UNotes 9 : DANIEL SHAGABO

DANIEL SHAGABO

Soft spoken, confident wordsmith. A legend of the press. He slinks in the shadows not because he is not knowledgeable but because he is naturally calm. Silent in the sense that he does not “show himself” but when it comes to words, he speaks in straight and balanced terms.

Nice looking and very contemporary in many ramifications. He has led successfully a team of pressmen that have delved into a lot of creative writing. I didn’t know him so closely back then in school and that was probably because I wasn’t so in tune with the men of the press in the fellowship. I saw them as being unserious and unspiritual. Now I understand better. Growing up with a bias might not be wrong but living with it in the face of correct knowledge is definitely the wrong lane.

I came to respect the press when I started writing and I saw that thinking wasn’t a fun thing to do. He is a good writer. I do not know if he was born thus or he learnt it along the way. I got to meet him based on recommendations. Needless to say, he was more than I was told.

He didn’t look like a force to reckon with but he is a formidable and invincible pillar of creative writing. If my memory serves me right, he has appeared in a nationwide competition or something similar and came clean with his story making the crop of the select few. Indeed he has a solid story to tell. He is a story teller and not a boring one.

I took SINCERE TESTAMENT to him when I needed editors and amongst all the seven editors, he was chief (and not by asking). He tore the words apart and analyzed why some words shouldn’t make sentences. I was terrified that I was a bad writer because he was such a good and thorough editor. He is a master of the English sentence. A creative entity embodied in flesh.

Sir Daniel sat me down and told me back then that he had written a lot but had never sat down to compile his writings like I had done and told me not to quit. He told me not to force my words and to stop the compulsory coining of complex sentences. He told me all my words must not rhyme and the title of my poems must not be reflected in the last line or in the poem at all. He taught me to be simple. I was instantly stamped with the will to keep writing by my encounter with Mr. Shagabo.

I learnt a lot from him even though I was only chanced to meet him once. He wasn’t in school when I met him meaning that his testimony preceded him. I have great respect for such men and his staunch belief in himself made me scared at first but he calmed those fears and bred in me, confidence.

Daniel is a man of himself, original and not given to pleasing people. His nature is not intimidating but do not dare his word bank. He is qualified by my standards to be a write-mentor and more. Where he writes, our only duty is to read!

Sir, keep writing, keep being original, keep the strictness, and keep being contemporary. Keep God

Charles says…U Mentor!