Book Industry Suffocating, Needs Saviour – Stakeholders

Nigerian Book industry has been said to be currently suffocating and in dire need of a saviour.
Stakeholders in the industry stated this, Wednesday, at the opening of the 22nd Nigeria International Book Fair in Lagos.
Minister of Education and special guest of honour at the Fair, Adamu Adamu, stressed the need for concerted efforts to protect the book industry.
Represented by the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, Prof. Ismail Junaidu, Adamu revealed that the National Book Policy had already been approved, “but awaiting legislative action”.
While urging stakeholders to ensure that no book gets into schools without assessment, Adamu implored those in book ecosystem to partner in ensuring that the future of children is protected, especially from the books he described as corrupt, with no moral content.
Chairman of Nigerian Book Fair Trust, Dare Oluwatuyi, called for a favourable government policy for books to thrive.
He said the major goal of the book fair trust is to use NIBF “as a special purpose vehicle to encourage and improve the reading culture in our country”.
According to him, there is an ongoing collaboration with relevant government agencies, including Universal Basic Education Commission, Tertiary Education Trust Fund and others to save the industry.
Oluwatoyin said the collaboration was to ensure that literature and other reading materials are provided at affordable cost and easily accessible.
“We are working with schools, the network of books’ clubs and reading promoters in Nigeria and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) book clubs in Africa to continue to arouse the interest of children and youths in reading and education generally”, he said.
The book fair featured Tertiary Education Summit on: ‘Fresh Ideas for Overhauling Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Complex’, among others.