The Executive Director of the Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture, Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma, has called on scholars, especially of the Niger Delta region, to devote more time to research and development to broaden their horizons.

Ayakoroma, who made this call when exchanging views with members of Izon Ebe Students Union of the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, said research has become necessary because the Arts Council has a journal, Abalabala, a publication conceptualised to enhance the study of the arts, cultures, languages, and history of the peoples of the Niger Delta and beyond.

According to him, Abalabala (Izon for butterfly), as a medium for the cross-fertilisation of artistic and cultural ideas, welcomes reviews of books, exhibitions, productions, and performances in all artistic forms and media, as well as articles and research notes on related topics in Nigerian and African studies in general.

Dr. Ayakoroma therefore used the occasion to invite contributors to forward well-researched academic papers for publication, noting that the documentation should conform to the latest MLA or APA Style sheets, with an abstract of not more than 200 words; while all contributions must be typed, double spaced in 12-points Times New Roman font, and not exceeding 15pages on MS Word.
He said that all contributions are to be forwarded as email attachments to abalabalajournal@yahoo.com or abalabalajournal@artsbayelsang.com.

Abalabala Journal is edited by Seiyefa Koroye of the Department of English Studies, University of Port Harcourt; while Prof. EJ Alagoa is the chairman of Advisory Editorial Board.