Time To Get More Nigerians Reading Books

When the Association of Nigerian Authors announced the birth of the Nigeria Writers Series, an initiative aimed at promoting a new generation of writing that is exclusively Nigerian, courtesy of a N10m donation to the body by Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, not a few people hailed the action as the right move in the right direction.The arrival of the new literary series was preceded by the resuscitation of a much-needed reading campaign across the country by the writer’s body between June 12 and July 3, 2012. In fulfilment of its promise to seek institutional support and cooperation for its programmes, the current leadership of the association was able to get funding for the campaign from a prominent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Yusuf Alli to the tune of N3m. With the money, ANA kicked off the reading campaign, almost simultaneously, across 16 states of the federation. A statement posted on the association’s website described the exercise as a “resounding success”. It said that the donor was encouraged by the outcome to release additional funds for the 2013 campaign.

In an interview with our correspondent, the President of ANA, Prof. Remi Raji, said the impact of the campaign could be measured through the donation of books to over 150 secondary schools, organised seminars, literary competitions among the pupils of the schools and through awards of prizes to deserving participants.“So far, the response to the campaign has been very inspiring and encouraging. Many of our members in different state chapters have shown commitment to the campaign. More and more students and upcoming writers have indicated their desire to join ANA. We have received invitations from the managements of secondary schools to register our presence in their institutions. The demand is daunting, but we can only do as much as we can with the available funding,” Raji says. ANA’s reading campaign is obviously aimed at filling the gap created by the poor reading culture in the country. While most Nigerians tend to agree that there is a surge in literary productivity in recent times, some people are quick to point out that this does not match the rate of literacy in the country. Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, one of the three poets shortlisted for the 2013 Nigeria Prize for Literature, and Dr. Austine Akpuda, who lectures at the Abia State University, Uturu, blame this problem on the combined influence of television, the social media and Internet.

Describing the dearth of reading culture as a global problem, Amu-Nnadi says, “The truth is that this is not a peculiarly Nigerian challenge. The global reading culture is declining. And it is easy to understand why. The entrapment of television, the social media and everything electronic is so strong and pervasive that people have gravitated towards them and become hooked. Our children find television more entertaining these days. They spend more time on Facebook, twitter and the like.“As a result, people find less time to pick up a book or read the electronic books that channels such as Kindle, offer because nothing much has changed over the years to make books more accessible and more entertaining in form and content to compete with these new media.

“To make matters worse, they come cheaper than we can ever make books. So, we have the challenge of accessibility, of cost and of the diverse and exciting nature of the entertainment on offer. Of course, people are writing more. But how many of those books are easily found? How many of them are carefully and dutifully written? How many of them attract new readers and sustain old ones?”

 Akpuda doubts that the factors mentioned by Amu-Nnadi and the absence of the necessary infrastructures would allow a proper reading campaign to thrive in the country.“As wonderful as the idea of a reading campaign may be, it will remain an illusory and stillbirth encounter in a country that treasures reality shows, fashion parades and the enthronement of the culture of ‘’my politics/political party is greater than yours’’, awards of honorary degrees at very elaborate carnival-like ceremonies to illiterates, while the genuine graduating students are marginalised at such events.“Except we project knowledge acquisition, its display and reverence, the way the headmasters, court clerks and professional letter writers of the colonial period were honoured, it amounts to playing to the gallery each time we claim to be on reading campaigns in a polity where there are no equipped libraries, where a structure exists in name and prominent people and celebrities cannot be associated with a book culture,” he says.

To get more Nigerians reading, Akpuda advocates a more practical approach that will require the participation of prominent Nigerians or others who have distinguished themselves in various disciplines.“I think the best way to promote reading again is to assemble prominent footballers, music artistes and Nollywood stars, such as Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Femi Kuti, Tu Face, Onyeka Onwenu, Taiwo Ajayi Lycett and Bimbo Manuel, to mention a few, who can read well to make reading sessions regular events.“More important, let there be policies that would make university graduates employable so that our children will begin to value such a pastime. If they are also told that reading can reduce the hypertension being created by comparing the salaries of public officers in Nigeria and elsewhere, there are chances that the propaganda may work,” he says.Both Amu-Nnadi and publisher, Adewale Maja-Pearce, believe that the right thing to do is to make books more available in the right places, cheaper, more interesting and entertaining. “We need to make books more electronic Even the print media is going electronic because that is a global trend now. So, we need a social system that must encourage the private sector to invest more in digitalising our reading culture,” Amu-Nnadi says.

Source: http://www.punchng.com