Hi fellow Nlanders, This question has been bugging me ever since and i wanted to get your views on why we nigerians dont read much. Youths in particular are fond of this trend. Reading is a central system in a countries development by we dont imbibe this culture, What is your take on the reasons for poor reading habits amongst youths in Nigeria. Is it the fault of the Government, Parents or the media,

I don't read with kersoene lamps or candles.

The average Nigerian youth does not read and severely lacks critical thinking skills. It is a very shameful and dangerous situation that doesn't bode well for the future of the country.
The cause of the situation rests very firmly with our older generations, who are a mostly wasted and selfish lot. A bunch of people scrambling for corrupt juicy bits and leaving nothing for the younger generation, not even a decent education. It is impossible to have a revolution in Nigeria, otherwise it would have been best to kill off most of the older elite.

But i really think the primary reason for this is the advent of the new media technology system. Through the advent of the blackberry device and other new gadgets, the youths are left with no time to read or study. We also have the problem of book piracy were pirates duplicate books to sell at cheaper prices thus reducing the amount of book writers in the society. What is the way out of this whole scemario.

@ OP
If you have "read" through Nairaland's instruction, you should be able to locate the Educational Section, which is meant for post like this.

This section is call "Politics" because, only matters bordering politics is allowed to be discussed here.

BTW can you furnish us with statistics or any authentic data to backup your claims?

I'm currently conducting a research on this problem, and i am talking from what i observed during the course of my thesis. These youths are preoccupied with modern day technology from my finding, my question is on how this can be tackled. P.S i posted this same forum on the education page but i wanted to diversify, Pls try and understand,

austin4real:

But i really think the primary reason for this is the advent of the new media technology system. Through the advent of the blackberry device and other new gadgets, the youths are left with no time to read or study. We also have the problem of book piracy were pirates duplicate books to sell at cheaper prices thus reducing the amount of book writers in the society. What is the way out of this whole scemario.

But many people use the internet to gain knowledge. I am on the internet a lot and 95% of the time I am learning about economics, history, culture languages, business opportunities. etc. I go on youtube to watch speeches about economists like Milton Friedman, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Thomas Sowell, Dambisa Moyo, Jeffrey Sachs, etc. I learn about politics and American foreign policy by watching John Perkins speak. I learn about histroy by going on the google and searching for African true history. Before I though that Africans were in mudhuts for our entire lives. NOw I know that we had great kingdoms like the Jausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Benin Kingdoms. Queen Sheeba was a leader and everyone thought she was a man until she died and they figured out she was a women. Benin Kingdom was destoryed by the British who came to Nigeria. They destroyed our books and had us change our culture. We had great societies there and our own script.

Twitter is used so I can learn about current news in Nigeria so I always search for nigerian economics or business. I am predicting that over the next 5 years agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing will boom in Nigeria.Tourism because of Badagry (Jackson 5 museum) and Six Flags near Tinapa. Agriculture because the FG is investing more in it. Manufacturing because there are many factories that moved to Ghana but when the power is better, they will move back.

But not everyone is like me.

Nigerians do read a lot, we only read books that set boundary to the way we reason, think and act. Check our bookshops, we have more "pastor" books than mathematics books.

@ IGBO, how many people do think have the privilege of a proper internet connection, Out Broadband service is poor and expensive and is not affordable to an average Nigerian citizen. That was why i attributed part of out poor reading culture to poverty.
@ Abes, Dats a known fact but why cant we delve into books that would task or mind, implement change, Constitute Development, etc. Cant we take a cue from American citizens, U hardly find an American idle, There books are there favorite companion, that is the main reason they think far above us. NO OFFENSE

@austin
Most young Americans don't read unless it is for school. Black white Asians, etc most like to watch TV and go on facebook. They don't invest in their minds as much. Too busy watching Jersey Shore then worrying about the recession.

Also you are right about the internet connectivity. We need to upgrade the internet capacity in Nigeria. Develop with the use of ICT.

@ IGBO i am not quite sure of the trend over dere, but i'm quite sure that the amount of american youths that do such are less than what we have over here, You can hardly find youths in the library reading, It's only if they have exams coming that is when you find them in bulk in cramming, Where do we expect to gain from this. @ the end of the day employers refer to Nigerian graduates as half baked. SMH for our condition in Naija ooo,

The minister of Educatoin has to fix the education sector so people are competent to work in this globalized world.