Everytime I want to try my hand on writing, selling books, publishing etc, the first comment i hear is "Be careful, Nigerians do not read."

But I've found this not to be true. Nigerians do read. But they are very choosy and read only what they think will add value to them. Try the newspaper stands in the mornings, and you will see us gathering round to catch a glimpse of the head lines. Everywhere, Nigerians love information and will do what they can to get it.

Recently, preachers and motivational speakers have been able to create an awareness that you need to understand certain principles to make you a good leader or a successful entrepreneur. Today business books are now bestsellers in Nigeria.

So its all about value and the reading culture will surely improve.

Yes Nigerians do read. People always assume that we do not read but that is not true. You have to realize that most people will not encourage you to do what u want to do out of envy or jealousy. Please write a book if u want to. I remember the time I had a discussion with some people in Houston some years ago about establishing a fast food business in Naija. They all screamed that it was not feasible as "Nigerian culture and attitude" is based on the mothers cooking for their kids/husbands. Look at the fast food industry now in Nigeria!!!

Do nIgerians read Comics?

Obviously most Nigerians do not actually read.What we do here is read for pleasure and religious purposes and not for SELF DEVELOPMENT that is why you meet them at the news stand reading about sports , war b/tw Govt officials etc. The motivational book aspect is more of looking for quick fixes e.g "Think and Grow RICH" and you see most Nigerians flocking to read it but when they find out that it entains HARD WORK to be successfull, they quickly keep it under the shelf.
This is why also we have so many unemployable Graduates.

Nigerians don't read! If they have to open a book its because they either wanna pass exams, read gossips, follow political events ( and still not act!, just observers!), quote a scripture or fish out a money-making recipe! Its not in our culture, maybe it was and over the years, the developmental interest gradually receded and the need for knowledge empowerment got overtaken by "educational achievements"! That's why you'll see a post graduate still looking for a job! Do we read to make an impact or to feel the impact?!

If Nigerians truly do not read, you just need to do a better job of marketing your book and they will start reading. If they don't read, it may be because books worth reading have not been marketed to them yet. I like your work.

Let nobody deceive anybody, very few nigerians enjoy reading especially for self development.

Its a lie!

Nigerians do read and they read a lot, especially novels and stuff. I borrow must of the books I read from other fellow nigerians. It beats paying.
Many are really smart and use the information that they have read to influence their own lives. Many nigerians are very SHARP and SMART. Take for instance those that go to Unversity, they must have read something for them to be there.

Knowledge is power!!!

I would just like to point out that I can't speak for people inside Nigeria but for those outside.

Nigerians read , we read everything from fiction to non fiction , news papers to mags it all depends on how we see things i'll advise if we put up a survey to know here on nairaland

Nigerian do read, but becos of the financial situation in the country, I started reading from 6years when my father always make sure all my family ready something everyday and we all come home to share our experiences. My father display a saying write from when I was born saying: He who does not Read is not different fron He who cannot read.
Uche

@ Uche And after much reading from childhood, your English is this poor? Na wa o!

naijacutee:

His sentence construction is poor but his spellings are good.

Do I put you in the same category as him or you have eye problem

haha funny

Nigerians read.
Yes.
But most of them hardly read beneficial books.

I can tell you that since the bastardization of our reading culture by the corrupt regime of the evil genius, Nigerians lost the interest in active intellectual reading culture. The Longman Drumbeat and Gong series and the Macmillan Pacesetters series disappeared, because the readers also disppeared.

The Nigerians who are reading business books and motivational books do so in their covetousness and greediness for the status symbols of our erroneous social values and materialism. Because, Nigeria is still getting poorer and poorer. Why?
We are misplacing our priorities and most of us are consumers of the economy without contributing much to the growth.

Over 10 million Nigerians have GSM phones?
But majority of them are not using the GSM phones for productive activities or ventures.

90% of the Nigerian female students with GSM phones are using them for calls to solicit for financial favours doing more collateral damages to our economy than ever before. Because they are wasting the financial resoureces of their boyfriends and sugar daddies who waste hundreds of thousands on these wayward partime prostitutes and neglect the productive needs of their families and relations.

A sugar daddy spent over a million naira to sponsor the summer holidays of his girlfriend whilst his brothers were in dire need of capital to execute their lucrative motor spareparts assembly plant.

I have seen young Nigerians wasting N3,000 monthly on GSM recharge cards for useless phonecalls and such a sum of money would have been invested in productive academic and economic ventures that would boost our GDP and GNP.

Nigerians are reading GSM calls and GIGO books and magazines.

I was disappointed when a book written by a Nigerian scholar and IT consultant on "Christians and the Internet" is still begging for readers at at N200 per copy. And the same so called "Christians" rushed to buy copies of the social gossip newspaper City People to read about romantic sex scandals and covetous passions of the cronies and proxies of the crooks and rogues in the corridors of power and gossip about them while learning the tricks of the social 419 and politcal 419 to join their bandwagon whilst paying lip service and eye service to God by pretending to read the Holy Bible.

Nigerians are reading indeed.

Yes. Look at the fruits of the harvest of the books they have been reading.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Corruption.
 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
~Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:27)

Why is Ovation International, the X rated Better Lover and City people selling 100% more than the official magazines and books of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and all the other churches in Nigeria?

The late May Ellen Ezekial of blessed memory wrote very good  and well published novels, went on radio, TV and billboards on the major streets to advertize her books. But how many copies were sold?

But immediately City People and Hints came out with social gossip of sex and erotic love stories, almost every Nigerian city girl and young woman was displaying a copy everywhere as millions of them can even quote from Hints and City People than from the Holy Bible and their text books.

I have distributed books and magazines from school to school and done marketing surveys and engaged in the translations of mass literacy books into Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages and over a million copies were distributed gratis. Nigerians love freebies. What we call Ifako straight in Lagos city Yoruba slang.

If I want to write a book that will sell over a million copies in Nigeria, I can do so in 30 days.
Just write what Nigerians want to read.
Sex scandals, photo albums of the homes and posh cars of Nigerian kleptocrats.
Finis.

Even in our Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), most of the members have not read 99% of the books written by their fellow members. Because, everybody wants a free complimentary copy.
What a shame.
I took it upon myself to market the ANA First prize winning books of one them. But I have never seen him do same for others. And I lost so much money to promote the books of two other members. But today God is rewarding me from outside and inside Nigeria for my love of literature. Because, what you sow you reap.

By the way my new romantic book The Language of True Love has sold more copies in 9 months than my friend's Christians and the Internet published since 2004. And I am even restricting the distribution of my book to married couples only, because I don't want singles to use my samples of different kisses and where to kiss to commit sexual abuses and accuse Orikinla of being their teacher. And my book is being sold from N300 to N500 and it is only 66 pages.

My next book?
How about Sex on the Internet?

I bet you that millions of gullible Nigerians will rush for it!

Happy reading!

lmao

Nigerians read,but the percentage is low compared to a typical literate society.
The way people treasure libraries and books in the Western world is not the same in Nigeria.

@Orikinla
Please don't fault anyone for their choice of reading. The economy is to blame for Longman, Macmillan etc, rather than people's taste in reading.

BlackMamba:

@Orikinla
Please don't fault anyone for their choice of reading. The economy is to blame for Longman, Macmillan etc, rather than people's taste in reading.

Black Mamba,

Which economy is holding them back?

They read what they like.
Better Lover, pornographic booklets, Hints, Hearts, City People, Ovation International, etc.

Write a book and put a topless babe on the cover and just print 100,000 copies and simply spread them on the floor at CMS Bus Stop in Lagos for N200 each and watch and see how all the copies will disappear within a year.

I knew a very wealthy Nigerian and when I went to see him in his office, he brought out pornographic booklets and told me to select and read them and asked me the size of my penis. That I should show him the proof. And he said we should be sleeping with girls. And he described how he made love to his secretary in his office.
He is a close associate of the President. And he was honoured by the government.

The wife of another top Nigeria also laughed at me when she found out that I loved books more than dating girls and women. She said I should use what I have (my manhood) to get what I need. But I felt sorry for her ignorance.

Most of our elders and leaders are the corrupt.
No wonder Nigeria is in such a mess.

What of the popular pastor who wants to be President and sold his book by peace and by force. But finds it difficult to appreciate the books written by members of his own congregation.

Nigerians read.
May God clear our blurred vision and remove the scales from our eyes so that we may see clearly the true picture of our true destiny in Jesus Name. Amen.

Nigerians read indirectly. Each time you watch a home video, you are indirectly reading its screenplay!

I read Nairaland.

Leave the guy alone plz, We aint here to judge people but just to share opinions and have fun, Plz give him some credits as naijacutee told you

@ Radiant "Do I put you in the same category as him or you have eye problem"

My sister, English is not our language. Stop insulting your fellow Nigerian because of his poor understanding or use of the language. Based on the above sentence (yours actually) you have to appreciate the fact that YOU have the same problem too.

The last part of that sentence would have been "or do you have an eye problem?"

Please don't let me start on you, You won't like me very much!!!

ok

Nigerians read indirectly. Each time you watch a home video, you are indirectly reading its screenplay!

Interpretation: You should consider screenwriting if you want to make money from writing in Nigeria!

lmao u guys are about to eat me raw huh? I was shocked that after reading so much he still couldn't speak or write any better. If you want to know, I am still shocked and if I'd been trained to read a lot like him, for sure I'll be here and even criticize him more . I'm not showing off 'cause I hardly pick on people's grammar but his case was different.

Chumas, I must tell you my English wasn't wrong. Ok?Either way you ask the question is correct.

U guys no vex. ok? lol

you know, there is a joke that if you want to hide something from a black man put it in a book. this goes a long way to reflect the level of piority place on reading by blacks and if nigeria is the highest black nation in the world one can conclude that Nigerians dont read. this is one of the reasons we are where we are presently.

lovebayus:

you know, there is a joke that if you want to hide something from a black man put it in a book. this goes a long way to reflect the level of piority place on reading by blacks and if nigeria is the highest black nation in the world one can conclude that Nigerians don't read. this is one of the reasons we are where we are presently.

That statement was made by a white man and still hurts till date. And I want us to prove that statement wrong.

It is a white lie.