The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), have pledged to work together to revive the reading culture and localise literature for the benefit of society and future generations.
The two groups made this pledge at the weekend when the new executive of ANA  led by its Chairman, Rivers State chapter, Chief Adi Wali, paid a courtesy visit to the Rivers State Council of NUJ at the Ernest Ikoli Press Centre, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt.
Rivers State Chairman of the NUJ, Stanley Job used the occasion to congratulate the ANA Rivers State Chairman, Adi Wali on his election, expressing the hope that both organisations would continue to find mutually beneficial avenues for collaboration with a view to achieving societal development.
Job regretted that reading culture has died, explaining that people read just for the sake of examinations.
According to him, It’s very unfortunate that people have been saying if you don’t want an African man to see something, put it in a book because reading culture is no longer there. I think there is need for us to revive the culture of reading because a lot of people read just for the sake of exams; our students, our children, once it is exams they’ll carry their books and read seriously and once the exam is over, they drop their books. But that shouldn’t be”.
“The NUJ and ANA do very similar work as you have identified. We are into the business of informing, entertaining and educating and even we’ve added one which is mobilizing the people. The only difference is that our work can be accessed quickly and easily, like if an event is happening now, in the next few minutes you’ll hear. But your own, you’ll make research and after sometime you’ll come up with a book. That is why I said we do similar work.
The NUJ Chairman drew attention to the dearth of indigenous literature, urging ANA to mainstream the need for more books to be authored by Nigerians which can be better understood and absorbed by the people given the localized contexts.
“When we were in school, most of the books we read were written by foreign authors and when you’re reading, understanding sometimes is very difficult because their way of thinking and their environment is different from ours. But if it’s done by our own people, it’s like talking to someone you know and giving examples that are very common amongst us,” he said.
Earlier, ANA State Chairman, Chief Adi Wali informed that the visit was aimed at exploring mutual avenues for value addition to society and common grounds of partnership given that both use the instrumentality of the pen to drive societal growth, pointing out that it was imperative for writers and journalists to utilise their writing for development.