Lagos Commissioner Celebrates a Young Writer in Epe

Epe may be renowned for its large deposit of fish in its coastal lagoons but to the literary community, it’s a fresh breeding ground for young writers- one of whom is Chukwuebuka David Nworisa whose debut literary effort ‘Point of the Golden Spear’ was launched in Epe town recently. Yinka Olatunbosun reports

Vehicles with swooshing wipers drove past Epe Council, the venue of the book presentation. Those light showers preceeding that Saturday didn’t stop the gathering of school mates, friends and families of young writer, Chukwuebuka David Nworisa gathered. At the heart of the serene neighbourhood in Epe is where the confident young writer was born and raised. 

The child author is a product of a literary club at his school where reading and writing skills are nurtured. During the pandemic lockdown, Chukwuebuka-being an only child- made the best of his solitude in writing short stories in this new collection of 15 stories. These include ‘Ada, the truant,’ ‘The Lucky Farmer,’ ‘The Poison Woman’ amongst others.

In a review by Dr. Tayo Popoola, a lecturer at the Augustine University, Epe, who was represented by Dr. Segun Oke, he gives glowing remarks on the book which he described as ‘reader-friendly.’

“Chukwuebuka scored a very high point in the area of choice of words. He uses simple and straight forward English in putting his ideas across,’’ he said.

Although the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Folasade Adefisayo was unavoidably absent, her representative Mrs. Abiodun Mosunmola Adefuye defied the downpour of the day to witness the public presentation of the book. She commended the author, his teachers and the parents for their support.

“This current dispensation supports education and good legacies like this. We hope that other young ones can emulate this young boy to advance their academic performances. Since this commissioner came, Epe has stood out. In the 2020 WAEC result, Epe had the best result in Lagos state with 93% passing including Mathematics and English. They achieved this due to the conducive environment for learning. I will relate this new book to our academic performance in Lagos,’’ she said, adding that one of the 12 comprehensive schools in Lagos for academic and skills acquisition is situated in Epe.

In his remarks, the young writer who is a J.S.S 3 revealed the motivation behind writing these stories of varied human experience.

“I started writing at six and seven years old. I gathered the stories during the Covid-19 lockdown since there was time since all schools had been closed. My dad helped to get it published. I grew up around older ones. I didn’t expect it to get to this point where Oba of Epe would get to know about my book,’’ he said.

A brief presentation was executed by the author’s school mates Olayinka Tofunmi, Moshood Opemipo and Olayinka Tomisin as well as the duo of Olayinka Yetunde and Anjorin Anjolaoluwa. The programme was wrapped with the goodwill messages from the Commander of NDLEA in Lagos, as well as the principals of Vivid Minds Secondary School and Eucharistic Secondary School, Ibowon, Epe, Lagos.