‘Reading culture will enhance knowledge and spur development’
KOLAWOLE OYEYEMI, Founder, Ignite Africa Leadership Foundation in this interview gives insight into why the reawakening drive to make reading a habit in Nigeria particularly in the younger generation will help the nation achieve its developmental goals.
Why should Nigerians develop the culture of reading?
Once upon a time in this country, we were so intelligent and recognised globally for it. Nations across the world came to poach our doctors, engineers, lawyers, nurses and other professionals. Today, it is the other way round. We are the ones going abroad to hire foreigners to do the jobs that Nigerians should do because we have many graduates who are unemployable! Today, we have graduate armed robbers! They were not good enough to get jobs in corporate organisations and are too proud to do menial jobs because their certificates have imprisoned them in dungeons of arrogance. They are too haughty to take up low profile jobs even though their competence and capability cannot deliver on jobs commensurate with their supposed grades from the universities. Hundreds of thousands of such graduates are being turned out every year by our higher education system.
Now, if we keep multiplying graduate criminals, what future do we have as a country? Today, if you want a C-level job, you go to Europe or America, you want a mid-level job, you go to India and Asia and for low level job you go to Cotonou and Cote ‘D Ivoire. The question is where will our graduates go? What about those who graduated from polytechnics and colleges of education?
There is no way crime will not increase. People will continuously seek short cuts to make money. They cannot make money legitimately because they have not been trained in the right pathway to do so. My appeal to Nigerians is that we should revive the reading culture, whether it is done electronically or physically.
Secondly, let us read the right things. We can read but read the wrong things. Knowledge is not power; it is the right knowledge that gives power. A lot of people are very knowledgeable but on the wrong things. We need people to be more knowledgeable on the right things so that we can stand up again as a nation, proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with other nations. We need to bring back the reading culture because if we don’t read, we can’t lead.
Today, Nigeria is no longer ranked among the leading nations when it comes to leadership, innovation and pragmatic difference that nations make in the committee of nations. How do we get back there? First, it is by getting back to reading to get the right knowledge that we can use to innovate, grow and develop the nation. My second appeal is for people to support projects such as our Ignite Africa Library. I cannot solve the reading problem in Nigeria alone. It is a collective effort from everybody and if we pretend that it is not our problem, it is going to hunt us ultimately.
The biggest fear I have for this country is not a revolution but an implosion when people on the street will see a man that has worked hard to buy a small car as a symbol of their suffering, and hence attack him. Meanwhile, this innocent man is also going through the same problem. Let us support this initiative. People can support us with money or buy books and we will give you a concrete account of what we have done with your support. We operate with a global mindset and so run the organisation on global standards. That is why some international organisations have checked us out and have recognised us. That was why they were willing to give us 65,000 books free! We run a smart organisation driven by integrity. Every support therefore gets clinically accounted for and reported.
My appeal is for Nigerians to support us; get their children to join book clubs; encourage their children to read books and even give gifts of books to people so that we all can start reading and once again have a nation with brilliant people.
What is Ignite Africa Library all about?
The final secondary school leaving certificate examinations in the last six years in Nigeria has yielded an average of 80 percent failure rate. The vocabulary has changed from Pass Rate to Failure rates! This is a national tragedy! In Nigeria today, we have a lot of people who proudly carry around certificates they cannot defend! How do you explain a university graduate with supposedly good grades who cannot string together correct grammar? This is tragically amazing and totally different from what obtained when I was growing up! As a professional, I have had cause to interview candidates from different universities. Sadly, I found many totally unemployable!
I then decided to investigate the source of this challenge and discovered it was foundational! To deal with it then was going to require that we tackle it from the source. When I was growing up, we had libraries in schools. We had library periods and teachers who encouraged us to read; there were public libraries with lots of books and we had bookshops to buy books from. The Publishing industry was also a thriving one with Longman, Macmillan, African University Press and lots of other publishing companies that ensured consistent availability of books to the reading publics. Today however, we no longer have the libraries. The bookshops are now very few and scantily stocked. Teachers are no longer reading and so are least interested in encouraging their students to read. Reading has lost its pride of place in the myriad of conflicting demands on the human time.
Then came Technology and it looked like there was going to be a solution. However, we discovered that people would rather read the wrong stuff than red what would build their intellectual capacity to favorably compete in the knowledge economy. At Ignite Africa, we are focused at reversing this unwholesome trend and reviving the reading culture; getting people to read the right books again so that we can get Nigeria back to the era when other countries came to poach our intellectuals. We want to bring back what made us attractive enough to the whole world that triggered the ‘Brain Drain’. This is the essence of what we are trying to do at Ignite Africa.
We started with developing book clubs in schools in Rivers and Lagos states. We currently run over 60 book clubs across the two states and we have brought in over 4,000 books for these clubs. We had to buy and bring in these books from abroad because they were not available here; even books of our own local authors were not available in the quantity that we needed. We followed this up with an online library. What we are doing here today (at the launch of the library in Oregun, Lagos) is to formally open the physical version. Today is also the formal opening of the office of the Foundation. Members of the public can register to borrow books from the library. We have an electronic system to monitor how the books go in and out of the library. This is our contribution to making Nigerians get back to reading and hopefully we will begin to raise extremely intelligent young people we can all be very proud of.
Why education when there are many other issues bedeviling the growth and development of the country?
The Holy Bible tells me my people perish not because of politics. They don’t perish because they could not afford cars and they even don’t perish because of poverty or sicknesses, but people perish for lack of knowledge. If you understand the place of knowledge you would know that whether it is poverty, insurrection, health problems or whatever problem you can think of, the basic foundation is always ignorance. If we can solve the issue of ignorance, the problem is 50 percent solved and the next thing would be to get people with the right knowledge to come into such situations. When you have the right knowledge, executing solutions to problems becomes very easy. The right knowledge is the foundation of everything when tackling problems especially ignorance.
What strategies have you put in place to guarantee the continuity of this project and the Foundation?
Sustainability is important, I agree with you. The first thing I can tell you is that as long as God gives me breath, this vision will not die. Secondly, as long as I have people who are as passionate as I am, this programme will not die. The third point is that some other people who have tried to do these things have either tried to do it on their own or tried to do it for profit generation. This venture is strictly a not for profit initiative and is supported by my Church; The Chapel of Uncommon Grace. On the back of this, we are also open to partnerships from both corporate organisations and individuals. We have put strategies in place to pursue this. If we have a good number of people who think the way we think, love God the way we do, love Nigeria and Nigerians the way we do, then we would not have any problem with sustainability.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I am the General Manager, Business Development, S&D, MTN Nigeria, an author of five books; the latest of which is the first Marketing Book of its kind by any African; Kill or Get Killed; The Marketing Killer Instinct. I am the Founder of Ignite Africa Leadership Foundation. The foundation is focused on raising a new ‘Can Do’ generation of Nigerians. My vision is to cause a revival of the progressive and timeless values of diligence, integrity, passion, love for God, self, neighbor and nation in young Nigerians. This group will also be taught on the critical nature of the God factor in the pursuit of vision. My focus is on young people who want to be the best at whatever they choose to do; people who may have been born here but have a global mindset. That is the desire I have and it was borne out of the way I was brought up.
I grew up in a family that had a father who was a reader, who loved books so much and I learnt reading from him at a very tender age. I wasn’t opportune to attend any Montessori or private school. I attended public schools all the way till I graduated. However, my intelligence level was, to the glory of God, different from what you’d call the public school environment standard and it was purely because I got into books very early. I read the famous African Writer’s Series before I knew what they were even writing about because the books were there and so I had to read. It improved my vocabulary, helped my diction, enhanced my level of understanding and gave me a fantastic global exposure into the world of the various writers whose works I read. By the time I got into secondary school, people thought I was this fantastic dude with an international school background. Little did they know that I was just a local boy who had golden access to books. This tells me the power that the right knowledge can deliver to you. Not all knowledge gives power; only the right knowledge.
How do handle work –life balance?
What I can tell you is that I am having a load of fun. For me, work is fun. When you do what you love it ceases to be a burden. I love and enjoy my daily job but I also get fulfilment from adding value to life; this, being a writer, a Pastor and the Founder of Ignite Africa gives me. Secondly, when you have the right people around you, work also ceases to be a burden. I am blessed with great people around every aspect of my life. I don’t come to Ignite Africa Library all the time because my Project Director runs the place, but we talk periodically to set agendas, agree strategies and define tasks.
Apart from Winnie my project director, I am also blessed with very young people who are full of energy and have bought into this vision and are running with it.
When you have the right vision and you convince people to buy into it, it lessens the burden but if you have a vision with no one to help, the vision will die.
I rely heavily on people who are leaders in their own right. After the grace of God, it is people.
What are some of the criteria for selecting the book clubs?
We knock on doors and our focus is on public schools. We went to several schools in Lagos but they were not interested until the new government made library periods compulsory in schools. We were then re-invited by the schools wherein we have our book clubs today.
Our Book clubs are not like most clubs in schools with focus on entertainment and music. Most of the initial schools we approached were not interested initially before we had the breakthrough. In Rivers State, it was the passion of one of our volunteers who went on his National Youth Service Corp mandatory service that helped in activating the book clubs in that State.
We were thinking of bringing him back to Lagos but he said, “Look, the need for book clubs in some rural areas in Rivers state is higher than that of Lagos” and he would prefer to work in establishing book clubs in Rivers. That’s how we started in Rivers.
It’s been hard work and people all the way. Personally, I am not a normal human being in terms of the number of hours I sleep daily and the kind of food I eat. I sleep for about 4 -5 hours daily. If you live life the normal way, don’t expect the extraordinary. If you want the extraordinary from life, you must give life that extra. I work hard and drive the people who work with me to work hard too. As a leader, you must live by examples. I know I mustn’t break down but I have to be a smart hard worker.
Funding is important to any business or organisation. How do you to run this organisation?
First, we are saying very loud and clear we need help. I have carried this burden on my shoulders to a point where my accounts went red. My project director did the same and hers went red as well. It’s been a passionate disbursement of our little resources that has kept us going. We had some people supporting us by giving us books but we want more people. We need to bring in about 65,000 books. An international organisation has made us a free offer. What is delaying delivery is the fund to bring them in. If I have those books today, I can put a library in every local government area in Nigeria if the leadership of such local governments will agree to collaborate. I therefore use this opportunity to appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians who love to see our nation rise again to join us to make this a reality. Nothing is too small. We need all the support we can get but more importantly, if we can get two or three or four to five people who would say, yes, I want to be part of this, the little funds they will bring in will certainly make a big difference.
Apart from this, we have a resource center that is meant to generate some income but it can only generate so much, just to ensure that this place runs. We require real capital to run this organisation and we need people to support us. Personally, I have dedicated my resources to this and when I am old my children will continue from wherever I stop. The problem we are looking at is not my problem, it is a national problem. I do hope and pray that people of like minds will come and support this.