National Library to sensitize pregnant mothers to read books to their babies – CEO

…Needs N50bn to complete Abuja headquarters

By Bashir Bello

KATSINA – National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of National Library of Nigeria, NLN, Professor Lenrie O. Aina has on Wednesday disclosed its plan to extend it readership campaigns and sensitize pregnant mothers to read books to their babies as part of efforts to improve reading culture in the country.

Prof. Aina who disclosed this while on a working visit to the Katsina office of the Library, also said the pregnant mothers upon giving birth to the baby must read the books to the baby to imbibe it and have the background culture right from kids.

He said the National Library is not leaving any stone unturned as it is working assiduously to sensitize all strata of the society and improve the reading culture in the country.

According to him, “We all know that we have a problem because I remembered granting an interview where I said, Nigeria was not listed among reading Nations of the world while South Africa and Egypt were listed.

“So we have been having readership programme campaigns round all the states to reverse these trend. We are trying to imbibe it on our kids because a society that is not reading cannot be knowledgeable, a society that is not knowledgeable will be difficult to rule. And that is why government is spending so much money for us to do the campaign. The campaign is ongoing and government has approved another set of money for us to mount another just to ensure that. And we are targeting school children – primary and secondary school children but we want to cover all the strata of the society.

“Our next programme is to even go and meet the pregnant mothers to sensitize them that they must be reading to their babies. When the babies are born they read the books to them so that they can have the background culture right from the youths.

“We also intend to appeal to our lawmakers in the National Assembly particularly that we are under Art committee and state committee on Education, we are trying to see how we can also involve those members to help us convince their colleagues so that when they go down to their constituencies they also appeal to the people to read because reading is the best thing that can happen to any human being to know much about our society,” Prof. Aina said.

The National Librarian continued when he said it needs about N50 billion to complete it permanent headquarters in Abuja while also promising to establish an e-library upon completion of it Katsina permanent site.

“Yes, our permanent headquarters in Abuja is a massive building but because of funding, it is stalled. But we are working hard on it and the Honourable Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu is struggling to ensure that. We need about N50 billion, so we are trying to see what we can do. We are trying to see if we can have this Public Private Partnership, PPP, so we can complete the headquarters,” Prof. Aina however stated.

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