As the world marks
this year’s World Book Day (WBD) last Thursday, a lecturer in the Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt, Dr Gbule, Ndidi, has called on the reading public to read.
Dr Gbule, who spoke with The Tide exclusively, noted that the World Book Day is a good initiative aimed at encouraging people to read.
While commenting the initiatives of the WBD, he noted that Nigerians currently have a poor reading habit, hence, “reading at least a book a day could improve our reading culture”.
He explained that “for us in Nigeria, the reading culture is dying. Gone are the days when people read.
Therefore, the WBD will reawaken the reading culture of Nigerian’s. There is, infact, the need to inculcate in Nigerians a reading culture, which will invariably enhance communication”, he said.
Dr Gbule, however, decried the fact that most people in Nigeria “depend on plagiarising materials from the internet, forgetting that those things on the internet were written by people who have read.”
Stressing the importance of reading, a public commentator, Dr Amina Fiberisima stated that books should be the best of friend of any reasonable person.
“If you don’t like book, try ignorance. If you don’t want to buy books, go and buy ignorance”, he said.
According to him, “people should know that the treasures of this world, the wealth of this world, the wisdom of this world that has taken any individual or nation forward is in books.
“So, when you are friendly with books, you are acquiring knowledge, you are expanding your frontiers of wisdom. Nobody will intimidate you because the power of knowledge is more than the power of gun”, he said.
Dr Fiberisima, therefore, urged the public to in recognition of marking of the WBD to encourage themselves to learn how to buy books to read.
“In this context, if you get a newspaper (and read), you are acquiring knowledge. Afterall, there are articles put together as collection of books”.
On his part, a lecturers in the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Dr Felix Igwe, acknowledged the fact that, like other events, WBD is also given a special day.
Dr Igwe noted that, “there is the need for that kind of emphasis, knowing that books are beginning to get extinct, as it were, although we are all talking about books now.
Now that we are going into the technological age in which they talk about soft and hard copy, you still cannot do without the hard copy because that is where the repository of knowledge has to be relied on.
“In celebrating the WBD therefore, it is very important to highlight that books have always been what has kept us the way we are now.
In this age, we shouldn’t do away with it. We should keep the legacy, which is one way to ensure sustainability of our knowledge today and the one we are going to acquire tomorrow,” he said.
From the perspective of a part one student of mathematics/statistics, in the University of Port Harcourt, Banimibo-Ofori Georgewill, WBD should serve as a reminder to the world of our appointment with reading and make us want to read in order to explore more knowledge.
It is a period when everybody should not only know, but also appreciate the benefit of reading throughout the year,” he said.
The WBD is a celebration of Authors, illustration of books and most importantly a celebration of reading.
It is the biggest celebration of its kind designated by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, marked in over 100 countries globally.
This year’s edition, with the theme, “Read the World”, is the 18th.

Stories by Sogbeba Dokubo

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