Dr Sheu Usman Oladipo Akanbi, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, has been elected as the 14th President of the umbrella association for creative writers in Nigeria
and in the diaspora, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).
Dr Akanbi emerged as winner with 124 votes against 85 votes garnered by his opponent, Hajiya Farida of ANA Niger Chapter,at the 42nd Annual General Meeting and International Convention of the Association held penultimate Saturday (November 4, 2023) at the Association’s Permanent Secretariat in Abuja.
By his election, Dr. Akanbi enters into the shoes of immortal literary giants of African Literature such as the late Prof. Chinua Achebe, who formed the Association in 1981 at the Maiden Convention of the Association which he convened at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where
he was elected as its pioneer President.
Other giants whom Akanbi would be looking up to as past Presidents include Kole Omotoso, late Ken Saro-Wiwa, Odia Ofeimun, Prof. Abubakar Gimba, Prof. Femi Osofisan, and Prof. Olu Obafemi, among others.
A man of prodigious talents, Dr Akanbi, who was President of the Students Union of the University of Ilorin in the class of 1991, was also conferred with the prestigious Fellowship of the Association immediately after his election.
Apart from his academic writings as a scholar of Agricultural Economics, Dr Akanbi has numerous titles in the creative writing genre including ” L’abake Isale Eko and other stories”, “Weevils on Grains “, a poetry collection, “Suppletunes in Tightangles
another poetry collection” and “Tales across the Plains” , a work of prose. In the year 2009, Dr Usman Akanbi’s poetry collection, Verdant Verses, won ANA Poetry Prize runner up.
