The Dearth Of Reading Culture And Nigerian Authors (Part 2)

Barely 15years ago, the Nigerian music especially Hip Hop was never in vogue except the foreign music that took over the Nigerian entertainment industry. A popular TV channel called ‘Channel O’ was airing foreign music only with fusion of African Hip Hop music. The only few Nigerian musicians that made airwaves were the reggae ones but not as rich as the today Hip Hop/R and B musicians in the country. It was dawn on the like of Kennis Music ,Mr. Kenny Ogungbe,D1 and others to garner their foreign musical experiences together to rebrand the Nigerian entertainment industry which has positively yielded fruit in recent times.

Today, foreign music any longer sells in the Nigerian market while an average Nigerian child growing up can at least sings lyrics of one of the popular musician in Nigeria. Kudos must be given to the like of Don Jazzy,Clerance Peters and others rebranding their music production styles to international standard.

Back to our reading culture and Nigerian authors, if we continue to promote more of foreign books and authors, the passion at writing would phase out in due time. It is hard for an average Nigerian author to quote at least 10 successful Nigerian achievers and authors in their books. Despite that, several book fairs had been organized by some notable literary gurus in Nigeria to revive the reading culture and patronized our own-made authors, the demand for locally authored books are low.

If we are celebrating the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa who laid his life for South African people and God gave Nigeria some notable leaders who had also laid their lives for the progress of the country. Until we take our reading culture and authors serious, no country will promote Nigeria for us.

It is time we corrected this gap between foreign and Nigerian authors and books, if we must grow into the 21stcentury knowledge of creativity. Many Nigerian authors are living in object poverty in spite of their rich resumes and writing skills in life. Most successful Nigerian preachers and motivational speakers should be blamed for the total neglect of dare passion for reading culture and authors.

The judiciary system is progressing in terms of books written by legal luminaries as guide to law students in Nigeria. As far we continue to criticize the bad economy caused by greedy leaders and policy formulators, the reading culture can only be revived by the federal government if corruption and terrorism is technically tackled by this present government of President Mohammadu Buhari.

Today, many great preachers make references to late Archbishop Benson Idahosa’s nuggets as guide to spiritual prosperity. If our celebrated preachers can as well read the experiences of the younger writers, the encouraging factor of reading and writing culture would become a compulsory assignment to every aspiring authors or writers in the country. Bishop Leonard Umunna’s books remain the best when it comes to using his nuggets as illustration on the pulpit. What makes African people different from foreigners is culture and tradition which is alien to the latter. Let us promote our own books now not foreign ones.

Godday Odidi
Social Media Analyst/Creative Speaker
08058124798
Lagos

Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."

Articles by Godday Odidi