3rd July, 2017
Photo: Idowu Ogunleye
Ms Amina Aboje, an author, has called on parents in Nigeria to inculcate reading culture in their children as a way of training them to be better leaders in future.
Aboje made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Abuja.
“I must concede that among our people, there is indeed a decline in the reading culture.
“How many neighbourhood or community libraries are there, how many schools (from primary to tertiary) have functional libraries; how much attention and support is the government giving to the literary sector,’’ she asked.
Aboje, who recently did a public presentation of her Book, “Promises on Sand’’ in Abuja expressed concern that parents were in the habit of buying toys, video games and smartphones for their children.
“How many parents buy books for their kids as a deliberate effort to redirect them toward books; we must mull over these questions as a people.”
The author said though video games, toys and phones were not bad, books were also good for the intellectual development of the children.
She, however, said that parents who failed to put their children in the direction of books had short-changed them in terms of knowledge acquisition.
‘’We are short-changed if we belittle the power of books and neglect to read.’’
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Aboje, who is a member of the Abuja Writers Forum, stressed the need for individuals to embrace reading habit as a way of expanding their minds.
“We will help to expand the minds of our kids and equip them even more when we steer them toward books.
“Today, I am a long way from my childhood, but the enchantment, the magic of the world of books is still not lost in me.
“Government and most especially parents should bring back the books, not only on the shelves in our study and sitting rooms but also on the shelves in our minds.
“By doing that, we can prove wrong those who think that information can be hidden from us in books. Books do not hide information, instead they reveal it.’’
NAN reports that “Promises on Sand’’ by Aboje was an 87-page poetry compilation made up of four sessions.
The sessions are; `The Glow’, `Of Loss and Hope’, `Time, Transient and Nature’, and `Pangs of Nationhood’.