Celebrating Bayelsa’s First Female Novelist

 

By Pope Pen 

Bina Nengi -Ilagha ranks as the first female novelist from Bayelsa State. Her first novel entitled, Condolences, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Prose Prize in 2001 at the Port Harcourt convention of the writers’ body. 

The book went on to contest the Nigeria Prize for Literature in the maiden 2004 edition of the nation’s biggest book event, and emerged the first amongst three finalists on the short-list. 

Bina is also the author of a collection of short stories with the title Crossroads, and a biblical parable for adolescents entitled Down Is The Way Up.

 The author is not quite done with the story of Pere Alazibo which took her so far in her first novel. She is through with work on two new novels which complete the Alazibo story into a composite trilogy. 

The first of the two outstanding books, A Path Of Stone, is out already. The other, Thunder Among The Clouds, is expected to roll off the press on her birthday in October. Looking back on her writing career, she feels gratified that her first story titled "The Big Eye Sees You," published in a church magazine, was not in vain.

Bina Nengi-Ilagha has acquired remarkable broadcast experience over the years, on radio and television. She was among the initial crop of broadcasters who migrated from Rivers State Television, RSTV, Port Harcourt, to start the Bayelsa State Television, BSTV. After three years of being idle on account of absent broadcast equipment, the station finally came on air and quickly converted to Glory Land Television, GLTV, under the erstwhile Sylva government. That was soon changed to Niger Delta Television, NDTV by the Dickson government.

In all that time, the author contributed her imaginative token to the success story of the station. Until her retirement in October 2020, Bina Nengi-Ilagha was the Director of Programmes at the Niger Delta Television. Born in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, to Beauty and Dagbo Alazigha of Okoloba in Kolokuma-Opokuma local government area of Bayelsa State, Bina was educated at the Archdeacon Crowther Memorial Girls School, ACMGS, Elelenwo, and the University of Port Harcourt.

Graduating in 1985 from the Department of English & Literary Studies, Bina Nengi-Ilagha has had a rich and fulfilling working life. After youth service at the Christian Teachers College, Shua, in Michika local governament area of the defunct Gongola State in 1986, she began as a contract staff of the NTA, Yola, where she had her first stint as a producer, presenter and script writer, learning on the job under the astute veteran broadcaster, Mahmud Umar, who was then Controller Programmes. 

Back to her home state in 1989, Bina became a graduate farmer with the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, graduate farmer’s scheme in Port Harcourt. She was also one of the youngest caretaker committee members appointed by the Military Administration in 1990, having served as Supervisory Councillor for Agriculture and Women Affairs during the tenure of Chief A.A Pondei, Chairman, Yenagoa local government council at the time.

Bina also worked as an optical dispenser under the guidance of Dr Deinma Denni-Fiberesima at the Odadiki Eye Hospital, Port Harcourt, after her brief tenure at the Council in the old Rivers State. She then proceeded to work as a trainee announcer at Radio Rivers under the guidance of Opubo Bernard Graham-Douglas, and worked there awhile before her gainful employment at the Rivers State Television, RSTV, in 1992.  

For three years following the creation of Bayelsa State, she served as the pioneer Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Women Affairs, from 1996 to 1999, before going on secondment to Radio Bayelsa where she scripted, directed and produced a drama series for secondary schools known as “Back To The Future.” 

Bina also served as Treasurer and Assistant Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, at the state level, and subsequently became Member, Governing Council of the Institute when Senibo Bobo Sofiri Brown was President. 

She equally served as pioneer Secretary of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, and later became Vice Chairman of the chapter. Her tenure as the first female Chairperson of ANA Bayelsa saw her hosting the first writers’ residency programme at Toru-Orua, a feat that was never repeated. She is also a member of the Bayelsa State Library Board.

Bina showed her mettle as a television producer when she conceived a programme called “Book Bridge Bayelsa,” an extension of the “Bring Back The Book” campaign in the days of the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, and got her husband to be the principal presenter. The platform provided a chance to hear from a good number of Bayelsa authors on television, and get them to talk about their art, their mentors, and their inspiration. 

Invariably, the programme played host to all but a few writers, and then came the edition in which the presenter himself had to be hosted in his capacity as a writer. Who would put the questions to the presenter? Bina came out of the shadows, sat face to face with her husband, and got Pope Pen to talk about his writing career. 

On Monday May 13, 2013, Bina was on her way to join a UNICEF team at the state secretariat to proceed to Kaiama for a television report for her station, when she was involved in a gruesome accident along the stretch of the Banquet Hall, Government House, Yenagoa.

The tricycle she had hired to catch up with the crew, tumbled of its own accord and dragged her along the uneven tar, even as she held onto the broken calf of her right leg, and even as her flesh scraped off in large, raw scoops, painting the road red with blood until the cycle came to a fateful stop just before the roundabout leading into Creek Haven, the seat of power.

A sympathetic witness, Abudu Orumangi, rushed to her aid, called the police for help, and took her to the casualty ward of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa. She endured three surgical operations, including skin grafting, and is alive to tell the story. She was still recuperating on hospital bed when her labour in television was recognized, and her promotion endorsed. She returned to her duty post as Director, Programmes, at the state television until her retirement.

For all of the time she writhed in pain at the hospital, Bina was never known to have shed a visible tear drop. When news reached her, however, that her husband had been remanded at Okaka Correctional Centre for contempt of court on account of his ninth book, the writer felt she had come face to face with one of her greatest tribulations. 

For all of four and half months, she fought valiantly for the release of her husband, holding brief for him in the popular press, and liaising with family members of the incarcerated writer. Bina’s brave response to the travails of her husband was lauded by anyone familiar with the challenges that have confronted Bayelsa’s first female novelist. 

Bina’s leg still requires specialist care, but that has not stopped her from writing. Her latest novel, A Path Of Stone, made the shortlist for the 2021 ANA Prose Prize. More than that, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors at the 40th anniversary celebration of the writers’ body at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja, on November 6, 2021.

Bina's hobbies include writing, travelling, interior décor, singing and teaching children. She remains married to the award-winning poet, broadcaster and career journalist, Nengi Josef Ilagha. Their union is blessed with two children, Pentecost Tonfie and Jubilee Perebo.