FROM THE PRESIDENT:  A Message for 2007

Dear RANmates,

Here is wishing you all a fruitful and prosperous year 2007! It is now eight months since our 10th Biennial Conference in the Garden City, Port Harcourt. It was a great conference by all indices of measurement. While marking the end of the four lean years when the association failed to observe its two yearly ritual and even to hold one national executive meeting, it also marked the effective generational change of guards in RAN leadership. For the first time in the history of the association, no foundation member is on the National Executive Committee (NEC). The oldest RANmate in the current NEC is the president who was a member of the Local Organizing Committee for the 2nd Biennial Conference in Ibadan in 1985. This is an affirmation of the maturity and durability of the association as it prepares to celebrate its silver jubilee in 2008.

Beyond the coming of age of the second generation RANmates, the 2006 conference also witnessed an unprecedented involvement of the organized private sector and the use of the Internet to facilitate RAN activities. A RAN-Forum was set up on Yahoo Groups to facilitate interaction and information dissemination among members. All the abstract submission for the conference was done on-line for the first time. These have set the stage for making RAN a completely Internet friendly organization, by hosting an interactive RAN website. Thanks to the efforts of Prof. Emeka Onukaogu, (our award winning RAN past president and chair of the IRA’s International Development in Africa Committee), the Global Literacy Project, Inc. will be putting RAN in the league of organizations with standard websites. You most likely will be reading this message on-line. Check us out at http://nigerianliteracy.org/.

Another important novelty in the last Biennial Conference was the fact of its being anchored by the Vice President/President-elect. Although that happened by default, it is in line with the time-honoured practice of the International Reading Association as well as its affiliates and councils in the United States of America. The strength of this arrangement lies in the experience it gives to the in-coming president—an excellent hands-on practice of how to run the association—while freeing the serving president to focus on actually leading the association during his term. With the successful introduction of mid-term conferences by the present leadership, the serving president will henceforth focus on the mid-term conference while the Vice-president/President-elect will give her/his attention to the next biennial conference as a way of announcing her/his readiness to assume effective leadership of the association.

Still on the first Mid-term conference, I am very happy to announce the approval of my application for one of the first in a series of conference support grants by the IRA. It is a princely grant of $5000 to assist with aspects of conference implementation and publishing of conference proceedings. I am working closely with the South-west zonal coordinator, Dr. Nkechi Christopher, to inaugurate the LOC for the first mid-term conference by January ending in Ibadan. Hopefully, that will be followed immediately by the release of the conference announcement and call for papers. Meanwhile, keep October free for that purpose.

Other activities carried out by the new RAN leadership since its assumption of office include the following:

• participation in the Workshop for the Review of Pre-service Teacher Training Curriculum in Nigeria; June 6-7, Arewa House, Kaduna;
• three USAID/ENHANSE workshops(in Abuja and Minna) for the development of basic education advocacy materials);
• British Council organized Continuing Professional Development TOT workshop in Kaduna and roll out meetings in Lagos, Enugu, Abuja and Kano;
• UNESCO stakeholders’ Meeting in Abuja; and
• NEC meeting in Owerri on 19th-21st July, with courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of FUTO, Professor C.O.E. Onuliri;
• RAN members C.E. Onukaogu, Obiajulu Emejulu and Lulu Uwatt made a National TV presentation in commemoration of the World Literacy Day last September.

There was also a regional conference of RAN in Ebonyi State University in November 2006.

As we settle into the year 2007, I wish to call on all RANmates to get set to run the race of their lives in support of our literacy development initiatives. Watch out for our website and get ready for a RAN meeting in your state as we plan to have new state branches inaugurated.

May I seize this auspicious opportunity to, on behalf of every RANmate, RAN NEC and Board of Trustees, thank the Board of Trustees of IRA for the grant of $5000, the management of Global Literacy Project, Inc. for the development of our website and other projects on the drawing board, Prof. Emeka Onukaogu for his initiatives in favour of RAN, and to the Almighty God for his infinite mercies and grace that have brought us thus far.

Here is wishing you all once more a fulfilling year in your work and in our joint race to put Nigeria in the top bracket of literate nations of the world.

Best regards.

Obiajulu Emejulu
RAN President