By Anote Ajeluorou
APRIL 23 is both the birthday and death day of world famous
British playwright of all time, William Shakespeare, and the death day of
Spanish novelist Cervantes. The date is therefore set aside to honour these two
great writers by promoting the book, both reading and giving it out as a gift.
In Nigeria also
World Book Day (WBD) is celebrated yearly, but with what impact. Indeed, what
has been the implication of the event in the country? Can the gains of WBD be
measured in Nigeria to determine its impact? What form should the celebration
take? And, indeed, what needs to be done to the event felt?
The Guardian went to
town and spoke to a number of writers, book workers and enthusiasts on WBD that
comes up next week Monday. Their responses are as varied, profound and
illuminating as they come as they situate the problem of the book in its proper
context and how it can be made a national pastime as it was in days gone by.
Akachi
Adimora-Ezeigbo (university teacher, novelist and gender expert)
I often think
that celebrating the World Book Day in Nigeria is a charade. How can you
celebrate books when very few people bother to read books or have books
available to them? Often a few organisations 'organise' activities to mark
the day and that's the end of it! There is no follow-up. Awareness should be
sustained throughout the year! Not just one day.
What we need to do in this country is
to first create awareness about the importance of books by establishing
libraries in schools, communities (in rural and urban areas) and in the cities.
We need to have books everywhere. When people have access to libraries in large
numbers, they will develop interest in reading.
When this happens, there will be true
celebrations in different forums when the annual event comes up. Many young
people in primary and secondary schools do not have access to books. The
government at the federal and state levels has not done very well in the area
of book provision to schools, and to pupils and students. A lot still needs to
be done.
As for
celebrating the 2012 World Book Day that may not be difficult at the University
of Lagos. For right now examinations are going on and there is no time for any
other activity. Students are busy writing their exams; lecturers are
invigilating exams and grading scripts.
However, I hope the day will be
celebrated by writers' organisations and by government agencies. Books are
important. We are what we are because of the books we read, are reading and
will read in the future.
Dillibe
Onyeama (novelist and publisher)
DELTA
Publications (Nigeria) Limited will celebrate the World Book Day this year with
a cocktail party for stakeholders in the book trade, to the end of encouraging
dialogue and therefrom detecting ideas and strategies for improvement in our
book publishing activities. In such an atmosphere of bonhomie occasioned by a
generous flow of wine and small chops, potential authors will be inspired and
possibly be commissioned to write our ideas into bestsellers. The 'long
grammar' of lectures and debates alone may not suffice, and may not draw the
desired impressive attendance.
The
World Book Day is a good thing. It wields psychological power by virtue of
being a global celebration and in that way casts an illuminating spotlight on
the exigencies of developing the reading culture and the aesthetic value of
books as a source of profound personal entertainment as well as education and
self-development. For these reasons, the World Book Day can never be a waste of
time.
Such celebrations, by virtue of being a
Western invention, should be continued forever, since you can never be sure
which genius could be hooked into turning out literary classics. I believe that
the flow of wine helps to relax the mind and expel stress, in the process
tickling the imagination to bring out creative ideas for a good novel.
Wale
Okediran (medical doctor, novelist, politician and promoter of writers)
AS a literary
buff, I consider the World Book Day an event that is worth celebrating. I am
therefore looking forward to it with a keen interest. However, I don’t think
the celebration of the World Book Day has had much impact on the Book Industry
in Nigeria because the government agencies saddled with the job
of literary awareness are not serious about their work. Also, apart
from some state governors who are 'Book Friendly', government does
not give the expected support to literature, as is the case all over the world.
As stated above, not much gain has
accrued from the World Book Day celebrations. In order not to make the
celebration another meaningless one, it is important for the government
agencies involved with education and literary awareness to liaise with other
NGOs and organisations involved with the book industry in order to make
the event a worthwhile one this time around.
My organisation, The Ebedi Residency
Programme in Iseyin, Oyo State, will mark the event this year by
showcasing the literary abilities of students from selected Secondary Schools
in Iseyin. These are the students who have been tutored by the Resident
Writers who have attended The Ebedi Residency Programme. The idea is to
expose our young ones to the book and also use the occasion to identify and
nurture literary talents among our young ones.
This year, I expect Nigeria to continue
to work on improving the still poor reading culture in the country. This
it can do by using the occasion of the World Book Day to draw attention to the
book by inviting policy makers and other public figures to read to
children. This should then be followed up by the establishment of
Reading Corners in all schools as well as stocking of Public Libraries in all
the Local Government Areas in the country with books, newspapers and journals.
The best way to bring the gains of book
closer to Nigerians is through the establishment of public libraries in every
LGA in the country. Where they have been established, efforts must be made
to stock them with books and other reading matterials. Apart from LGAs,
literary organisations, NGOs and philanthropists can also establish
'Neighbourhood Libraries' at every ward in the country. Reading sessions such
as the one to be organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) for
students should also be carried out in order to bring literary awareness
to the students.
Remi
Raji-Oyelade (university teacher, poet and national president, Association of
Nigerian Authers)
AS
President of ANA, I look forward to this year’s World Book Day with great
expectation and hope that we can use the occasion to press for more support for
Nigerian writing and the Nigerian author. I hope that more ideas about and
around the book industry will be embraced by supporters and patrons of the
arts. I hope that there will be a radical turn in government towards the book
as an important decimal in national development.
Yes, we do celebrate the book but we
rarely advance the development of the facilities and faculty which make the
book trade thrive in the country. I do not know or cannot say if the
“celebration of the book” has been effective enough. There’s a difference
actually between ceremonial celebration and dynamic, or shall I say, systemic
celebration of the book as the book, the tangible repository of all our knowledge, civilisation,
imagination and philosophy written at large.
No, I won’t say it is another
meaningless celebration, because we need something of a ritual, a trigger to
call attention to the importance of the book. One day is set aside to
commemorate the significance of the book around the world, in each country and
across cultures. Incidentally, the day is marked as Book Day because it is the
probable birthday of the world’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare
(April 23, 1564). I think we need more than a day to celebrate the book, and to
do so as a cultural policy is a necessary task of various institutions and
organisations in this country.
First, we plan to issue a press release
to re-emphasise what has been the consistent clamour of the Nigerian author: we
will be requesting governments to support the development of literacy in this
country, by supporting the profession of creative writing. We will be appealing
to corporate organisations to support the arts, especially the book industry
including publishing and distribution of the book, and indeed the author who
does the work of writing the book itself.
And we will be charging our members to
take their work seriously and explore various means of self-improvement. Beyond
this, the body of writers represented all over the country, in almost all the
states of the federation, will be converging in Abuja again one week after the
commemoration of the World Book Day, to act further on our resolve to move from
words into action. It is important to remind ourselves that the book is the
greatest weapon against the ignorance of ideas; it is also the ultimate weapon
against the poverty of knowledge.
We should move from the wordage of
policy to dynamic action. For instance, let the relevant arms in each state
government – ministries of culture, education and information – constitute a
programmatic action day with the Association of Nigerian Authors, to celebrate
the book by celebrating the authors in their domain. Let the Federal
Government, through its relevant agencies, follow up on the “Bring Back the
Book” project of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Let corporate
organisations including MNCs prove their social responsibility by their real
time support for education, through support for Nigerian writing.
There are so many ways by which the
World Book Day can be made a national event that will be beneficial to a larger
percentage of Nigerians. A way is through the support of book drives in primary
and secondary schools: let us have book purchases and patronage of authors and
sponsorship of readings in schools and public places.
Another way is through the recognition
and encouragement of readers because the book trade cannot thrive if the reader
is not there. Let there be a prize on World Book Day in each of our cities to
celebrate the good reader. We are not short of ideas as a people; we only lack
the will or focus to do what is beneficial and lasting for the programme. This
time, we in ANA have been lucky with the patronage of such a personality as Mr.
Yusuf Laolu Ali (SAN) who recently awarded a grant of N3 million to the
national body of writers to organise such a book drive and reading competition
among selected secondary schools in 15 states of the federation. With such
support and patronage, every day is bound to be a World Book Day in this
country. We need more patronage to make meaning of many such ideas.
Richard
Mammah (book promoter and organizer, National Literary Week)
I am really
upbeat another World Book Day is here. For those of us in this 'race against
time' to boost the reading culture, it sure is a helpful event. Every support,
every event is needed to win the war against illiteracy, and more
frighteningly, a-literacy that we are currently faced with.
Unfortunately, there has not been much
impact, largely on account of the institutional authorities leaving it to the
cash-deprived book advocacy community to fly the Nigerian World Book Day flag
year after year. The idea of UN-sanctioned day is to galvanize global and
national and civil energies to collectively boost the day and subject. In
Spain, everyone, including the king, is involved. This must be so also in
Nigeria for us to get the desired impact.
The reading climate in the country
would in all probability be worse without the day, I should say. Bad as things
are today, it is still a rallying platform. The gains are today however
difficult to quantify first on account of a lack of statistics, but more deeply
because there is little attention to it. There are, very few low profile
activities and colossal public sector inertia. It is not meaningless but it
truly needs help. It is really a wonder here that the Bring back the Book campaign, the National Library, Book
Development Council, etc are usually absent in events to celebrate World
Book day.
Yes, we will be marking it with events
in schools and bookshops in Lagos and Ibadan and a book cocktail in Enugu.
Celebrities, public officials, captains of industry will participate in
motivational readings to young people.
We need every one to come on board in
symbolic and practical ways, starting with the Presidency. In years past when
the regions competed to grow their human capital, which books represent, there
were fewer social tensions. The Western region under Awolowo gave some of us a
legacy of free education and functional libraries, not militants and Boko
Haram!
Dagga Tolar (poet
and chairman, ANA Lagos)
LIKE every other
christened celebration, this would come and go and not a single difference
would the day make or impact on the state of literature and reading in the
country and the reasons for this are not too far to fetch… We are too far gone
and lost in our state of complete waste to bother with irrelevances like the
book or the book day, when the lot of us are in a rat race to eke out a living.
Those who permanently mortgage our existence most concern themselves with the
‘more important’ task of self-preservation of continuing to be managers of this
rot; but not the possibility that books can make life worthwhile for all.
First is the existing problem of
awareness, which means that only very few of us are conscious of the World Book
Day compared to February 14; and books are no less important than love. Indeed
love can no more count itself as love without books, poems and stories. Why is
it that books also don’t count as ingredient of love? Simply that the needed
focus and attention has not been brought to bear on it; the economics of our
existence and the policy thrust of how society is governed and run counts more
and more on people not being literate.
The system is such that the blame goes
to the victims; so, for the remaining 1.3 million out of the 1.5 million who
will not be offered university education in Nigeria in 2012, the fault is
completely theirs and not that of society that can only offer 200,000
admissions to its prospective youth who are all eager to embrace a life and
future where the book would be central in determining how they make progress
into the future.
The so call Bring the Book Back campaign has long been welcomed into the famed group
of “Failed Government projects”. If you ask me it was dead on arrival, a
spin-doctor’s electoral stunt to reposition Jonathan before the electorates.
And yet books cannot be left to the fancy of members of the ruling elites. Such
attitude rather than boost the book, does more disservice to the book; it
demeans its valve.
Indeed, what is a book (be it from the
point of view of knowledge acquisition or leisure); we are looking at one of
the most human and long-lasting wonders that define and help to shape up the
mind with all it needs to be justifiably useful to society at large. The book
is also the most nourishing and life-improving leisure one can ever engage in,
with little or no documented hazard to one’s health.
Tell me why we all should
then not be seen celebrating the book; but like you know, the reverse is the
case.
The question of measuring the gains of
World Book Day celebrations on the polity, can only count on the plain of
individual initiatives and efforts, people who are enormously handicapped by
resources; efforts like that of Gogo of Keep It Real Foundation, Koko Kilango
of the Rainbow Club, Toyin Akinosho and Jahman Anikulapo of CORA, Sola
A. and many individuals too numerous to mention. Indeed, writers are one
league of humans that make a day like this possible. To know the pains they all
go through to bring a book into being is enough to count a celebration.
But the truth is 80 to 90 per cent of
the resources of society are managed by those with little or no interest in the
fate of the book, since the book plays no role whatsoever in the power game
that feeds their egos and eros of private concern of continued stranglehold on
power. To all of them it is therefore a meaningless celebration that can in no
way impact on their power play. However for the rest of us, the future counts
much on continuing with all we’ve been doing. Writers must keep writing and
keep squeezing blood from stones to get the books published; they are the first
reason for a day like this.
ANA Lagos celebration for this year is
anchored on kicking off the campaign for literature as a subject to be
reintroduced into Junior Secondary school as opposed to the present arrangement
wherein it is subsumed under English language. Our thinking is that it is a
complete disservice to literature and if anything, it is the contributive
factor to the waning reading culture. Added to this fact that it is shutting
out so many future writers and lovers of literature to-be, who on meeting and
falling in love with literature would on their own have sustained their romance
with reading.
We are hopeful
that others would join this initiative of ours and in the long run we can bring
about the necessary policy reversal. This is the focus of our celebration for
the World Book Day 2012.
Well, the question of focus for Nigeria
is one of coming to an understanding that our affairs are and would in no way
be managed for the interest of the majority of the people as long as
Neo-liberalism continues to be the policy thrust of the ruling elites. To count
on private capital to drive the economy, when the country, with its own
generated resources, is capable of driving all the needed development, both
human and infrastructure… this for me is the only means by which our fortunes
can be reversed and there and then literature and the book can hope on the
necessary investment that would earn it its pride of place in the lives of all.
There has to be political will, the
need to dislodge Neo-liberalism cannot be postponed and the working masses
would continue to be the loser for it if we don’t put our acts together and get
organised. And, indeed, there is cause for hope going by the dress rehearsal in
the January general strike and protest against the increase in the pump price
of fuel from N65 to N141. If not the nightmare called Nigeria would continue, a
country that reserves its enormous public funds for the primitive accumulation
of its ruling elites, while they continue to scream for foreign and private
funds to drive the continued under-development of the country.
For literacy would count first as
necessary and compulsory at public cost to all its citizens, then the
foundation of a mass public celebration of the World Book Day would be laid. We
can then flow from there to a situation where all public institutions, not just
educational institutions, would mark the day with one programme or the other;
books would more than ever be accessible to all, with public libraries equipped
and installed in all local governments.
Writers and authors can now qualify to
robe themselves in peacock colours and wears, as they celebrate their books and
themselves!
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