Citizen Emmanuel Okoro

We celebrate and salute today the devotion and sense of duty of one Nigerian who has been dogged and consistent in the pursuit of things books in this land. He is Citizen Emmanuel Okoro.  Since 1997 when our paths crossed at Synergy Educational, he has remained consistent on this set course, almost never flagging nor faltering for a moment or the other.

I am particularly writing this because of a recent incident involving Emma (as we call him in the course of everyday conversation) while he was immersed in one of his book advocacy jaunts. He had set out to participate in the just ended 2011 national convention of the Christian Booksellers Association of Nigeria (CBAN) held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Having left Lagos on Tuesday, November 1 and being billed to spend all of the week at the event, I was surprised to hear him say when I called to get a status report on the Thursday of the event that he was on his way back to Lagos! I wished him a safe journey back and waited for him to return to ask why the change in arrangements.

‘Oga mi, there was really not much going on at the event. The audience was sparse and there was really nothing phenomenal in the programme to keep someone there for long’

I could identify with him. Having attended the Western Zone fair of CBAN held in Maryland, Lagos earlier in the year and noticing myself that the programme was largely non-spectacular, I put two and two and concluded that there is indeed work for people like Emmanuel Okoro to do in helping to further grow the Nigerian book space. But do the current core drivers of that space really understand this and would they make room for determined bibliophiles like our own Emma to contribute their own bit in this continuing evolution?

The next major book event in the national calendar is the CORA event holding at Freedom Park, Lagos from November 17 to 19 and by God’s grace, yours truly would be there and send out fresh reports on the event to you from there. A reading Nigeria is possible!