AWKA – The National Librarian, National Library of Nigeria, Professor Lenrie Aina, has decried the poor reading culture among Nigerians, particularly the youth.
Aina said the ugly trend had assumed a dangerous dimension in Nigeria and was capable of impeding national development if the urgently was not addressed.
Aina, who was represented by Assistant Chief librarian, Gloria Okeagu, during the National Library of Nigeria National Readership Promotion Campaign at the Custodial Centre, Awka, Anambra State, disclosed this on Wednesday.
At the event, themed: “Reading, A Tool For Empowering The Vulnerable,” Aina said the campaign, which was the first time at the center, was targeted at encouraging the inmates to imbibe the culture of reading, stressing that reading enriched the minds and changes one’s thoughts and world.
According to her, “the campaign is a collective effort with other stakeholders in order to proffer solutions that will ameliorate the poor reading culture among Nigerians.
“The extension of the exercise to the correctional services across the country was in line with the present administration’s policy of reaching out to the vulnerable and the poor.”
She urged the inmates to take advantage of the provision of reading opportunities in the centres to read instead of wasting their time with idle talks.
Assuring of the provision of carefully selected books to meet the inmates’ information needs, the Chief Librarian, however, noted the library’s mindfulness in ensuring the Nigerian Correctional Service policy of not allowing restricted books to the centres were not abused.
Earlier, the Controller of Correctional Service, Custodial Centre, Awka, Nwakaeze Emmanuel, described poor reading culture as contagious, which he said, could negatively affect any unserious minded person who treated his future with levity.
