I love to learn and break the rules of Poetry - Abdulbaki A. Ahmad
Abdulbaki Abubakar Ahmad is the winner of the maiden National Engineering, Science
& Tech. (NESTEC) Essay Competition with a prize money of N300,000. Abdulbaki is an Engineering student of the Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil. He takes Poetry seriously a much as he handles Engineering. Recently, he was in Lagos to receive his NESTEC award and he braved the chaotic Lagos traffic from Ikeja to
Victoria Island to meet with his inspiring Mentor, Mr. Eriata Oribhabor, the President of Poets In Nigeria (PIN). In this conversation with Mr. Oribhabor, we read of his love for power and poetry! Sounds mutually exclusive? Well, not with Abdulbaki, the chap who loves science and arts in equal measure. Read on.
Thank you. This is
actually the maiden edition of the prize and I am happy that my university left
a legacy as the first, ever winning institution of the prize. The competition
was organized by BlueApple, owners
of the professional engineering website Engineers Forum.
NESTEC is a private initiative and a product coming into existence out of
frustration and the commonplace failures in the engineering profession that
need to be addressed for technological development of Nigeria. Their first
approach is raising 5,000 young engineers in 5 years with a clear understanding
of the processes of developmental engineering entrepreneurship through innovative
ideas. Fortunately I am among the first to be in this initiative along with the
remaining 12 finalists of this maiden edition.
Was there a general theme? If yes,
what's was it?
The theme
is somehow broad here, I think. Invitation for paper cuts across
electrical/electronic, mechanical and civil engineering and their
subspecialties. Authors were given an autonomy to choose topics that are
original and relevant to the needs of the Nigerian society.
What's the title of the essay that
won you the prize?
‘Smart
Grid: The Viable Route to Trouncing Nigeria's Recurring System Collapses’.
The title of the winning essay is
quite inviting. What key points are there for the authorities to look out for?
Smart grid
and system collapses. Smart Grid, in my own stand, is the best and last resort
for the government to change Nigeria's fate. Electricity is the basic sine qua
non for revamping and refashioning the economy of this country. Looking at the
low per capita index of electricity consumption in Nigeria, one would out
rightly guess the level of penury and economic difficulties faced by the
country's populace. Nigeria's history of electricity is pathetic and
hair-raising. As an engineer, I believe that an academic paper must be
realistic and that's what I considered in my paper. The first issue to be
addressed in Nigeria is improving the electricity value chain. As you provide
affordable power supply to the hoi polloi, I believe you are puffing soul into
every other sector as all sectors depend on reliable and sustainable power
supply. Generation cannot be increased without having a robust grid that can
wheel the generated power from the generation points to the points of
consumption. The national grid is still not capable of wheeling the totality of
Nigeria's present theoretical generation capacity, then how do we think the
power that will be generated can be utilized? Therefore the first step out of
this dire mire is expanding the grid and revamping it with sensing and
monitoring devices that can take care of the increasing complexities associated
with increasing generation due to demand.
Is this your first time in Lagos? Who
sponsored your trip?
This is my
first time in Lagos and my trip was completely sponsored by the authorities of
my university through the directive of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Shehu Alhaji
Musa.
Could give an insight into how you
might likely be celebrated at your school?
(Smiles) I've already been celebrated in
my school as per my view. The Vice Chancellor publicly declaring his fatherly
appreciation about the achievement is a celebration that outweighs every other thing
on my mind—even winning the prize. Seeing appreciation on the faces of my
beloved lecturers and the smiles escaping the lips of my fellow students made
me feel swinging aloft cloud nine. There is a possibility of the university organizing
a special ceremony to further instill writing habit into the younger ones by
celebrating what we have achieved together.
Do you think the government of Kano
state would be keen in this?
Sure it
will. Not only Kano state government, but any other state that wants to see its
populace wallow in happiness and delight will adopt proper strategies that will
ensure the reliability of electric power supply. However, as the Transmission
Company of Nigeria (TCN) is owned by the Federal Government (FG), the ways out
recommended in the paper can better be executed by the FG.
Apart from prose, which other genre
of literature do you write?
Poetry. I
am an avid gourmand of poetry. I like poetry beyond any other genre of
literature. Poets from the Arab and Western world, African poets and even South
Asian poets have influenced my style and as Maryam Gatawa would say; my poems
are somehow too inundated with imageries; the rascality, as Umar Sidi would
also say, is also there. What I like most in literature is knowing a rule and
breaking that same rule and poetry is my only haven for doing that. I am a poet
who likes tormenting words, searching for the silent spaces between their gasps
and spitting their innards with suicidal prayers. I like forging imageries out
of the innocence of slitted words, breaking them into shards of emotions, then
sewing their mouths with my poetic license, depriving them their inherited
meanings. I like catching blue phrases escaping the grasp of my tongue, sifting
them into lean footnotes that can only be realized by a careful eye. I enjoy
waking up my brain gagged with metaphors of every colour, stretching my lips
into a question mark that I have to skin before I can brush my mouth.
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Abdulbaki and Sir Eriata Oribhabor |
What informed your decision to meet
with Sir Eriata Oribhabor?
Sacrifice.
His rare sense of sacrifice. He is a person whose sense of sacrifice is beyond
the grasp of a common brain. One's IQ has to be extraordinary to understand the
depth of this venerable man’s sacrifice. I once read his interview with The Sun
in which I learnt that sometimes he had to starve his family for the love of
poetry. What then do you expect from a human being? It is only his soul that
remains now and he might also give it out shall it be necessary (laughs).
What would you want to do in
promoting poetry in your institution?
Everything
in my grasp. I will go extra miles to see poetry coruscating in my school, I
being a follower of Eriata School of Sacrifice (smiles).
I am a certified policymaker by British Council, this I will use to plan
strategies that will help me carve out a path to the realization of PIN's
mission on my campus. I am talking with a spirit of déjà vu as I could
visualize PIN first reading session in KUST Wudil right now in my eyes.
What would be your parting comment
for Nigerian youth especially students of your school?
Read. Read
everything, not specifically your field of study. Being an engineer or a
scientist is not saying you won't be good in the lore of verses. Break the
manacles and shake the shackles to find solace in the texture of fresh books.
Delve your nose into the smell of new minted pages and the smell of memories
hidden in the fragility of old books. There is a new world in books, new and
different from this we live in. To me, beatitude lies in the flipping sound of
pages. It is like a garlic-powdered chicken waiting to be devoured by teeth of
inquisitiveness, breaking the soft bones of yummy words into the marrow of
one's brain. So read, don't limit yourself, at least you will gain calcium of
wisdom in the marrow of those fleshy lines well fed with inspirations of
different muses and views.
Very apt.
ReplyDeleteA promising young poet winner
Abdulbaqi. A promising mind with extreme passion in literature from day1. Congratulations colleague.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing gay, mashallah, wish you success.I like you.
ReplyDeleteMy bro 6ingel fulbe you are always making us proud of having you.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations engr Abdulbaki
ReplyDeleteBoss:
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job. Keep inspiring young Nigerians. In your genome lies the power to bridge the huge gap between science/engineering and art in Nigeria. Keep soaring, and even louder.
~Harystyles~
Cong
ReplyDeleteCongrats Abdulbaqi once again
ReplyDeleteCongratulation abdul wish you more success ahead
ReplyDeleteImpressive indeed, May Allah guide you through everything you put forward to, Ameen
ReplyDelete