Professor Olu Obafemi of the Department of English Language at the University of Ilorin (Unilorin) has advised the federal government to establish more library across the federation to improve reading culture among the youth.
Obafemi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos Tuesday that such libraries when completed should be equipped with enough books.
“Most students are unable to cultivate reading habit due to lack of conducive environment and library to enable them read, assimilate and understand.
“Students are now discouraged from reading due to their inability to access good books in the library as most old libraries are also not properly equipped with books.
“Although this problem is not peculiar to Nigeria, it has been a global problem for long.
“Most youths generally are not interested in reading because of the state of our libraries; they are not conducive enough and not properly equipped with books.
“We also lack good libraries to engage the youth.
“I pray that our government will wade into this by building more public libraries at different locations across the federation with conducive environment for people to engage in reading,” he said.
Obafemi stressed the need for functional library across the country, adding that poor economic condition had prevented most youths and parents to buy books they want to read.
The don stated that Nigeria have fantastic writers who are not being patronised due to the poor economic situation of the country.
“Writers are writing but people are not buying books because of the economic situation of the country which accounts for one of the reasons youths have not developed good reading habit.”
He also called for the renovation of the existing libraries to re-awake the reading culture among students, and called on school proprietors to revive book clubs in schools to endear students to reading as was the practice.
“We used to have book clubs in schools before but this is no more, if proprietors can revive this old practice in schools, our children will cultivate the habit of reading again.”
