The waning reading culture among Nigerian youngsters

This clearly confirms that young people are famished and are craving for the ideal life. Bestselling authors today are motivational writers, business experts and preachers because on the pages of their books they project a preferable and possible future for the readers. Poor reading habits today contribute to mass failure in academic performance.The absence of […]

This clearly confirms that young people are famished and are craving for the ideal life. Bestselling authors today are motivational writers, business experts and preachers because on the pages of their books they project a preferable and possible future for the readers. Poor reading habits today contribute to mass failure in academic performance.
The absence of widespread culture of reading in the case of Nigeria acts as an effective barrier to our development and international competitiveness. Majority of the citizens now see reading as a waste of time. There is this popular saying, “if you want to hide something from a black man, or an African, write it.” It sounds like Africans listen more than they read. In Nigeria, a sign that says “no parking” may not be respected unless it was accompanied by a person next to it, reading the sign for us. We are just too used to oral tradition that written tradition is almost foreign. The relegation of reading culture in recent decades is indeed a matter of great sadness.
It is visible in some ways that “the imbalance in economy, the uncertainties in the polity, the daily grinds that the average Nigerian goes through to make ends meet and lots of other things peculiar to developing nations like ours all conspired to make the average man on the street lose taste for such things as books or reading. These and many other socio-economic issues contribute mainly to the declining reading culture in Nigeria. This means it did not start today and will surely take some time and a highly concentrated effort to remedy.”
Holt (1998) remarks that a situation in which a number of people rarely read, either because they lack the skill or simply because they do not care enough to take time to concentrate will pose serious problems in the future. “Reading is essential to full participation in modern society. It adds quality to life, provides access to culture and cultural heritage, empowers and emancipates citizens as well as brings people together.” In the words of Sisulu (2004), “reading is one of the fundamental building blocks of learning. Becoming a skilled and adaptable reader enhances the chances of success at school and beyond.”
Youngsters in Nigeria are at the danger of going straight from an oral to a digital culture, skipping over the writing and reading culture in the process. Most young people would rather read the sport pages or get hooked up to social online media than read books, where as “the economic, social and political health of our nation today depends on building literate citizens who are able to read widely and apply it practically for development.”
Well-meaning Nigerians, parents and the media educationists had at more than a few occasions decried the scrawny reading culture in Nigeria, the desertion of books in public libraries, the dearth of books in public libraries as well as the downfall of school libraries and government’s indisposition to tackle the crises with a sense of urgency. It was in opposition to the backdrop of this problem that president Jonathan flagged off his own personal crusade against the poor reading culture in Nigeria when he launched the ‘Bring Back the Book’ initiative in 2010’. This initiative was not only to bring the waning reading culture to the front burner of public discourse, “but is also an open challenge to corporate bodies and individuals as well as writers, authors, publishers and all the stakeholders to put in their resources to making reading culture a part of our National character for Nation building.”
In the quest to hearten reading culture as well as placing literacy and book at the centre of our National Development schema, a number of literary clubs have over the past few years sprang up in some Nigerian cities such as Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt. Established by noteworthy Nigerian literary pillars; these clubs organise reading sessions featuring works from popular and upcoming Nigerian writers and authors. These clubs includes: Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), Abuja Literary Society (ALS), Abuja; Association of Fiction and Non-fiction Writers, Hausa Writers Forum (HWF), Kallabi Writers, Kano; and Rainbow Book Club, Port Harcourt among others.
As efforts are being made by government, organisations and individuals, to breathe life into the ailing reading culture in Nigeria, attention should be focused on the teeming population of youngsters. It’s also pertinent to note that making reading attention-grabbing and pleasing to youngsters will require that fun, exploration, rewards and not fear of failing examination. These must be woven into every effort and attempt at wooing them into imbibing the culture of reading. We must all reexamine ourselves.
Maradun can be reached at: [email protected]