Reviving The Lost Glory of Reading and Writing Culture -By Abdulazeez Alhassan

Sympathy took over the better part of me, such that I was moved to tears! such is the comment you hear from someone that watches a film, drama or movie. One tide that has catastrophically impacted on reading and writing culture is the advancement made in the art of dramatisation of stories in the form of films. These films will look so real that I will prefer watching it to reading a copy of the story.

The emergence of the electronic media and hence the start of an infinite advancement in the social media has had its own dastard effects on the culture of reading and writing in Nigeria. People of all ages now prefer to use the mobile phones to read stories, watch films, read news, send and receive messages outside the primary use of the phone which is speaking to your desired and loved ones, friends and business associates.

The culture of reading and writing is now shared between the internet(soft copy) and books in the hands of readers(hard copy) in the ratio of 8 is to 2, that is 80% of the internet use to 20% using books for reading purpose. This is even mostly for academic pursuit and not for entertainment.

The dying culture of reading and writing needed for a long time ago to be revived. Individuals, organisations and associations, having realised the dire need for the revival of reading and writing culture(at least to stem the profileration of strange and promiscuous culture from been indoctrinated in the cultures of Nigerians) have stepped up effort geareds towards such revival. Associations such as Universal Writers and Authors(UWA), Yasmin Elrufai Foundation(YELF), Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA) etc in Kaduna have awakened themselves and others, so as to rekindle the light of reading culture in the youth in addition to the old of all walks of life.

Debate, Essay Writing Competition, Competitions in Lexicon, Literary Writing are some of the activities of Universal Writers and Authors(UWA), other activities include: reading and editorial conference, organising classes of English on vocabulary, grammar and comprehension of passages.

One other factors most disgracefully is the fact that most schools are incapable of delivering as efficiently as is required to the students. Most schools depend on the fact that the thrills and happiness of parents and students is the high number of credits a student gets when he writes his/her NECO and/or WAEC exams. Hence, such schools refuse to deliver the necessary/vital and primary components of the syllabuses of most or all subjects. Thus, depending on the fact they have promised As and Bs to their students at the time of their exams. ‘Why will I bother myself reading after all na five credits dem want. I can pay for that and because it is what my parents sent me to school for, they will assist me to pay to get good credits’, these are some of the things said by some students.

We at Universal Writers and Authors(UWA) feel it imperative on all to try as best as is possible to be committed to the revival of reading and writing culture in the youths, because knowledge is hidden in books and it is only through the rekindling of this culture that people will get access to such rare knowledge.

Universal Writers and Authors(UWA) wrote from Kaduna state