How recycled books rule Abuja streets

Booksellers and classics on sidewalks in the nation’s capital are not a strange sight. But how they acquire and recycle these old books that make pedestrians and book lovers to pause is a different story entirely. When vehicles are brought into Nigeria through Lagos, there is more that comes in, Joseph Sunday reveals. Old stocks […]

Booksellers and classics on sidewalks in the nation’s capital are not a strange sight. But how they acquire and recycle these old books that make pedestrians and book lovers to pause is a different story entirely.
When vehicles are brought into Nigeria through Lagos, there is more that comes in, Joseph Sunday reveals. Old stocks of books are also packed into the cargo containers. This is how most of them come into the country from parts of Europe and America and sold at a cheap rates.
Standing, books of various genres spread before him on a sidewalk, Sunday explains how they also acquire new books which are more expensive, although Nigerian publishers are sometimes given licences to print them locally. So, when it comes to old stocks, foreign books flood the market and not Nigerian books. It has become a lucrative means to get and sell because a copy can be bought at N300 and sold at N500.
Sunday complains that many youths he has spoken to confessed they have not visited a bookshop since they graduated from school, indicating that they do not read or have interest in reading only when it is related to their field of study. 
“Because of this, when we have a customer that shows interest in one of our books when passing by, or actually wants to buy, we introduce another,” he intimates, adding that this is the case, especially for those that come in volumes or editions. This problem has driven him and his colleagues to devise a strategy that will make Nigerians read which they intend to unveil soon.
A couple of years ago Sunday began selling books at Julius Berger bus stop, one of the busiest points in Abuja, and has presently expanded into selling at two points. This he has achieved, despite the occasional harassment by the Abuja Environmental Task Force (AEPB).
“I started this business with just N700. But this has hindered its growth. So I inflate the prices a little bit to make up,” he says, adding that his focus is on motivational and business books because that is what is in vogue. To aid sales, he and his colleagues are also involved in networking where they have down-liners that market the books. 
At Wuse Market, Mrs. Felicia John has her books spread on a mat. She does not travel anywhere to get them, but capitalises on the old stocks that come into the market now and again and buys them at N400 or N500. Inside the market, many bookshops abound, where academic books, and novels – both Nigerian and foreign – are sold.
They buy local materials directly from the publishers, “but foreign books from dealers that bring them into the country,” Emeka Ine explains, adding that those in vogue are secondary school text books. Interestingly, they get more demand for Nigerian novels like ‘Things fall Apart.’  
At the market’s junction battered books are arranged on a fence with some in a kiosk. They include books written in the 1970s, and the 80s.    
Some of these booksellers reveal that a few of the books were not actually  old stock, but became so when they stayed long in the store without being bought. Nevertheless, the prices they are sold at attract a lot of customers, particularly because they offer a variety that is hard to find in the market. It is not surprising therefore to bump into a cook book long out of print or a work of fiction that has not been reprinted for over two decades.