The September 30th edition of the iconic Abuja Writers’ Forum’s Guest Writer Session will feature – Ozioma Izuora, Ummi Bukar and Zainab Sule – three formidable ladies in their careers spanning law, activism, music, film and creative writing.
Ozioma Izuora has a first degree in English Language (UNN, 1984) and a Masters degree in Language Education (University of Exeter, England, 1991); a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) (University of Nigeria, 1999), and a Masters of Law degree (LLM) in Constitutional and Human Rights Law (Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 2021). She is currently undertaking a doctoral degree at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
OZIOMA
Ozioma earned a Second Class Upper Division in Law, and received awards as the Best Graduating Student in Jurisprudence and International Law, as well as the Bola Ajibola Prize for Jurisprudence. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in January, 2001 and has practiced Law since then.
A trained Mediator and Arbitrator, she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK) and an award winning writer (NLNG Literature Prize nomination, 2008; ANA/ NDDC/ Ken Saro Wiwa Prize, 2009). She is widely published in all genres and will be reading from her latest work, A BEE TO POLLEN DRAWN.
Ummi Bukar who will share with the audience the five books that have had the most impact on her life in the Take Five segment, is a gender rights activist and film maker who specializes in media for development. She has been involved in the conceptualization design and implementation of several participatory development and advocacy projects.
UMMI
Ummi’s core area of expertise is media advocacy and gender mainstreaming in the media, and she strongly believes in providing a platform for direct voices especially for the underrepresented in the society hence her projects essentially target rural and urban poor communities, as well as capacity building and advocacy projects for journalists in Nigeria.
Ummi directed the award winning documentary Uprooted and has implemented several media for development projects across Nigeria. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and a masters in Development Communication, from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. She is founder and Programmes Director of PAGED Initiative [Participatory Communication for Gender Development].
The music segment of the event will feature Zainab Sule, popularly referred to as the Queen of Soft Rock. Despite her degree in mathematics from the University of Jos, her calculations are now solely about guitar chords and strums thus steadily paving her way as one of Nigeria’s major alternative independent artistes.
ZAINAB
Zainab has three albums to her credit and her music is gradually garnering a global audience with Kenya being a major source of breakthrough, enabling her to perform there and inTanzania, South Africa and the United States.
Apart from the readings and live music, there will be a raffle draw for books, air time freebies and Item Seven. The Guest Writer Session which holds on September 30th, is open to the public and runs from 4-7pm at the International Institute of Journalism, behind Shashilga Court, Gwarinpa Expressway, Jahi, Abuja.
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