Anyone alarmed at the poor reading culture of our teaming young population? More alarming is their total lack of interest and respect for books…all they’re interested in are computer games, mobile phones and television. But it wasn’t always so. Reading was and still remains fun for some of us (they now brand our breed old school).
Recently, while discussing with my teen daughter that at form three I had completed reading 30 James Hadley Chase  and five Harold Robbins titles, excluding an endless list of school texts like Gulliver’s Travel, David Copperfield, Mine Boy, The Passport of Mallam Illya, Drummer Boy and Oliver Twist amongst several other classic titles. For her, it was like a tale out Shakespears’ imagination mill. But truth is, we didn’t read because it was school textbook, you also need to show off to peers your prowess at completing particular book at a given time (like the milk kid ad wondering how he is able to complete school assignments, plays basketball with his dad, plays chess, does domestic shores and still comes top of the class).
No doubt reading enhances ones metal ability and gives the reader an edge in knowledge over his or her peers. Little wonder most Nigerians hardly identifies your origin by name anymore. Time was when we could even identify an individual to his locality by name recognition. This was only possible through reading books that tells the different cultures of Nigeria – including names, dance, food, religion and festivities.
Recently, at the Lagos State University’s library, Ojo there was a heated debate among students and lecturers on who to blame for the kids lack of interest in reading. It was quite interesting to note how lecturers (teachers) pushed the drawback at parents while exonerating themselves from any blame. I felt it is beyond blaming anyone group of people…it is a societal failure.
Parents are (or more like too busy?) occupied chasing after family’s daily needs and other sundry issues, while kids are mostly kept at nannies care. Most parents cared less about their wards’ school assignments. How could they then bother if they read books or not?
But the teachers are probably the most truant of the society. I recently checked at a neighbour’s kids’ progress in a public school, it was shocking to note that this SSS3 pupil in what is supposedly one of the best public schools (Lagos state model college, Ojo) couldn’t define Government. And come to think of it, this is supposed to be one of the simplest subjects in the school curriculum.
At another public school in Satellite Town, where the principal is a mathematics teacher, the kids had not been taught the subject one whole term. The English Language teacher never bothers about Literature in English. So how would these kids ever learn to read? It gets back to parental concern and care.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Bring Back the Book project would remain another of those high sounding phrases that would amount to nothing if concrete steps are not taken across all strata of the society to encourage reading. This must include encouraging teachers to read and introduce reading clubs in schools – primary, secondary and tertiary. Unfortunately, I don’t see any practical steps being taken to encourage book production in the country. I am yet to see a teacher-pupil encouragement programme for reading despite all the rhetoric of Bring Back the Book. It needs to go beyond mere rhetoric’s to a more practical hands-on approach to get children reading again.
Technology is at hand to lighten the burden of cost element in the acquisition of books. “The most recent eReader I bought costs just a bit over $100 (approximately N16, 000) which is less than the price of some cell phones,” said Alex Dadson, managing director of Qualcomm, West Africa. Dadson believes the eReader could solve Africa’s book crisis and encourage more reading among the population.
The eReader is defined by Techtarget.com as “a (electronic) device for reading content, such as e-books, newspapers and documents. A standalone e-reader typically has wireless connectivity for downloading content and conducting other Web-based tasks. Popular dedicated e-readers include Amazon’s Kindle and Sony Reader.”
Technological innovations and convergence also means that the eReader and the regular smarthphones are gradually merging. “A smarthphone can have eReader software on it so the same book that you bought on an eReader, you can read it on your smarthphone,” said Dadson.
Convergence is so well defined that the same page you left-off reading in an eReader would open up to you the moment you turn on your smarthphone to the book because both devices are sync. And this becomes the challenge for our local OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who must now take up the gullet to start production of feature phones and smart-applications, other than getting contended marketing foreign brand PCs and assembling same for the Nigerian market.
Unfortunately, the local OEMs are their own enemies as most of them who claim to manufacture PCs locally are sole licencees of the foreign brands. Nigeria is said to have one of the youngest populations in the world. It means it would be easier to sell mobility to them as their young minds and brains work better with smart-devices. A look around any major city shows one common denominator: while young people flaunt smarthphones, the older population is contented with just any mobile phone.
Little wonder the Chinese brands are now selling fast in the country. They are sleek, smart (can browse internet, etc) and cheap. The Nigeria PC OEMs can seize on this population advantage to boost sales…and even market the idea of local production of eReaders to the government which is in a drive to boost local production, and encouraging reading culture among the populace.