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Players in
Nigeria’s book industry converged at Banquet Hall, Eko Hotels, Victoria
Island, Lagos on Monday, January 17 to discuss President Goodluck
Jonathan’s ‘Bring Back the Book’ initiative launched in December. The
mandate of the conference organised by the Committee for Relevant Art
(CORA) and which lasted over 10 hours was to produce a blueprint for
the implementation of the reading scheme. It was themed ‘When the
President Wants to Bring Back the Book-What’s to be Done Now?’

Special assistant
to Jonathan on research, documentation and strategy, Oronto Douglas,
who kick-started proceedings reiterated the objective by asking
participants including publishers, writers, booksellers , librarians
and others to see themselves as important stakeholders in the scheme.

“We should all
conceive the campaign to bring the book back to a national
consciousness as a citizens’ framework that should bring back the
written word. NGOs working in the book business should be mobilised to
continue to do their work until the book is on top of the democratic
agenda,” he said.

Douglas added that
since the president is interested in a blueprint that would help push
the initiative, participants “should be as critical as possible because
it’s the end product that we are interested in.” The special assistant
also touched on criticisms that had trailed the initiative. He said the
presidency has noted people’s comment about elite schools being
favoured during the launch of the campaign in Lagos and would rectify
this in subsequent editions to hold across Nigeria.

“We request that
you take charge of this initiative and drive it. It is about a movement
for knowledge democratisation … Take charge of this process so the
book industry takes its rightful place in the education and advancement
of our intellectual industry for the good of the nation. This is an
urgent matter. It’s not politics; we should leave politics out of it.
It’s about the soul; relevance and right of Nigerians and for those who
want to advance the common cause of Nigerians,” he added.

The conference
director, Deji Toye, outlined the scope of discussions at the meeting
divided into sessions before Secretary General of CORA, Toyin Akinosho
explained the body’s role in the exercise. Akinosho read an excerpt
from Carol Enahoro’s ‘Doing Dangerously Well’ before appraising the
state of Nigeria’s book industry. He didn’t fail to highlight CORA’s
interventions, which he referred to as ‘extension service’ in ensuring
that the printed word remains viable in Nigeria.

What publishers want

Playwright and
cultural activist, Ben Tomoloju, moderated the first session featuring
publishers and booksellers. Executive Secretary, Nigerian Publishers
Association (NPA) Kunle Sogbein, delivered a lead paper titled ‘What
Publishers Want’. He identified impediments to publishing in Nigeria to
include: financial and manufacturing constraints; distribution and
sales problems; lack of government support; legal problems and
creativity and intellectual problems. Some of his suggestions towards
moving forward include; exempting printing machines and papers from
taxes; offering credit lines to publishers; equipping the Nigerian
Copyright Commission properly and instituting literary prizes amongst
others. He also suggested the establishment of a book advisory and
readership committee under the presidency to coordinate all efforts
aimed at bringing back the book.

Killers of reading

President, Nigerian
Booksellers Association, Lanre Adesuyi also delivered a paper titled
‘Reviving Our Reading Culture’. He identified weak policies on
education; decaying infrastructures; economic recession and
inconsistent book policy as some of the killers of “our reading
culture”. He suggested that government should sponsor reading
competitions at all levels, sponsor literary programmes on TV and radio
and make Literature in English compulsory in junior secondary schools.

Some interesting
ideas from other panellists were espoused after the two presentations.
Jeremy Wheate of Cassava Republic Press disagreed that the book needs
to be brought back because it “is here already.” He noted that
Nigerians read but that they only read religious, business and
management books. What needs bringing back, according to the publisher
are Nigerian and African books. Wheate added that efforts have to be
concentrated on inculcating the joy of reading into the young as
opposed to making them associate reading with only school texts.

Simi Dosekun of
Farafina suggested that students should be made aware of reading as an
end in itself; not just about passing examinations. Ayo Arigbabu of
DADA Books also highlighted the troubles of the Nigerian book industry.

Author and
publisher, Dilibe Onyeama blamed the military intervention in Nigerian
politics for the current state of the book industry. He described
military rule as the “very antithesis of creativity” while also blaming
the soldiers for the brain drain that robbed Nigerian universities of
the country’s best academics.

Publisher and
bookseller, Kolade Mosuro, noted that not only do children lack the
skills to read; the erratic power supply in the country is another
disincentive to reading because people can’t read once it’s dark. “I
hope we will do proper research before launching out with the
initiative,” he counselled. Erabor Okogun of Meliora Limited made a
case for using information communication technology to promote books.

Institutionalise the campaign

Ronke Orimolade
weighed in with the suggestion that the book supply and distribution
framework in Nigeria should be reviewed and that government should
establish a National Book Commission. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf of Cassava
Republic wants improved government funding, especially in areas of
training for writers and illustrators amongst others.

More inputs into
the proposed blueprint came during the remaining sessions. Former
Minister of State for Education and president, Association of Nigerian
Authors Jerry Agada recommended establishing a National Reading Agency
that will institutionalise the initiative so it will outlive Jonathan’s
administration. Chair, Standing Committee on Private Universities,
National Universities Commission, Adio Ogunbona noted that parents who
ought to serve as role models in promoting reading are busy chasing
after money. Abimbola Dada of the Nigeria Library Association disclosed
that people don’t come to use libraries.

No literacy, no book

Poet, Odia
Ofeiumun, who is often a contrarian didn’t disappoint. “You can’t be
talking about bringing back the book if there is no literacy in a
country. You and I know that the ministries of education in Nigeria are
not particularly literacy friendly. There are actual government
departments dedicated to ensuring that illiteracy is wiped out in this
country. We’ve had them for 50 years yet Nigeria remains one of the
nine bottom countries dealing with lack of literacy in spite of all
these institutions that we’ve always had.

“Supporting the
book is not just about the book, it’s about the infrastructure around
the book trade. It’s also about what government must do and we must
make them do. Our government has not been acting as governments should
whether in relation to books or in relation to libraries, we should
make government act in the manner we want it to,” he said.

Other contributors
at the meeting include Ogochukwu Promise of the Lumina Foundation;
writers Austyn Njoku and Emman Shehu; Anwuli Ojogwu of Bookjam and Koko
Kalango of the Rainbow Book Club.