Reviving Our Reading Culture

NIGERIANS read for profit. Not for most
Nigerians the studious attitude with which
people read books and newspapers in
countries. The difference is not in the literacy
level, as some are wont to suggest. Nigerians,
except for a few, consider reading an
unprofitable venture.
The attitude has infected schools. Our future
leaders – our children – are growing up with
even less attraction to books and serious
reading. They like to watch television,
especially the addictive cartoon channels.
They surf the internet for “chatting”, social
networking, various levels of entertainment
and satisfaction of their other curiosities.
Their “leisure” leaves them with little time to
search for knowledge in books.
A nation whose young and old wallow in
banalities, showing little quality interest in
useful information and education is obviously
doomed. Years ago under the Olusegun
Obasanjo’s presidency, a ministerial nominee
under-going Senate screening did not know
that NEEDS stood for National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy.
NEEDS had just been launched as the
administration’s roadmap to revive a private
sector-driven economy. The nominee, an
economist, said NEEDS meant the difference
between human needs and human wants! He
failed the screening.
Many people in high offices do not read and
are uninformed about happenings around
them. Yet they are decision-makers, and many
of them confidently pontificate ill-digested
concepts they want to impose on the society,
mainly ideas already overtaken by current
knowledge.
We must make conscious efforts to return our
citizenry to reading. We must re-ignite interest
in the search for knowledge over the race for
material acquisitions. Those who cannot read
should not lead. Those who cannot read,
cannot write because there is no knowledge to
pass on to others, and no intellectual
equipment with which to transmit it. We must
support the work of several private
organisations, such as the Rainbow Book
Club, which launched “Revive the Library”
campaign and most recently realised the
making of Port Harcourt the 2014 World Book
capital.
The club has been able to draw the attention
to their book reading activities to revamp the
appetite of young people in books. We need
more book clubs for the task ahead. Every
support should be given to efforts to get our
people to read. It starts with parents reading;
the children would follow the example.
Government, through policies, should ensure
books are affordable.
A major challenge for younger readers is the
distraction the internet serves. Rainbow Book
Club should extend its campaign to online
reading of books, and use of virtual libraries.
Knowledge is power. Those who are blindly
chasing money today would one day discover
that those who pursued knowledge through
close contact with books would decide what
happens to society.