By Yemi Adebisi
Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu
Babangida Aliyu
Though there were enough food and drink to host the guests of Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State on Tuesday November 12 but the Chief Servant, as fondly called by members of his cabinet and the entire citizens of the state preferred a ‘bookish’ birthday party as he turned 58.
As part of the activities to celebrate his birthday, the governor inaugurated a Bookhawker Scheme through the Niger State Book Development Agency (NSBDA) with the aim of ensuring that every citizen has access to good books at affordable prices.
The event was the 3rd International Literary Colloquium with the theme: Creativity, Youth and National Development. Every year, the governor invites friends, well-wishers and especially Nigerian writers to celebrate his birthday, discussing issues that promote reading culture in Nigeria and Africa.
It would be recalled that the keynote speaker for the first edition which was held in 2011 was the renowned poet, Odia Ofeimun. Last year, it was the turn of the Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka during which an ultra modern e-library, Cyprian Ekwensi Library Complex was inaugurated in honour of the late story teller.
The keynote speaker for this year was Professor Kofi Anyiodoho from the University of Ghana.
The uniqueness of this edition, according to critics cannot be over-emphasised as it solves the problems of book distribution within the state. Apart from making books available in the bookshop recently attached to the agency, the bookhawker scheme would kick-start a general reading project in the state. The scheme is a strategy of taking books to the neighbourhood in towns and semi-urban areas of the state for parents to buy for their children thereby taking off the burden of deciding to go to the bookshops. The method of taking the books to the neighbourhood for sale would be through branded tricycles bearing MBA Bookhawker which the governor officially commissioned on his birthday.
Addressing the guests on the need for the new initiative, the governor observed that the culture of reading is still suffering in this part of the world. “No society develops unless the intellectual capacity is sustained. If you read our history, you will discover that there was a time people were worshiping snake and other animals. Through books, today we understand that there is a more superior God. When I finished primary school, I could write a letter that people can understand. Today, most graduates cannot construct good sentences. That is why we give free education and improve the capacity of the teachers. Usually this should not have been a government assignment; it should have been that of individual family and society. The reading culture has been skewed for other reasons. We must bring it back for the development of our critical thinking. Book Hawker will follow you to your house and tell you the books in vogue,” he said.
Secretary, Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), Professor Atukwei Okai from Accra Ghana also participated in the commissioning of the tricycles for the scheme, emphasising the infallibility of the initiative.
His words: “When we write, publishers publish when they fill like. Publishing is printing and disseminating. One major failure of publishing in Africa is book distribution. Governor Aliyu has addressed this to make books avoidable and available. I am not aware if this kind of gesture exists in any other place in Africa. It is the dream of every African nation to have such a leader with this initiative. We envy the children of Niger State and Minna in particular, hoping they will realise this noble course because it is special,” he said.
Among other things, the objectives of the scheme would include: provision of books at affordable prices; making books accessible to members of the community and children; halting the increasing lack of interest in reading and book related activities; provision of a platform for book and library development at community level; promotion of critical thinking at community level; provoking curiosity among children; tackling societal puzzles of the child while promoting greater understanding of his immediate environment.
The ten tricycles would be allocated to different parts of the city. They will operate daily in various locations by navigating through the neighbourhoods, selling books by both local and foreign authors from 10a.m to 6p.m.
It was observed that virtually all the children and adult at the event was book friendly and the initiative of the colloquium in particular appeared to have impacted greatly in the intellectual development of the people. The scheme, as observed would go a long way to redeem the ugly image of lethargy for reading as well as alleviating the challenge of book distribution.