THE 2016 READ ACROSS NIGERIA PROJECT; A GOODWILL MESSAGE BY DR WALE OKEDIRAN (2016 Honouree)

As a newly elected Member of the House of Representatives, Abuja in 2004, all that was on my mind was how to effectively perform my duties as a Federal Legislator. Having previously served the Association Of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in various positions such as the Oyo State Chairman, National Treasurer and National General Secretary, I thought that I was done with ANA politics. However, some ANA Members led by two young friends of mine, Baba Dzukogi and Denja Abdullahi would have none of it. And despite all my pleas to be left alone, the duo, with their colleagues finally succeeded in drafting me into the ANA Presidency between 2005 and 2008. To the glory of God and with the good support of my Executive, I gave a good account of myself.

Again, late last year, when another ANA member from Oyo State, Wole Adedoyin came up with the idea of an annual Read Across Nigeria Campaign Project with the maiden edition to be held in my honour, I did all I could to discourage the young man. This was because since I completed my tenure as the ANA President in 2008, I have been working from the background to support the Association and did not want any more publicity. At a point, I stopped answering Wole’s phone calls and replying his emails just to discourage him. However, he persisted and today his dream of a National Reading project has come to stay.

It is always a great honour to be found worthy by your peers for a position of leadership or recognition and for this I am very grateful not only to Wole Adedoyin and his team, but to all those who over the years have pulled me up and aided me to give of the best of my talent and creativity. I am aware that the ANA already has an annual National Literary Awareness Campaign which has been ably supported for the last few years by my good friend, Mallam Yusuff Ali (SAN). Therefore, I expect the Read Across Nigeria (RAN) Project to be a worthy addition to this important activity. I have also been informed that the RAN Project will be an annual event which will be used to honour different authors on a yearly basis. As the RAN’s maiden honouree, I promise to always be available to support the project so that the pervasive problem of the Poor Reading Culture in the country will be addressed not only on an annual basis, but on a continuous daily basis. As parents and guardians, the primary responsibility to imbibe into our children and wards the culture for reading lies with us and not with their teachers. Teachers are only there to augment our initial efforts, therefore, let us all resolve in ourselves to read to our children and wards on a daily basis. Through this, we shall inculcate in them the very important reading culture. In addition, I call on all arms of government to do all they can to encourage the Reading Culture in the country. Apart from providing Libraries at the Local to State and National levels, government must put into place, policies which will make book available and affordable to parents and guardians. Prohibitive import levies on books, newsprint as well as other publishing materials should be avoided. In addition, we eagerly look forward to the promulgation of policies such as the proposed Endowment for the Arts among other pro active creative policies which will support the work of creativity in the country.

Finally, I wish to call on my fellow writers to be steadfast and committed in their onerous but noble work of creativity. In view of the prevailing challenging socio economic situation in the country, it is very easy to give up on writing. However, it has been proven over and over again that some of the best works of creativity are produced during austere periods. As legatees of an old and noble profession, my colleagues should be aware of that famous saying that ‘the art is long’. Therefore, let us not allow any hindrances whether physical or mental to debar us from our self chosen profession.

Even though we cannot stop writers from letting out their pent up anger and criticism at official corruption and poor governance, we can only hope that they too will offer cogent solutions and be good examples of what they criticise in others. As the purveyors of the attributes of an ideal society, we must not allow the sentiments of religion, ethnicity and gender to steal from us the joy of social justice and humanity.

Although, I cannot be physically present at every location of the event since all the activities are taking place on the same day, I am with you in sprit. On behalf of my friends and family, I wish to thank the organisers of the Read Across Nigeria project for the honour done me.

Thank you and God bless.