Kuje: Where bookshops are stationery stores

In this suburban part of Nigeria’s capital city, bookshops are dominated by stationeries. How did this happen?   Bookshops are dull and unattractive places in Kuje Area Council, Abuja, that have gradually evolved into mere stationery stores. Crammed with writing materials such as cardboards, pens, rulers, poster colours and the like, some hardly have enough […]

In this suburban part of Nigeria’s capital city, bookshops are dominated by stationeries. How did this happen?

 

Bookshops are dull and unattractive places in Kuje Area Council, Abuja, that have gradually evolved into mere stationery stores. Crammed with writing materials such as cardboards, pens, rulers, poster colours and the like, some hardly have enough space for five persons at a time, so customers must duck in and out, one after the other. This is probably an indication of how unimportant books have become in the hearts of the community’s people. All too busy, parents perhaps in a hurry to see their children surf through school only, and the children, eager for new phones and social media. The smell of brand-new books, of stories and knowledge in those that aren’t just recommended texts, forgotten. So, on the streets, the signs read, ‘Bookshops and Stationery stores’.

Die Hard Bookshops

At Kuje’s major entrance, a supermarket stuck to the belly  of a Total fuel filling station is courageous enough to sell books. Once, a customer complained that the particular one he intended to buy had been nibbled on by rats, and the sales rep quickly responded, “This woman should come and take her books.” So, obviously, the books aren’t the store owner’s idea, but that of a bookworm.

Most of the books in this Total supermarket are business, religious and inspirational books. About a hundred metres away from this store is a ‘hidden’ bookshop with old, dusty books. It hardly gets any customers and is always characterized by inactivity. Whoever is the sales rep at a particular time (because you keep seeing different faces) hardly lasts. The books are also old stocks, so you are not likely to get one published in 2018. If you need a recent book, you may need to drive towards the local government secretariat where a worn van, boot up, reveals Christian inspirational works and novels and some business books. Drastic measures taken in drastic situations, this particular vehicular bookstore has been there for several years and seems to have built a ‘cult’ group of customers. So, in the end bookshops have diversified, switched to stationery stores, or spring up purely as stationery stores.

CC Richards Bookshop and Stationery is an example of a persevering bookstore. Located just outside Kuje’s main market, it initially focused on selling educational books for higher institutions when it was set up seven years ago. Now, time has groomed it and turned it into a market for a variety of products mainly consisting of stationeries and other items like footballs, snacks, drinks and trophies commonly found in supermarkets.

Udeh Nneka, the sales rep at CC Richards explained that the lack of a higher institution in Kuje meant little sales for the educational books they once sold. So, they focused on primary and secondary school textbooks and literatures. Then novels, inspirational books and exercise books. However, major profits today come from stationeries.

“Because people don’t read much,” Nneka said. “People buy novels, but not the way we expected. Some read on their phones and computers. But those who don’t read on these gadgets still come to buy to stock their libraries or as gifts.” She added that when this happened, the customers go for crime fiction by writers such as John Grisham or Sydney Sheldon, or romance novels.

Becoming Stationery Stores

Mr. Samuel Ihegazie has been running his tiny bookstore for about two years now at Pasali, a community under the area council. A photocopier takes a prime position in his business and sits on a table that leaves room just for two or three people to squeeze in. He doesn’t look too happy as his assistant manipulates the machine, which ironically happens to be his shop’s saving grace.

From the onset, Ihegazie burned with a desire to make books available to his community. But that passion has gone, and with it the need to simply make ends meet. “Now I sell mainly stationeries like biros, papers, generally writing materials. I also sell storybooks, but people patronize stationeries more,” he said.

Ihegazie pointed out that schools purchase books directly from wholesalers who supply directly to them. So, it’s easier for parents to go to school, get a list of textbooks which are then given to them.

“Publishers also make things difficult for us,” Ihegazie explained. “When they publish a particular book, next year they change the cover. If you haven’t sold the previous edition, schools will reject it because it is not the latest, whereas the content is the same. If I have huge capital, I will get rid of textbooks and focus on stationeries, writing and colouring materials, rulers and calculators. I will however still sell exercise books, notebooks and Bibles.”

Not far from where Ihegazie tries to keep his business afloat is a bookshop that is only conspicuous because of its signpost. Aside this, the numerous children’s toys and games like chess and scrabble, hung outside the entrance, easily mark it out as a game store. The sales rep, Tolulope Ileri, who appears to be in his teens, sits behind a counter (about twenty-five inches long) that is literally the entrance point. So, unlike most bookshops, there’s no way you can get into this store and clearly have to say or point out what you need.

Ileri has worked for three months in the bookshop and has noticed a patter: customers are mostly students seeking exercise books and recommended texts, or exam past questions booklets. “They hardly buy storybooks or novels that aren’t recommended texts in their schools,” he said. So, in the end stationeries get the most patronage, and when a grown man or woman passes buy sometimes, there’s likely to be a big sale, which may mean a toy as expensive as two or three thousand naira.

When the move was made by the local authority in Kuje to rebuild its main market, it faced some level of opposition. But gradually, the vision for a modern market is coming into place, and with it came a bookstore that sells mostly stationeries and few books. So, in its less than one year in operation, it’s the same story. However, its sale rep, Bilkisu Isiaka said some customers have asked for novels and textbooks. But, “the shop has just a few textbooks and doesn’t have novels.”

Some individuals like Olakunle Ola Abiola, who opened a bookshop in March 2018, needed a daily source of income. But now he hardly makes up to a thousand naira in a day. “I have noticed that it’s a seasonal business and moves more when students resume school,” he said, adding that if he had enough capital he would focus more on purchasing dictionaries and papers. As a businessman, he has to be realistic, and at the moment, stationeries and items like calculators bring in the most profit for him.