poetry can be, at least for me. You need to do character development, get their voices right, immerse yourself in the context of the story, invoke the atmosphere and engage the reader to stay with you. A writer needs to be well read. Alertness and an eye for detail are essential in your toolkit."

"Song of a first born daughter to the beats of gangan. I am the first fruit of your loins. Seasoned with grace. Seasoned with salt. I stride to drumbeats. Flywhisks attend my hands. Like anklets of brass, joy encircles. I am the consolation, born for the day of affliction. I am the vigour, the virgin seed, roosting under coverlets of aso-oke. Down the winding road, I nurture the handkerchiefs for champions who cry... Behold the daughter, your blessed harvest. Your basket of plump yams. Your scented one."

"When I started my entrepreneurship business, many people told me that it wouldn’t work."

"People in your family can betray you."

"People misunderstand my designs because they don’t understand the strength it takes."

"It will show how the creative arts stimulates and support peace building and non-violence particularly in Africa. The impact that violence prevention goals of community-based art program has are enormous, the production of art supports and expand non-violent conflict resolution skills. It the artworks that educates and advocates for peace and non-violence plays a critical role in learning the concepts of non-violence and peace building in Africa."

"Mahatma Gandhi is the father of the nation who preached and practiced peace. Living for others and selfless giving is taught by Swami Vivekananda. They are icons of the world and there is so much that one can learn from their way of life. Peace is achieved from within ourselves. Caring for others is what makes a society with human beings."

"Words are dangerous than a nuclear weapons which affects mankind and can cause a destruction. There is great printed inspiration in our world that is available a click away but people should realise that poetry and literature cannot change the world. They are high source of inspiration to bring peace in a nation. Suppressing people or communities will only lead to revolt and gives rise to anti-social elements."

"Reading clubs in school were important because it encourages critical thinking and increases the ability of understanding and advised students to have deeper engagement with stories in their communities and beyond."

"Restorative Practices are about focusing on capacities rather than deficits. It is about holding circles and talking to generate solutions and build valuable abilities in students."

"Social emotional skills are very important skills, they need to be developed and showed."

"There is a strong connection between hands-on, participative creative arts and the creation of non-violence as a key element of peace building. The nature and meaning of peace and non-violence is synonymous to that powerful aspect of creative arts that build peace and promote non-violence. The arts’ has capacity to help develop skills for peaceful problem-solving through the comprehension of fundamental principles in conflict resolution, and violence prevention."

"The truth is that restorative practice is a proven approach to discipline in schools that favours relationships over retribution, and has been shown to improve behaviour and enhance teaching and learning outcomes."

"Children orientation, mind shifting programme, These projects have greatly impacted on the lives of many children and youths in the society."

"India is a country where great influencing personalities of the world have born and are remembered for their teachings."

"Taming our speech, mind and heart would contribute in achieving peace in the society, thus promoting it at a global level"

"Women should take advantage of technology to secure good health, improve their finances, and foster personal development."

"Research has shown that where women’s inclusion is prioritized, peace is more probable, especially when women are in a position to influence decision making."

"Artists work in war zones, refugee camps and conflict ridden communities using their creativity to stimulate and deepen knowledge in violence prevention and ultimately support peace building through building resiliency, conflict resolution and reconciliation from the community level. This chapter will explore the traditional art concepts and creativity in the past and the current understandings of peace as seen in our literature, poetry, mime, drama, dance, songs, paintings, sculptures, graffiti’s, stories, adages and from social psychology that has been great ways of building peace, non-violence and positive social development."

"There are so many dissimilarities, so many unique points of difference between this one country in Africa and the rest of the world."

"Parents have a lot of professing power over their children. Praise and admonishments are crafting tools like names."

"When CNN does not reciprocate with simple engagement with our hills and valleys, our romantic ideals, often only with our traumas. And everyone in the world has trauma. If you know where Naples is or Mount Vesuvius, then you are clever."

"The more handling of a wide variety of food that one can manage the more open one’s mind and palate."

"Investing one’s own disadvantage in words: Opening an artery onto the page, that kind of thing, apart from a love for the theme being written on."

"There are many things that happen in the human being that bypass the brain."

"The truth is you have to get on top of the reading as soon as possible and you have to keep in mind that this is the sum of people’s YEARS of hard labour, sweat and pain that you hold in your hands. Without being able to meet all the people who make that thing in your hand possible, you have to conjure up their presence, interact with every single book with great reverence."

"There is a need to speak on something and I don’t agree with the status quo. The self-deprecation probably comes from not fitting in no matter how hard I try."

"What better way to spend one’s time in the country of fringe dwellers than capitalising on one’s failures? Why wallow in failure? If you can’t beat them, or join them, then you write about them. Yes, it does end up as a kind of power and advantageous positioning in standing out from the crowd because most people don’t want fringe-dweller strength"

"There is nothing any of us can do about the fact that the world is shrinking so we need to learn how to speak more languages, not fewer."

"I come from a society where the default is conformity. I don’t know how to conform and I find myself putting question marks against everything"

"We don’t have a Nigerian culture of cooking and monologuing. It is coming along now with social media and Nigerian food celebrities."