LACK OF READING CULTURE

 

Intro

Nigeria once gave the world Chinua Achebe and a generation of writers that made the rest of the planet stop and pay attention. That era is fading — not because the talent is gone, but because nobody is reading anymore. This piece is a direct challenge to parents, to the culture, and to a continent that has begun to treat books like a punishment while feeding children a steady diet of screens and celebrity divorces. It's also a personal story — of a boy who grew up in an environment full of cultism and gang violence and chose books instead, and what that choice built in him. And it introduces little Zoe, who learned to read at two years old because her mother told her stories at bedtime and never stopped. This is not a story. This is a call.

Reading Habit

The habit of fostering a reading culture in our children is gradually fading due to parents' lackluster focus on entertainment like Disney and Nickelodeon. To nurture the next generation of thinkers like Albert Einstein, we must prioritize giving our kids books. Consider young Zoe, who uses her playtime to read, enhancing her memory and sharpening her ability to understand and comprehend complex words. Start building a reading culture now!

The Importance of Reading for Kids

It is very important for kids to learn how to read from a tender age. Learning to read very young will shape the life of a child and push them in the right direction. To start, it helps them focus more on reading interesting stories than joining gangs or doing things that go against society.

Benefits of Reading

There are many benefits of reading that the human body can enjoy:

1. Reading enhances the brain and builds the memory.

2. Reading relaxes the body and helps in building mental health.

3. Reading expands the mind and makes it a place of information.

There are so many benefits to reading, yet it is lacking these days. One of the challenges parents face is not showing enough interest in the reading ability of their kids. It would be great if parents started teaching their kids how to read and write, or how to spend a few hours on a book daily. This would help in building a future generation that prioritizes reading over watching cartoons. It would be a double blessing if a kid started writing a story from a tender age.

In Africa, especially Nigeria, reading is often treated like a curse. A white man once said, "If you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book." I can say he is right; even those who can read are often too lazy to read a long text. They prefer to skim the text to the end, thereby bypassing the message.

One of the greatest challenges in Africa is that people don’t focus on important things; they don’t focus on things that are affecting their lives. Instead, they focus on irrelevant things, like two celebrities getting a divorce. Africans need to understand that knowledge is in a book and it can rebrand them. They need to understand that a book is more powerful than the politicians they worship.

The Power of Books: From Independence to Today

During the era after independence, Nigeria used to be a hub for literature. It was a country blessed with the best novelists and playwrights; to this day, the world knows of Things Fall Apart by the late Chinua Achebe. There is also The Concubine by Elechi Amadi and many more.

One of the best things that ever happened to me while growing up was learning how to read in an environment bedeviled with cultism, gang wars, and all manner of vice. Learning to read books changed my life; it made me a better person and built my logic and verbal reasoning. While other kids used the time to play around, I used it to read and sharpen my brain—I used it to train my mind to be attentive, retentive, and focused.

I am calling on parents to start pushing their kids to read and to work on creating a short journal about their lives, their challenges, and their observations. It would help a lot in building a united and well-focused family. It would teach children and parents to have family time together where each person tells a story from a book they have read or a book they have written. With that, a strong bond would be built on a foundation of books that foster togetherness.

Little Zoe

Little Zoe was just two years old when her mom started telling her stories. She would tell her about Princess Cinderella, and with time, stories became part of little Zoe’s life. She looked forward to those times of the night or day when she would be told a new story, and very soon, she started learning how to read. Her mom had told her that if she could read, she would be able to enjoy the stories herself, and there would be no more pauses or delays.

Zoe took it to heart and started learning how to read. It wasn't easy, but with time, she could make out some words, and gradually, she started reading full sentences. It soon dawned on her that reading a book and knowing the story is one of the greatest gifts anyone could receive. She started reading while other kids were playing, and soon her grades in school improved. Where others found it difficult, she found it easy because reading had become part of her daily routine.

This would be a great time for parents to push their kids toward reading; it would help them develop a habit that will benefit them and those around them. Always make sure you create that time and opportunity for your kids. Even if it is just an hour, give it to them so they can develop their mental health and a good retentive memory.

These days, parents hardly let their children read. Since the rise of social media, many parents now focus more on creating content with their kids instead of encouraging them to read. Social media may be fun sometimes, but we must never let it influence our kids. We must tell them there is a thin line between social media and real life challenges. We must tell them that reading a book is more rewarding than shaking their waist in front of a camera. Let it be known that learning to read early will make our kids one of the very best in society. If we introduce them to motivational books and stories about real life challenges — or what the great men of the past did before they found the limelight —it will be far more rewarding than using them to create content for monetization. An easy life is not a life at all.

The Haunted Wind

A Story Too Good to Put Down

Little Zoe smiled as she read the story of the haunted wind. She loved reading so much that she had no time to reason with her playmates. Her friend Deborah had promised to come over for them to play, but Zoe had forgotten, carried away by the story of the haunted wind.

She yawned, shifting her eyes away from her book for the first time in seven hours. The room had grown dark and the wind was flapping the window, disturbing her reading. She watched as goosebumps crawled along her arm, and with another yawn she tried to stand but felt a weight press down on her. She looked up, but there was nothing. She tried to stand again, but then she felt the wind on her head — it was keeping her down, pinning her to her bed and causing the sheets and everything to scatter.

"How dare you try to stop unfinished, little one," a voice like a rusted screw said in her ear.

The Price of the Wind

She was frightened and she wet her bed from the dread. She used her last strength to call her mum, who rushed into the room, alarmed by the panic in her daughter's voice.

Mrs. Emissa was a very striking woman of dark beauty, known as the woman who put a book in your hand. Reading had been one of her favourite things growing up, and she had encouraged her daughter to see it as more important than the play around she used to do. When Zoe started spending more time on her books instead of playing, she felt the joy and claimed her spirit lived in part of Zoe.

So that night, when she heard the panicked scream from her daughter's room, she ran over only to see her sweet child — wide-eyed, struggling with something invisible. As she drew near to the bed, a voice whispered in her ear.

*"Hmmm, are you ready to pay the price?"*

She stopped cold in her tracks, breathing hard as her teeth chattered. With a trembling voice she asked, *"Who are you? Please let my daughter go."*

*"Are we now demanding?"* the voice asked. *"Are you ready to pay the price to the wind?"*

*"What price?"* she asked as her hands started to shake.

*"That book your daughter is reading was written by my enemy, who bound me in the wind. The only way to free me is if a child of her age could read it all in one night."*

*"That book is about a million words,"* Mrs. Emissa said, looking at the book in Zoe's hand. She guessed Zoe could only have read a thousand. *"Please — even I can't do that in one night."*

A Mother's Defiance

There was silence. She could feel the wind picking up and everything in the room rising.

"Please," she pleaded, going on her knees.

"So you want me to suffer in this prison?" the voice finally said. She felt the whisper beside her ear, which made her jump. Thankfully the force holding Zoe had released her, and she could see her daughter moving.

"No," she said. *"We didn't know about any of this."

*"And now that you do — will you let me suffer?"*

*"No,"* she said.

*"Are you willing to continue?"*

*"Yes,"* she said with defiance.

"That is the spirit," the voice said, and the room relaxed.

The Long Night

Mrs. Emissa took the book from her daughter's hand and started reading. She kept reading, knowing she had no choice, and the time kept ticking away. Very soon she started growing tired and sleepy. She could feel her eyelids flutter, and she clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn. Her voice grew hoarse and then she started missing words — before a slap of wind hit her.

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"Start today — put a book in your child's hand before you hand them a phone"