With Nigeria’s reading culture on the steady decline, the need for information and knowledge in today’s world has continued rise. Reading remains the best way of acquiring information, and remains a major connecting point for understanding the past and envisioning what our future could become.
More importantly, love for books can inspire society to evolve into a sustainable economy. A country that wants to develop, must therefore make it imperative to build its reading culture. The question that remains is the way to improve the reading culture in Nigeria.
Knowledge as Global Currency
Knowledge is everything. When people say the world is evolving, they are not just talking about a different fashion taste or debating the new values prevalent in the system, most times they are discussing the shift to a civilisation that is driven by information.What this implies is that enhancing Nigeria’s reading culture is significantly, a vital point for expanding the potentials of a nation into a knowledge economy.
The world’s leading economies today trade on intellectual capital – which is the collective knowledge of a people. In the past, enormous natural resources was enough to place a country at the top of the economic ladder, but the dynamics of play has become even more complex. Now, the focal point has become the information that is mined from the people, and with each pass of each year, we are reminded more than ever to realise that reading has become a vital point for translating the ideas of one generation to another.
What this evidently translates to mean is that reading is one of the major ways of acquiring information and improving skills. Yet, not too many people are motivated or engaged to read, which explains why there is a perpetual conversation around the development of a reading culture in Nigeria.
According to the 2014 International Literacy Data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Nigeria has a literacy rate of 68%. Yet this does not translate into a transference of knowledge in the society. Taking it from the highest level in the educational system, the recent 2016 global world ranking of universities in the world saw five South African universities on the list of the world’s first 1000, the list also included four Egyptian universities, but there was no Nigerian university, despite Nigeria being the most populated country in Africa. This points to a redundant research system that today depends largely on access to information and computers.
Enhancing a reading Culture, which way Nigeria?
Creating a reading culture, is simply about encouraging a habit of reading among learners.Several non-governmental groups and the different levels of government, have made, and are still making attempts to increase the reading culture in Nigeria. Aside there being a low level of literacy in Nigeria, even a narrowing down to those who are educated will reveal that there are still too many people who are largely unfamiliar with reading in Nigeria, there is also the increase in the cost of publishing which translates to the unavailability of books, magazines, newspapers and journals, and we still have inadequate libraries and bookshops.
Interestingly, in relations to the drive towards technology in Nigeria today, it could be time to also move the advocacy for the reading culture towards a technological transformation. We are living in a world where books come in a broader term – there are e-books which are not only available on mobile devices but computers as well. Some of the world’s biggest libraries in the world today have online libraries which offer access to readers to borrow, read and return books, newspapers and journals. This means there is an opportunity to reach even more readers and access to some of the world’s rarest books.
In Nigeria, one wonders, how we can translate the problems of our dying library system, and comatose publishing industry into a vibrant electronic industry. Already, more and more people gain lifestyle information on their mobile devices, and introducing them to the wealth of knowledge possible via computer could be better for the country.
The question now is, how many Nigerians even own a computer?
How to create a nation of readers
According to a survey carried out by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, only 4.5% of Nigerians own PC, this is rather abysmal, considering how integral computers can be to improving the reading culture in the country, considering that having a computer and learning to use it are vital to contributing to the knowledge economy that could drive Nigeria to the next level.
Perhaps, we could begin to look towards solving the reading culture problem through information and communication technologies (ICT), and this would mean that the government can begin to place owning a PC at the heart of its strategy towards developing the reading culture in the country.
Non-governmental organisations, individuals and even the government can look towards PC adoption as a solution that seeks not just to encourage a deep reading skill but also encourage an adept use of technology.
Computers have become a useful way of learning and are capable of offering easier access to information both on the internet and off the internet. Libraries can extend their services to homes, and readers can have an enhanced experience, especially with the hybrid computers also known as 2-in-1 which can be viewed either as a tablet or as computers,making it easy to transform them into an e-reader, or simply using them as a computer.
The possibility of the attainable success can be gleaned from the effort being made by Intel, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, Zinox, RLG, Asus, Techno through programmes like the PC adoption initiative, where they move from city to city to support and nurture the development of innovators and businesses in the country. So far, it has seen a significant impact that is affecting creativity, productivity and utility of many Nigeria, and thereby enriching lives.
It is inevitable that the future of the country is highly tied to owning a PC, and reading a book is as essential. Fundamentally, a society of readers can in the future translate into an economic growth, formed from thoughtful learners. Considering that the two can be merged: books and computers, do we now have any excuse not to improve the reading culture in Nigeria?
