How to bring back the books to Nigeria

By Nnaemeka Meribe     

Reading, Sir Francis Bacon said, maketh a man. The revered 16th century English lawyer, philosopher and statesman must have looked into every other activity of man and arrived at the conclusion that only reading could transform man into a real man.

On own our shores, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, said on his intimacy with books, “All along, the motto of our youth, which I personally regarded as golden, was always vivid in my mind: ‘know something about everything and everything about something’ ’’. Perhaps, it was this credo that steered Awolowo to greatness.

As one of the most cerebral politicians that emerged from Africa, Awolowo authored 17 books. Among his contemporaries on the continent, only the late Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana, who authored 13 books, came close to his prolificacy as an author.

Indeed, Awolowo was a testimony of Bacon’s statement, as he could not have achieved greatness if he had not, from his youth, inculcated the habit of reading. Of course, without reading, there is no way one can ‘know something about everything and everything about something.’

Perhaps, President Goodluck Jonathan is also Bacon’s disciple. Having written a bachelor’s degree project, a master’s degree dissertation and a doctoral degree thesis, I think that our President is qualified to be called a man of letters. In other words, our President loves education and, by extension, reading.

Remember, he told us during his formal declaration to run for the coming presidential election that if not for his education, he would not have been where he is today.

Having seen the benefits of reading, our darling President now wants us to keep reading. He is sad that the reading culture has died in the country and is poised to resuscitate it; hence, he came up with the Bring Back the Book campaign. The President unveiled the campaign in Lagos on December 20, 2010. Also presented on that day was a book, My friends and I, a compilation of some of the President’s conversations with friends on policy and governance via facebook.

A presidential aide, Mr. Oronto Douglas, said the campaign was designed to revitalise the reading culture, with knowledge serving as a tool for development.

According to him, “The time has come when educational opportunities must be for all; when knowledge must be promoted over the mad rush for materialism. Book culture, if properly put in place, will help promote a new Nigeria.”

Indeed, this is a laudable project. It is good thinking. But the President is going about it the wrong way. He is planting the seeds before clearing the bush.

Gathering a group of youths in a hall and inviting literary icons to talk to them on the benefits of reading is not enough to motivate them to imbibe the culture of reading.

To make reading a way of life here, there are certain necessary conditions that must be fulfilled. And chief among these conditions is ensuring that books are available and accessible to a large percentage of the population. In other words, functional public libraries must be built and stocked with up-to-date books.

Public library is not just central to the inculcation of reading culture, it is central to national development.

Though there are other classes of libraries, their services are restricted to individuals who have gained membership through academic qualification and membership on subscription. But every individual can benefit from the wide range of services offered by the public libraries because it is free of charge and run through public funds.

Unfortunately, successive governments (at all tiers) in the country have overlooked the public library. It is either that they are ignorant of its potential or they are just not interested in it. But in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom where schools (from kindergarten to universities are stocked with relevant and up-to-date books), public library is recognised by legislation designed to ensure that good library services are available to every individual in the society free of charge.

The tax-supported American public library is referred to as ‘people’s university’ and its major objective is to educate people for democracy. In the United Kingdom, free services of the public library are available to about 99 per cent of the population. The total book stocks of the libraries amount to over 70,000,000 volumes and approximately 150,000,000 books are borrowed each year by more than 14,000,000 people.

As a student in the United Kingdom, I saw, firsthand, how the public library is an integral part of the people’s life. I lived in the London Borough of Harrow, Middlesex. A borough is the equivalent of a local government area. Harrow has seven electronically-linked public libraries in different parts of the borough that are equipped with up-to-date books, films, audio-visual facilities and computers connected to the Internet. The libraries stock current newspapers and magazines and on daily bases registered (Registration is free. One only needs a proof of address to get registered by the very courteous staff members) members and visitors (who are usually given visitors’ identity cards) pop in there and read them.

Each of the libraries has a children’s department, which contains collections graded according to age and staffed by specially trained librarians. The libraries co-operate closely with schools, lending classroom collections in return for which the teachers instruct the pupils in the use of library and encourage them to become library borrowers. A feature of the children’s department is the story-telling hour during which stories are read to children from story books and history books.

Thus, even before children start schooling, they have already learnt the importance of the library. They enjoy visiting there; they see their parents and older siblings visit there now and again. They inculcate the culture at a very young age and as such nobody needs to preach to them when they are older that they need to make the printed word their friend. And as it is with Harrow, so it is with other boroughs in London and councils in other parts of United Kingdom.

I do not know how many local government areas in our country that have libraries. I doubt if there is any local government chairman in Nigeria that thinks that a library is essential to the development of his council. Some states do not even have libraries. The few states that can boast of libraries have uncomfortable halls stocked with obsolete books. Many Nigerians, even those with doctorate degrees, have not visited a public library in the country. In fact, those who have visited told unsavoury tales. A friend who went to a state’s library for a research some years ago regretted ever going there. His grouse was not just that the place was very uncomfortable and stocked with ‘ancient’ books, the library attendants, according to him, were everything but courteous.

But what do you expect in a country where libraries are luxuries, even in schools? Or won’t a library be a luxury in a primary and a secondary school where lessons are taken under the tree? It is common knowledge that many university graduates in our country have never visited a library—even the one in their universities.

I pray that the President’s Bring Back the Book campaign will not be what Nigerians think it is : an election campaign gimmick. I would like to see a President that will give the lie to this popular suspicion by starting with a better funding of education so that schools will have libraries well equipped with Internet facilities and up-to-date books. Besides, I believe the campaign will make more sense if the name is changed to One Village, One Library. Imagine what will happen to reading culture in the country if every village has one public library.