Justice Galadima, Anyokwu decry dearth in reading culture among Nigerians

Hon. Justice Suleiman Galadima has expressed concern over the poor reading culture among Nigerians.

Galadima in his remarks a recent book presentation noted with regret that the cultural readership we inherited in Nigeria is gradually waning. “The practice and its popularity have been on the wane for some time. We devote more time watching television and social network services exemplified by turgid glue to our handsets, Facebook, You-Tube, whatsapp and frequent tweets.” Reading is obviously one of the basic things a child begins to do in the early stages of formal education.The declining interest in reading exhibited by our children today is a cause for alarm and a challenge to all.

But children are not alone for even Nigerian adults are not exempt.

Parents’ and guardians’ inability to buy books for their wards and encourage reading from childhood have been identified as part of reasons why over 30 million Nigerian school leavers have poor reading culture.

Spending lengthy hours on social media as Justice Galadima perceived has a debilitating effect on the reading culture of students, and stakeholders contend that this development could lead to very dangerous learning outcomes.

Troubled about the imminent dreadful consequences, Dr. Chris Anyokwu, a teacher of African Poetry, African Literature and Literary Theory, at the Department of English, University of Lagos, in an interview, calls on the National Orientation Agency (NOA), to mount sustained campaigns on the need for students to develop a strong bond with their books, and also make conscious efforts to imbibe reading culture, while scaling down on the number of productive hours spent on social media.

“Internet poses a threat to our students, as they no longer read novels, playlets, and poems in the traditional media (the book form). They do not enjoy the synchrony of the page any more. They prefer to go online, not to read the e-copy of these books, but they are more interested in the snippets, summaries or spark notes than reading than whole book …”

Students are expected to read and keep abreast of what is happening around them. Unfortunately, that does not happen anymore with the arrival of the social media.

Also various studies have revealed that 40 per cent of Nigerian adults never finish reading a fiction book from cover to cover after leaving school. Other studies show that about 30 million Nigerians have graduated from secondary schools with poor reading skills, attributing it to the poor habit cultivated during their stay at school.

In many universities, most students do not read. The few who read occasionally, do so as a means of passing their examinations. The libraries that are meant for reading, have since been converted into browsing centres, places of reference and copying of notes as only few students are seen reading in the libraries.

Since poor reading habit is causative of the poor performance of most students in school assessments and examinations, what has government done to boost their interest in reading?

Chief Executive Officer, National Library of Nigeria (NLN), Professor Lenrie Aina has on his part remarked that joint interests and consistent campaigns by youth groups and Nigerians will ensure government prioritize the completion of the permanent national library in the nearest future.

Aina disclosed that: “In most countries, public libraries are a serious component of the education curricular based on the recognition that without such resources, it is practically impossible to improve on literacy. A functional library helps in providing information to the society in different formats in the bid to encourage and promote a good reading culture which is a sine-qua non to personal and indeed national development.

“But in Nigeria today, public libraries are kept unattractive and poorly maintained while in most cases, the infrastructural facilities are inadequate. Besides, the books in stock are out-dated just as it is a rarity to stumble on new and current journals. Indeed, reference materials, where they exist, are old and dusty.”