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The federal
ministry of education’s national action committee on read campaign has
commended President Goodluck Jonathan’s effort to improve the reading
culture in Nigeria.

A release signed by
Tony Ogunlana, chair, media/publicity sub-committee of the body
congratulated Mr. Jonathan on the recent presentation of his ‘My
Friends and I’, and launch of the ‘Bring Back the Book Initiative’. The
body also commended him for allocating about N100 billion for education
and job creation in the 2011 budget.

“The president has
demonstrated to Nigerians his good intentions. In the last three years,
we have made concerted efforts to get a sitting president to attend a
public reading initiative function and read to pupils and the rest of
Nigerians, but to no avail.”

Mr. Ogunlana,
managing director of Bluefield Communications and presenter of
‘Entertainment In & Out’ on the NTA, also requested the president
to see the committee as a partner in the project.

“It will be our
pleasure to work with the president in actualising this great desire of
getting Nigerians to read. The task of bringing back the reading
culture is the responsibility of every one. We have the structure. We
have the work plan. What we have lacked so far is the necessary
support….. The political will to back up the support which we have
been waiting for has just been provided by the president with the
recent launch of the book project,” he said.

Mr. Ogunlana
disclosed that the committee will be decorating the minister of
education, Ruqqayat Rufai, and the minister of state, Kenneth Gbagi, as
Read Ambassadors very soon.

“This will be
followed by the decoration of the president, Goodluck Jonathan, as the
grand patron of the Read Campaign Project and a Read Ambassador on
February 21, during the celebration of this year’s International Mother
Language Day in Abuja.

“You will hear the
president and a few other dignitaries read to Nigerians, but this time
in our mother tongues. And then, we will hand over to the president the
blueprint and work plan for the revitalisation of the reading culture
among Nigerians,” he further said.

The committee and
the NTA national will soon launch the media phase of the campaign with
a weekly magazine programme tagged ‘Edumind.’ The national action
committee on Read Campaign was conceived during the administration of
Olusegun Obasanjo as part of the ministry of education’s reform
programmes. It was launched by the then minister, Obi Ezekwesili, in
February 2007.