HATRED FOR READING

As a passionate writer and avid reader, I understand the relationship between reading and development. In fact, the most foolish people are those who don't read. And the poorest countries are nations that don't care about reading. Take Nigeria for instance, the only kind of books you find in large quantity are below standard textbooks, Bibles and spiritual books. That tells you the direction the nation is headed. It is no wonder that we house the largest amount of paupers on earth. Not only financial paupers but mental paupers. They are so poor that there are holes in their brains and their pockets, so no matter what you put in them, it always falls off. The source of the problem is hatred for reading! The students don't want to read, their parents 'don't have time' te read, their teachers in many cases cannot read... so at the end of the day, the only authors that thrive are the pastors, because their books are fantastic and promising. They offer you ways in which you can use prayers to kill all your enemies, get a wife, make billions and enter into heaven. Can I hear a very loud Halleluyah! You don't have to work, you just have to read the Bible, pray and pay your tithes even though you have no source of income. Halleluyah! Like Fela sang, 'My people dem go dey follow Imam (Amen); dey follow Pope (Amen); dey follow arcbishop (Amen)..." So the 'men of God' keep swindling them and raping their kids at the same time and the blind sheep continue to cheer them on. 

 

Now let's look at other countries. One of the reasons why Jeff Bezos was recently ranked the world's richest man was because he owns Amazon and one of the reasons why Amazon is very well known is because it sells books amongst other things. This company controls the world of ebook sales and no one else comes close. But you find that they have little or no presence in the world's second most populated continent, Africa. When it comes to books, they make so much money concentrating mostly on the US and some parts of Europe. But I believe that if Amazon were to establish its presence here, it would grow a thousand fold in the sale of everything except.. books! Everybody here wants flashy cars, fine jewelry and designer clothes, but nobody wants to read, even if the book is free. Have you ever seen a modern Nigerian who's not a self-sponsoring student save money to buy books? Bah! Abomination! What does he need books for? There's a new shoe in town or there's a new girl in the area who turns down all the guys that ask her out. These are the most important things in life! After wearing out the shoe and banging the girl six ways from Sunday, what has he achieved? Abso-fuckin-lutely nothing! In fact, he's worse off than when he started. So the next thing he does is to blame the government! Of course, the government also created a large share of the problem. There is absolutely no sensible modern library in Nigeria and yet this is the 7th most populated nation on the planet. Bookstores are a rarity. Unless you sell Bibles, substandard textbooks, Qurans and spiritual/prayer books, then you should never think of opening a bookstore. Most fiction books you will find around are distributed by the education ministry and must be forced on the students, but still, a sizeable number of them will never go past the first few pages. If it were books about how to make millions in 5 minutes without stress or how to bang a girl non-stop for 5 hours without getting tired. Aha! Now you're talking. But how can such knowledge move us and our nation forward?