By Yemi Adebisi, Lagos.
Feedback from government, students, publishers, writers, booksellers, librarians and other stakeholders in book industry at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Port Harcourt World Book Capital City indicated that the programme made a lot of impacts on the city, Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
L-R: Chiemezie Elijah (CSS Nkpolu); Mary Arungwa (FBC Old GRA); Professor Zaynab Alkali (author); Mrs. Koko Kalango, John S. Tamuno and Timi Tarini at the March 2015 book-of-the-month reading held at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.
The youth, who were the main focus of the project from the onset, had pleasurable time through timeless varieties of programmes.
Apt to say that the programme left a formidable structure in the book industry, transforming life and reawakening the dying reading culture.
It was observed that more people developed rare interest in attending book party through the monthly gathering for book-of-the-month programme.
Upon the whole, twelve books were read in one year by literary enthusiasts that attended the programme. Beyond this, authors of most of these books were equally invited for reading and book signing at each sitting, an initiative some observers described as a boost to literary growth and development.
The authors include Elechi Amadi, author of The Great Ponds; Chimeka Garricks, Tomorrow Died Yesterday; JP Clark, Full Tide; Uwem Akpan, Say You’re One of Them and Professor Zaynab Alkali, The Virtuous Woman.
The event, which became a popular family outing, had an average of 150 people in attendance every month. The monthly book was also discussed on radio shows and on social media.
Discussants at the symposium session of the closing ceremony insisted that for this culture to be sustained, every member of the community would be involved in the campaign especially parents, teachers and public administrators. They also recommended that libraries should be returned back to schools and homes to promote reading culture. It was also suggested that teachers in both primary and secondary schools should be retrained to make reading more interesting to the youth. It was however argued that lack of employment turned some graduates to emergency teachers and not the love and passion of the job, the condition critics described as counter-productive.
Facial expression of teachers, according to the experts, could affect the psychology of students, stressing the need for teachers to understudy the temperament of their students.
The team advised the government to bring back strong guidance and counseling department to schools. Parents were also advised to promote reading by offering books as gifts to their wards on their birthday and wedding ceremonies.
The critics advised that the World Book Capital project should be used to create foundation for enabling policies, engaging in literary activities.
It was suggested that the culture of the book-of-the-month programme should be sustained and each book should be dramatised and celebrated.
It would be recalled that one of the outstanding weekly events during the project, Reading Tree, which kicked off May 2014 in 50 primary schools across Port Harcourt led to the establishment of 150 book clubs.
Also, 300 teachers and 100 volunteers were trained on how to set up and run book clubs. It was also noted that 58,500 books used for the programmes by the participating schools were domiciled in their school libraries.
Book Clubs were also established in 50 secondary schools. About 750 students read a pre-selected Book-of-the-Month and met once a month to discuss it and fill in a workbook based on the book. The 9000 books used for this programme were also domiciled in the school libraries for continuity of the book clubs after the World Book Capital year. Two teachers from each school as well as 100 volunteers underwent training on how to set up and run the book clubs.
Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Education, Michael West in his address advised all the participants to embrace the art of reading.
“No nation can develop without focussing on education. Without education, the world will be in darkness. Books are synonymous to education. You read and learn from books,” he said.
West said a primary school has been named after the programme, World Book Capital Primary School, because of its uniqueness among the comity of nations.
Apart from its concentration on the youth, the team also introduced the Adult Literacy Programme which focused on disadvantaged semi-literate and illiterate adults. Participants were between the ages of 18-50. The main aim was to teach or improve the literacy and numeracy skills of the participants. Held for three months, with 3-hour classes, three days a week, the students were taught arithmetic and English language. A total of 550 text books and 100 notebooks were provided for the 85 adults who participated in the programme.
Obele and The Storyteller, an exciting dance-drama which traced the history of information dissemination in Nigeria from her oral storytelling to the physical and digital book was performed during the opening and closing ceremonies. It featured live performances of praise singing, storytelling, traditional poetry, dances and other forms of art. The play also showed how the book has contributed to the development of the country. The script was written by Oladipo Agboluaje, directed by Israel Eboh and produced by the award winning Bikiya Graham Douglas of Beeta Universal Arts Foundation.
The team requested for entries for national essay competition on the topic: Possibilities for Nigeria at 100. Over 400 entries from 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja were received. Three winners eventually emerged which include Grace Livingstone from the University of Port Harcourt; Pearl Oguarah, Imo State Polytechnic, Nekede and Precious Uzuazor, University of Benin. In addition to a laptop and a collection of books, the winners got educational grants of N500,000; N300,000 and N200,000 respectively.
The books received through the book donation drives, were donated, along with branded book shelves as ‘seed’ libraries to indigent communities such as The Compassion Centre for physically handicapped children; The Child Special School; The Port Harcourt Prison among others.
As part of the celebrations to mark 50 years of the Arrow of God, by Chinua Achebe, the Achebe Foundation partnered with the PHWBC project to present a symposium on the book.
With the theme: Literature, Leadership and National Unity, the keynote speech was delivered by an Achebe student and mentee, Natasha Vaubel, who is currently teaching at Indiana University, USA. Other discussants include Helon Habila, Wale Okediran and Professor Molara Ogundipe.
The essence of the project was captured in the official theme song which brought together a team of talented young Nigerian artistes to celebrate the book through music.
Creative writing was encouraged during the project as children from 36 states of Nigeria were engaged in writing a chapter each of a book, Sight and Sounds of their states’ festivals, traditions and landmarks. The collation was published under the title, 100 Years Around Nigeria.
Writers-In-Residence project also brought together 12 aspiring writers from around Nigeria to reside in Songhai Farms in Bunu Tai near Port Harcourt. At the end of their programme, their stories were also collated and published, titled Songhai 12.
By and large, the closing ceremony ended with appreciations as organisations, schools, churches and individuals went home with varieties of award.
Adjudged by critics, the 2014 Port Harcourt World Book Capital project, as part of its goal at inception, succeeded in merging the world of books together as one in a year.
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