By Ijendu Iheaka
The South East / South South Book Sellers Association of Nigeria (BAN) has called on the government to develop an implementable book policy to guide its production, sales and consumption.
Mr. Odinaka Ohaekwusi, the Coordinator, South East / South South chapter of BAN made the call on Friday in an interview with newsmen in Aba.
Ohaekwusi said that the rate of sales of books in Abia and surrounding states is poor, noting that implementable book policies can improve the industry’s general outlook.
“Yes, Nigeria should get a book policy and also an examination policy. They do not just need to develop that, they should enforce and implement such policies for them to be useful.
“Unless some actions are taken to make the process of producing books cheaper and reading books more encouraging, things are going to get worse with our youth in the future.
“Books give people ideas of how to develop themselves, live better lives and be useful to their society, but in a country where its youths refuse to read books, what would their future look like,” he asked.
Ohaekwusi regretted that for many years now, the country’s book market changed with even the students who are supposed to be major consumers of books refusing to buy books.
The BAN coordinator insisted that the refusal to buy books was not the result of high cost of books but rather, the result of very poor reading culture in an era of phone age where students desire phones than books.
“Nowadays, students buy books but the rate at which they buy books is very low because of poor reading culture among the students and even the Teachers themselves.
“If you go to schools to introduce books to them, they will be asking for the simplest books.
“If it is English literature books that you are introducing, they will be asking for the smaller volumes. They don’t ask for bigger volumes again.
“The teachers will tell you that before the students will finish the small volume, it will take long.
“Both the teachers and students continue to give excuses and won’t even care what is contained in the book but will prefer the ones the students will finish in 10 minutes and go their way,” he said.
He said that such negative attitude of young people to books in the 21st Century and their content because of poor reading culture is affecting the book trade so much.
Ohaekwusi said that if the government did not act decisively to change the trend which is visibly affecting the character and work performance of younger generation, the future will be bleaker.
He also called on the government to work assiduously with security agencies to curb piracy which is another key enemy of the book trade.
