Lawal-Solarin: Lessons from the fathers

One of my mentors in the book business is the Chairman of Literamed Publications, Ikeja, Otunba O.M Lawal-Solarin. .

I first met him in 1996, when as a member of the executive of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Lagos, we were holding meetings on several matters relating to the book and reading culture in Nigeria at his Alausa office. Later, we went on to work with him in the reading promotions organisation, Synergy Educational and other related book endeavours and I have made it a point of duty to remain in touch with him since then.

A Renaissance personality in every sense of the word, Lawal-Solarin is one Nigerian who could disagree with you at a level but yet work with you on another. Even when we had divergent views at a time over the modalities for re-energising the bookfair movement in Nigeria, he still kept the door open and would continue to discuss and work with us on the bigger picture of doing everything possible to grow the book trade and reading culture in the country.

In the course of over two decades relating with him, he has remained his affable best and committed to the promotion of best practices in the book trade.

Since those early 1969 days when the trained pharmacist ventured to publish the nation's first indigenous pharmaceutical index, Medipharm, Lawal-Solarin has not looked back on his commitment to books and the book trade. Today, Literamed not only publishes many of the traditional school texts that yet sustain a lot of the operations of the major publishers in the country, it also publishes the popular Lantern Books readers that generations of readers continue to savour and delight in.

My latest meeting with him took place this week and in the course of discussions, he once more unveiled his heart on what he considers the 'goldmine that remains untapped in the Nigerian books landscape.

'Richard, if only government will be faithful to implementing its own National Book Policy. The policy says that government should work towards ensuring that text books are written and published by Nigerian professionals and made available to children in the primary and secondary school levels. Now can you imagine what boost the educational sector and indeed the economy would receive if only four text books each are provided for the 25 million children at the primary school level. That would be 100 million books and it would impact every bit of the book chain. But we are not doing that.'

At this meeting also, Lawal-Solarin touched on another point of inspiration that he had as he grew up. It had to do with his having to spend some time in an intellectual community in the U.K where books and discussions around ideas were the staple. It was an atmosphere that rubbed off on him most thoroughly, and which lifted him far above the pedestrian inclinations and dispositions of many of his contemporaries.

'Richard, that time and encounter made such an impact on me that has continued till date. Those many hours spent, discussing ideas of different hues and endless streams of topics amidst a sea of books was indeed something else. It helped shape me into what I am today and I am glad for it.'

That is vintage Lawal-Solarin. Insightful. Perceptive. Expansive. With men like this, the Nigerian book sector and indeed the nation would be better for it. Do have a great day, Sir.

Last line: More individuals and organisations are standing up to be counted in the Nigerian National Book Week holding from April 23-29, 2012. You too can and should be involved.

Volunteering for the National Reading Week, April 23-29

For those who are interested in sharing motivational tips with some potential readers and writers in a school near where they live or work as part of the National Book Week package for this year that we are coordinating from April 23-29, this is the way to go

It runs two ways; either we assign you a school to do so or you 'adopt' a school near your home or office and prepare a 20-minute assembly time talk on the theme, 'the joy of reading' to be delivered there on any day during the week that is already pre-negotiated and agreed with the authorities of the school.

If you need further help with organisational and contact logistics, letters, etc, do send a mail to richard.mammah@gmail.com.

Thanks for volunteering.

How much of a reading problem do we have (2)

As part of the package for the Nigerian National Reading Week, holding April 23-29, we plan to organise some training and refresher sessions for reading teachers at the primary and secondary school levels.

 

When I mentioned this last week to my friend of many years, Dr. Supo Jegede of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, he looked me straight in the eyes and in his straight but perceptive manner asked 'and how really do you want to bring this about?'

Let me take a detour and tell you a few things about Dr. Jegede. A very soft-spoken, humble and unassuming academic, Jegede in my view belongs to that endangered community of strident academics, who enjoy the university and want to simply do their best for society through that system. 'Richard, you know what I am, an academic, I am not a businessman, I am not a trader,' he recently remarked to me.

I had first met the don in the second half of the decade of the nineties when we had worked together on the Heinrich Boll Stiftung-assisted Network for the Promotion of Reading in Nigeria (NEP-READ) and then as at now he has always been a most dependable ally on the reading promotions circuit..

 

I went on to give him more details on the package of activities to which he made his very customary short but most prompting remarks.

For example, on the issue of the workshops for school teachers, he wanted to know which school segments we were going to focus on, pointing out that from his studies class has something to do with reading habits.

'The reading challenges of children at the University of Lagos International School or indeed other elite schools in Ikoyi and elsewhere are not exactly the same with public school pupils in the backsides of Mushin or Ajegunle and we would need to take this into consideration when designing the package.' 

 

Class reared its head again when I went on to describe the essentially on-line computer-based framework the companion story writing competition being put together to get students to contribute lines to the longest Nigerian story project would take. 'That is what I am talking about,' Jegede interjected, 'as you very well know, there are some of our students that would not be contributing to the story on account of their class.'

With scholars like Jegede who you can rely on to bring in fresh perspectives to reading projects, we are sure of a stronger and enriched reading atmosphere in Nigeria as the years go by and as more and more of us dutifully stand up to be counted in this most valuable crusade 

 

Meanwhile, the build-up for the National Reading Week is getting on quite strong. As part of the mobilization process, we are visiting and reaching out to all the book centres we can find. Along this line, yours truly was at Bible Wonderland/Book City today (23/01/12) and my first impulse on seeing the sea of good books on display, and several too by anther very good friend, Praise George, was to repent of all the books in me that I have not yet written and published! God! Goodluck can govern anyhow he wants. Boko Haram can Boko what they want. Subsidies can be removed and replaced five times over. Me, I have to read, read, read...and then go on to write all of my books!! Did I hear you say Amen!

Indeed, we need all hands to be on deck to have the great National Reading Week event that would provide further fillip to our books and reading industry. I am formally therefore inviting all of my readers, friends, associates, and indeed all lovers of books to stand up to be counted. The dates are April 23-29 and there are very many ways in which you can do something in the project. 

 

You may want to do a motivational talk to a school in your neighbourhood (office or home) within that week. You may want to buy and donate books to a school of your choice (your alma mater, etc). You may want to organise your own joining event in your flat, estate, church etc, that resonates with the theme of the event, 'the joy of reading.' You may want to talk to someone else to participate or link us to someone who you think will want to be involved. Individuals, associations, businesses, indeed, everyone is welcome. We will address all other questions that you have if you send them to richard.mammah@gmail.com

It is a reading year. What are you reading now?

How much of a reading problem do we have in Nigeria today?

On the surface, it is not all too visible but in the course of interacting with people in the field, it is coming out quite well that there is indeed a very grave problem.

Another thing to note about the crisis of reading in Nigeria is that it is indeed diverse in its manifestation.

I will explain by reporting two meetings that I had in the first three weeks of the year 2012.

The first was with the Proprietress of Utol Schools, Arepo, Ogun State, Mrs. Oladeji and the other was with Dr. Supo Jegede of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos.


For Oladeji, a lot of the reading difficulty she sees has to do with the fact that many schools and parents do not pay attention to the fact that reading and literacy by extension were creative activities that need to be addressed most creatively, particularly at the infant stage. 

She harps on the need for parents to find time to read to their children, buy additional reading materials for them, maintain home libraries and generally be involved in homework and curriculum support and tracking.


For schools, she counsels they should not just get children to learn alphabets and words but to ensure that the whole educational process builds on the natural inclinations of the children to music, symbolism and play. This she says will take away a lot of the tedium from the reading process and get the children to enjoy reading as a natural and delight-some experience. Equally she wants them to develop their own libraries, continue to stock it, and very importantly, get the children to use it and enjoy using it.

I will continue with Dr. Jegede's submissions in another post.

Meanwhile, in continuation of our arrangements for the Nigerian National Reading Week 2012 holding from April 23-29, we are calling on everyone out there who is already a reader and would want to be involved with helping to get others to read, continue to read and enjoy reading to stand up to be counted. 

In line with our desire to carry all along, we are actively encouraging such individuals and organisations to bring in their own inputs and programmes into the common pool for the Reading Week. 

A number of writers, libraries, reading promoters, publishers and booksellers are already signing up for our events, designing their own programmes and are in talks with us and you are welcome to join in too. We have such a reading crisis in the country that everyone that can should simply do his bit. 

And as you do this, please pass on all confirmed organisational details to us in time so we can also help publicize it for other people to attend your own session. 

A step-by-step and cost-effective guide to organising such an event will be published on these pages shortly.

Theme for the National Reading Week 2012

We are most encouraged by the support we are getting from all over Nigeria and beyond for our National Reading Week 2012. People are writing and calling in, asking questions on details, making refreshing inputs and generally taking their place in this reading promotions fiesta.

One such call this week led us to the theme for the 2012 edition we had been searching for. It is 'the joy of reading!'

The dates, be reminded, are Monday April 23 running through Sunday April 29. The choice of dates has been deliberate. For almost two decades now, the United Nations though its agency, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has adopted and marked April 23 as World Book Day. In other climes, the date is associated with the birth of two most accomplished authors. These are the English bard, Willam Shakespeare and the Spanish storyteller, Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. It is also a date that several reading promotions organisations in Nigeria have striven to commemorate.

In arriving at our choice of date therefore, we decided to latch on this date and join other organisations in calling more and sustained attention to the place of the book in our life as a people.

In our own instance here in Nigeria, there is a second bonus for our reading space in the dates which one commentator recently drew our attention to. The Nigerian International Bookfair (NIBF) put together by the Nigerian Bookfair Trust (NBFT) holds early in May every year. For 2012, the specific dates are May 7-13. Without planning to therefore, the national reading week would then serve as some kind of pre-event, a build-up activity to that fair.

One final credit. In the decade of the 1990s, the writer and administrator, Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, in the company of Mabel Segun and other bibliophiles had organised an earlier annual National Book Week. Our modest event would therefore be continuing in that tradition, hopefully to be reinforced by newer perspectives and imperatives.

Sound the word, tell your neighbour the truth you know. That: indeed, a reading people are a most prosperous people. 

National Reading Week/Longest Nigerian Story

Hello,

As part of my reading promotions activities this year, 2012, i am inviting you to work
with and support me as i organise the National Reading Week to hold from Monday
April 23 through Sunday, April 29.
We would be hosting reading events in schools and public places all over the country
and would acknowledge your support and assistance as you give it.
As part of the activities, we would open up a website where school children from all
over Nigeria can contribute to writing 'the longest nigerian story.'
Please give your support in any way you can. I am very open to suggestions,
donations and ideas.