My Arepo bookseller

I moved house a little over two years ago from Oregun, Ikeja to Arepo, coming to join the ‘growing tribe of Lagosians who live in Ogun state!’

On settling in, I discovered a bookshop within the community and as ‘ontological species of identical plumage congregate to the nearest proximity’ (do not log-off please, it is K.O Mbadiwe, Patrick Obahiagbon’s elder brother talking!), I decided to look it up.

Straight away, I would say that I am not impressed by the range and volume of books on display. The shop only has stationeries, recommended school books, a few children’s story books, Christian and motivational texts on display. I took it a step further and asked a few neighbours too and for those who had bothered to stop by, their comments were not dissimilar.

But then, electing to look at the other side of things, I saw two things that lifted my spirit. One, a few weeks ago, to drive traffic to the shop, the bookseller had put up a banner on the main entrance to the community, advertising his shop, and second, having established and run a bookshop in Ogudu, Lagos myself, I could identify with the tenacity and courage that it takes to set up a bookshop in an essentially rural or para-urban community in today’s largely a-literate Nigeria.

I salute my Arepo bookseller but will yet get back there to engage him on the question of inadequate stock. And if you, my reader should ask me, I will report back to you on progress in this wise.