Reviving reading and writing culture in Nigeria

“Sympathy took over the better part of me, such that I was moved to tears.” Such is the comment you hear from someone who watches a film, drama, or movie. One tide that has catastrophically impacted reading and writing culture is the advancement made in the art of dramatisation of stories in the form of films. These films will look so real that I will prefer watching them to reading a copy of the story.

The emergence of electronic media and hence the start of an infinite advancement in social media has had its dastard effects on the culture of reading and writing in Nigeria. People of all ages now prefer to use mobile phones to read stories, watch films, read news, send and receive messages outside the primary use of the phone which is speaking to your desired loved ones, friends, and business associates.

The culture of reading and writing is now shared between the internet (soft copy) and books in the hands of readers (hard copy) in the ratio of 8 is to 2, that is 80% of the internet use to 20% using books for reading purpose. This is even mostly for academic pursuit and not for entertainment.

The dying culture of reading and writing needed a long time ago to be revived. Individuals, organisations, and associations, having realised the dire need for the revival of reading and writing culture (at least to stem the proliferation of strange and promiscuous culture from being indoctrinated in the cultures of Nigerians) have stepped up efforts geared towards such revival. Associations such as Universal Writers and Authors (UWA), Yasmin Elrufai Foundation (YELF), Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), etc in Kaduna have awakened themselves and others, to rekindle the light of reading culture in the youth in addition to the old of all walks of life. 

Debates, essay writing competitions, competitions in lexicon, literary writing are some of the activities of UWA, other activities include reading and editorial conferences, organising classes of English on vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension of passages. 

One other factor most disgracefully is the fact that most schools are incapable of delivering as efficiently as is required to the students. Most schools depend on the fact that the thrills and happiness of parents and students is the high number of credits a student gets when he writes his/her NECO and/or WAEC exams. Hence, such schools refuse to deliver the necessary/vital and primary components of the syllabuses of most or all subjects. Thus, depending on the fact they have promised As and Bs to their students at the time of their exams. 

Abdulazeez Alhassan, 

Kaduna State.