By Ibrahim Ramalan
The Senate committee chairman on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Sani has pointed out that the decline in reading culture was real, not just among young people, but also among the political leaders, which is evident in the low quality of their intellectual discourse.
He noted, “If you compare the speech of a first republican politician to what we have today, you would see a world of difference. The highest politicians do today is granting interviews on TV or making some additional quotations to spice up what they say.”
Sani, who stated this at this year’s Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF) 2017 which took place in Lagos recently, regretted how in the homes of most Nigerians today, books have become part of home decoration.
The senator further said that people should be encouraged to read hard copy books as the advantages outweigh the e-books, adding, “It is difficult to read through an e-book without interference from advertisements, and it is also difficult to note down points on the e-copy.”
On his part, the Keynote speaker and former Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, gave a poser: What would you do in your organisation to improve reading culture in Nigeria? The question appeared to be rhetorical, but it formed the basis of most comments and arguments that later ensued at the conference.
Ojerinde said the question came up during one of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Bring Back the Book campaign. His answer was to introduce books outside the texts for literature that are usually tested among all candidates in JAMB examinations.
He said, “A couple of books were recommended, though I won’t say they were the best of books, but the text became a problem; there were some missing text, typographical errors due to piracy.
“In the 2013 and 2014 UTME, 10 questions were set from each of the books. Reliability is the measure of the internal relationship among the items of the text,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of National Library of Nigeria, Prof. Lenrie Olatokunbo Aina, said government has a mandate to promote reading in the country, adding, “The government is putting a lot of money, over N60 billion, to promote this industry and subject.”
The 16th Conference, which has as its theme: ‘Book Chain, Government Policies and the Promotion of Reading Culture in Africa,’ was highly interactive as disturbing issues of books, reading, schools, and government featured prominently.
The event featured poetry rendition by Mr. AJ Dagga Tolar, a member of Association of Nigerian Authors. He described books as the making of the human being. His poem was like a sharp sword, as the audience reflects on the words.
