Nnamdi Agbakoba: On a mission to reignite reading culture

Two things give Nnamdi Agbakoba sleepless nights. The first is his passion to rekindle the reading culture in Nigeria, especially among youths. The second is his desire to promote world peace through his works.

The poet, historian and author of ‘Pictures & Poetry of War’, ‘Terrors of War’, ‘That Child’, ‘Deep Secrets’, among other works, is already pushing the boundaries in these two interrelated directions.

With a firm belief that reading culture, a very important component of national development, has almost totally collapsed in developing countries like Nigeria and in desperate need of a jump-start, Agbakoba says he is committed to doing all within his ability and means to help reverse the ugly trend.

A rising author with keen interest in books and poems that inspire the African youth and child, Agbakoba believes that attending secondary and tertiary institutions alone is not enough to instill a healthy reading culture in the youths. Rather, he says, it will take “a deliberate effort made by parents in the home and institutional projects from academic institutions”.

“It will take many years of deliberate effort from parents and academic leaders to rekindle this progressive academic, social culture. No starting point is too small or too big,” he tells a gathering of art editors at a recent interactive session in Lagos.

Agbakoba disagrees with the view that financial constraints contribute to the poor reading culture in the country. Lack of money, he argues, cannot be the problem as youths in Nigeria use smartphones that cost upwards of N80,000-N100,000 but will not spend N1,000 or N1,500 to buy a good book.

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“In the 1960s, ’70s and early parts of the ’80s, novels of the James Hadley Chase series, Mills and Boon or the Sidney Sheldon series, amongst many other titles, were very popular amongst youths including my humble self. But today, all we see are youths and even adults bent over their smartphones sending all kinds of messages, many of them useless to mind-building,” he says. “This has to be and can be reversed with adequate support, encouragement and resources.”

But how does he think this can be done? Through policies that introduce compulsory literature books for all examination candidates? Not a bad idea, Agbakoba says, but not enough as the students will most likely discard the book once the pressure to read and pass an examination is over.

A more sustainable way then, he reckons, will be to create platforms that encourage book reading culture with adequate incentives that inspire reading. This will entail offering an array of scholarships and prizes to drive interest back to a vibrant book reading culture, not just to pass exams, but also for relaxation and leisure. And authors and publishers have a vital role to play in this regard, he says.

“We all know that youths and students will readily wish to take advantage of scholarship opportunities if available and if presented via accessible and reputable platforms. Youths or students who are interested in such scholarship funds or other attractive prizes must show proof of having read at least two or three novels, apart from recommended examination books, to be eligible to apply for the scholarship and prizes executed after exams are done with,” he adds.

Agbakoba is already pushing this agenda through a proposal to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that hopes to see the examinations body adopt one of his books as part of its Book Reading Culture Promotion Policy. His desire is to see Nigerian youths willingly buy and read good books of interest without any coercion or pressure, as it used to be in the days of yore.

“We must, as a matter of urgency, do all in our power as leaders, teachers, lecturers or professors to help salvage the dead reading culture in Nigeria and beyond, before we begin to produce lawyers that cannot write briefs or teachers who cannot spell correctly,” he says.

His desire for a more peaceful world has also seen him found the Society Against Terror and War (SAT-WAR), whose mission is the propagation of peace and security. It has also informed the theme of most of his works.

‘Deep Secrets’, for instance, is an outright discouragement of social vices among youths. Written to serve as a counter-terrorism and counter-cultism therapy “proposed to be dispensed and administered through the academic system”, ‘Deep Secrets’ delivers a clear message – student and youth cultism, examination malpractice and cheating, police brutality, terrorism, youth restiveness and violence are evil and should not be tolerated while peace, religious tolerance, hard work, family bonding and efficient judicial system are good and should be encouraged.

In the Foreword to the book, Benedicta Okwudili Ikegulu, director, Book Development Centre, Nigeria Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), Abuja, writes that books like ‘Deep Secrets’ or “similar counter-terrorism or counter-cultism literature” can be invaluable in checking “the deplorable activities of university cultists or terrorists” that “have been a crucial social cancer not only in Nigeria but worldwide”.

‘Terrors of War’, in a similar vein, depicts the harrowing terrors of the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War through the eyes of an eight-year-old child.

In a note on ‘Terrors of War’, signed by its officer-in-charge and national professional officer for education in Abuja, UNESCO said, “On a closer reading of the book, we discover that the poignant depiction of the dereliction of war in the book, rather than promote a bitter recollection and the need for revenge, redirects the mind to a peaceful course of conflict resolution because war is devastating, destructive and anti-social. The book promotes peace, tolerance and dialogue. These are principles that are at the heart of the United Nations mandate to UNESCO whose activities promote a culture of peace in the world.”

The UN agency, while suggesting that the author “solicit the support of the Nigerian Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) to look into adopting your book as one of the resource materials for the Human Rights Education Syllabus for Schools in Nigeria”, said it would look into areas of supporting in the dissemination of the publication.

For the author, it is not yet uhuru as much work lies ahead. As such, apart from two books in the works – ‘Esther Amina’ and ‘Harmony of Brotherhood’ – books that promote religious, ethnic and cultural tolerance, he is also working on two other projects. The first, ‘Pangs of Bondage’, is a 30-minute documentary that exposes the plight of abused children, while the second, ‘Trapped in a War Zone’, is a movie based on the novel ‘Terrors of War’.

And Agbakoba is not new to movie-making. Apart from having an early exposure to acting way back in school, the Broadcasting, TV/Radio Production graduate of University of Cincinnati, Ohio ran a movie production studio, Visions Questrom Production, which he started in 1997, and would subsequently play a part in the then budding Nollywood movie industry.

At the heart of his desire to reenact some of the events of the civil war “in an entertaining and suspenseful way”, he says, is the belief that unless humanity learns from the mistakes of the past, those mistakes are bound to be repeated.

“The holocaust of the Nigeria/Biafra War was a horrible mistake,” he says. “However, today we see a resurgence of some of the dynamics that may have caused the Nigeria/Biafra War. It is my fear that if this trend is not arrested as soon as possible via dissemination of appropriate information, Nigeria may fall into the same mistakes sooner than later.”