Nigerians don't read anymore! What are the problems and how do we revive the Reading Culture?

I think generally, reading for pleasure in the Nigerian Culture is not something that has been widely encouraged. Most have been brought up to view reading as something you do in order to pass examinations and parents encouraged their children to bury themselves studying text books. The result being; adults who grew up to view reading as a necessary evil or chore which if they would avoid if they could help it.
So probably promoting the view that reading could also be something pleasurable would be a start, changing current attitudes,  then maybe this could be the start to halting the decline.

When I was a child, my parents bought more story books than "toys." I also think television, mobile phones,and the internet is more appealing to kids than having a book to themselves.
Solution
It is the duty of the parents not even school teachers to instill a reading culture in their wards by buying books rather than unnnecssary toys, christmas clothes etc. And also restricting television.
In our days we had just NTA that commenced broadcast by 4 pm but now television is a 24 hr deal. (Glory be to God for the advent of private television station.) Notwithstanding television watching has to be decreased.

i don't think we had a reading culture before in the first place.

build public libraries in communities
sell papers written in pidgin (?)
cheaper books and papers in general
etc

WesleyanA:

i don't think we had a reading culture before in the first place.

Oh yes we did. I remember in primary school we all had reading corners where we could go and read books at leisure periods. Birthday gifts always came in the form of your favorite novel. Up until senior secondary school the popular books doing the rounds then were the pacesetters novels and the famous African Writers Series books.

Today 24hrs TV and coolfm has replaced the need to bury our heads in a good old book by Amos Tutuola.

erm, where and when was this? reading corners? I beg to differ, I can only say you were lucky enough to have that but I can tell you it certainly would've been a rare sight. My love for reading was nutured by my parents who were willing to think outside the box.

Parents schools & society need to get involved.parents don't have time to read themselves teying to make ends meet.schools teach kids to read solely to pass exams society just doesn't care if books are written or read.Government, there are no medals for reading so govt doesn't really care.individually we can promote book reading by forming book clubs. & acting as rolemodels for others.

promoting the advantages of reading.
setting up programmes, competitions, etc
that will really inspire folks to read.

making books, magazines, etc affordable
and available.

encouraging fine writers to write and be published;
discouraging hungry writers.

i don't think we had a reading culture before in the first place.

Of course we did. Back in the days, it was hugely fashionable to have a Pacesetters, Famous Five or Hardley Chase in the back pocket of your Levi's jeans and many a Levi in those days retain the tell-tale fade-stamp of the permanent book-in-the-pocket.

One of the problems, I think, is that a lot of the "mainstream" reading materials (Famous Five, Hardley Chase, Harold Robins, Sydney Sheldon, Mills and Boon, etc) were imported and the SAP days probably did us in due to:

1. High cost of importation because of the devaluation of the Naira
2. High pressure on time due to the "panic" among the citizenry and the exigency to make ends meet, and
3. Intellectual decay due to corruption as well as physical and mental poverty

However, it looks like we are gradually getting back on track.  We can further boost this renaissance by encouraging more stores like Nu-Metro to come on stream (e.g. with tax incentives, etc); encouraging more on-line book retailers now that we have a viable payment system in Inter-switch, and, perhaps developing public libraries in all LGAs.

saha:

Parents schools & society need to get involved.parents don't have time to read themselves teying to make ends meet.schools teach kids to read solely to pass exams society just doesn't care if books are written or read.Government, there are no medals for reading so govt doesn't really care.individually we can promote book reading by forming book clubs. & acting as rolemodels for others.

well said

davidylan:



Today 24hrs TV and coolfm has replaced the need to bury our heads in a good old book by Amos Tutuola.

so true

So, What is the way forward now?
there should be solution to this problem.
be 4 it gets out of hand.

i think the reading culture is gone for good.


things have changed, everything is different now.