Emmanuella Edun-Adedeji, an author, has urged all stakeholders in the education sector to entrench a strong reading culture to .
Edun-Adedeji made the call at a Book Launch of the Inspiration Manual Fantastic Lines of Wisdom and the Exhibition of Inspirational Poetonic Wall Quotes on Saturday.
The book launch has as its theme: “Flow 2022, A Celebration of Inspiration, Creativity, Life”.
Edun-Adedeji is a broadcaster, poet, blogger, author of Pondering Whispers (paper book) and More Than Just A She (audio book).
She decried the poor reading culture in the country, specifically among primary and secondary school students, saying “it has reached an alarming state”.
According to her, the situation needs to be urgently addressed before it goes out of hand.
“The last two decades witnessed a sharp deterioration in the reading culture among Nigerians. Before, reading was one of our best hobbies, but nowadays, with the advent of the social media, reading is disregarded.
“The causes of poor reading culture include the present defective education system, reading language problem, lack of well-equiped libraries and its low patronage in schools, among others.
“Different people read for different reasons. Some read to acquire knowledge for self-improvement, pleasure, relaxation or entertainment, while others read to pass examinations.
“Therefore, reading is a skill, which must be consciously developed and nurtured.’ she noted.
Edun-Adedeji said one needs to read frequently.
“As a matter of fact, one needs to read anything one can lay one’s hands on. One needs to read until words become one’s friends.
“The more one reads, the more the reading skill develops. There is a saying that continuous reading brings about brain automatism. Reading also enhances one’s writing skill.
“Naturally, reading precedes writing. For example, a child first learns how to read before he or she learns how to write. Additionally, reading improves one’s spoken language.
“It enables one to learn every part of a language like vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar.’’
The writer further said that the more one reads books that are written in a particular language, the more fluent one becomes in that language.
Edun-Adedeji urged the government, parents and educational institutions to revamp the value of reading culture.
This, she added, would lead to a desirable knowledge economy which could be achieved in the society.
The author said her flair for reading brought out the desire to write a book of her own since she never had one.
She said, “Education is very important for us to be learned, I walk on the streets to see the level of moral decadence among the youth. I see a lot of them come across a lot of touts and social miscreant.
“These are the people that have in them what can be of better help to the society, but they are just taking laws into their hands and just living the life the way they want.
“Hence, our leaders should be interested in the growth of the society and prevent destruction of negativity.”
On his part, Mr Bola Oluwadamisi, the General Overseer, Rohi Compassionate and Apostolic Ministry (ROCAAM), also agreed with Edun-Adedeji that the reading habits among the youth in the country had reduced.
“In spite of the fact that the world is now a global village where all the availability of information you need are already available on the net, people still do not spend time to read.
“They only devote time to cut corners on what they can quickly read and get something out of it illegitimately.
“My message is that we should go back to God because He is the author and finisher of our faith.
“Therefore, for us to achieve good success, we must cultivate the habit of not just reading but meditating and studying information that will enrich the life of the reader.”
According to Oluwadamisi, the more knowledge they acquire through diligent reading, the more added value to them, humanity at large and then their reading culture will get better.
(NAN)
