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By: Manoah Kikekon
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| Participants present at the launch of Badagry literacy club |
Waniyon Frances member Lagos State Youth Parliament representing Badagry Constituency 1 and chairman House Committee on education and related matters and David Onilude the CEO Technow global has launched Badagry literacy club to revive reading culture in Badagry, Lagos State.
This was launched on Friday at an event tagged Let Us Read, Sip, and Discuss, held at Badagry Divisional Library, Badagry, Lagos State.
Frances told journalists that the intention is to revive the reading culture among the people, in partnership with David Onilude, CEO of Technow Global.
He said, "The Badagry literacy club is the club of book lovers, changemakers, and community developers. We have to see the need to continue reading. When you read, you get to learn why we want to revive the reading culture among the young people.
"Badagry is a historic city, and for us to preserve and protect our history, it is actually done through writing and documentary. We can raise writers who will preserve our history through writing and documentary. So we will be taking reading culture back to the schools. We are looking forward to getting approval from the tutor general that covers Badagry Division schools so that we can take it larger population of the school because I notice that most of the students don't read. We want to push it to extend so they will see the need to read.
"To the Badagry young people, there is a need for us to continue reading there is a need for us to continue studying. Before now, they said Badagry people didn't go to school, but it has changed now. We have more people going to school now of course, they have to learn a trade, which is part of education. With Technow Global, we are not only introducing reading books we are also introducing digital literacy," he said.
Victory Asaka, spoken word poet, climate leader, and youth ambassador to European Union (EU), said, "I see this as a great move in the right direction for the team that had come up with this to empower the youths of Badagry in secondary school. I believe that the advent of social media technology and mobile devices generally has tickled down the essence and attractions towards reading, and I believe that young people are losing that drive to keep inquest for knowledge and information that can empower their lives. This will encourage young people to understand the benefits of reading.
"Young people need to know that those people doing amazing things out there are able to achieve that because they are intellectually active. If young persons from Badagry are placed on a global stage and another person from the United States, both will be judged based on the same credentials. I started from Badagry, later to the state and national level. Now I've been to countries around the world," he said.
Emmanuel Bankole, a legal practitioner who pledged to register the organisation said "I feel so great particularly because these are not things that trends in our society today, there are so many association, so many groups been launched but when you come to terms with a literacy club in a place like Badagry, you just have to be happy, more so before I became a lawyer I was once a teacher and in all the secondary school I thought I was always part and parcelle of the literacy and debating society.
Bankole added that "If you know Badagry very well and you place Badagry side by side with education, then you'll know there's a large gap they've started it, and carrying it on could be a major challenge, which they have to work on. We cannot deny the fact that society has lost it when it comes to reading; the reading culture is as good as dead. They need to be consistent, and while doing that, they must try as much as possible to make it attractive. They also need to seek more partnerships and make sure they expand their scope."
Mrs. Bunmi Onilude, a missionary and a writer, said, "One of the burdens I've carried over time is the engagement of young people in Badagry. I've seen how our youths have been wasted over time they are not given an education, and they are not keen on reading. You will see a young man, maybe age 20 or 22, because he has a motorcycle and he can cross rice from Benin Republic and carry fuel back; he is married to about four wives, and I don't see the future, this is a great initiative from these young Badagry youths.
Adding that "One of the things that should be done is to get to the grass-roots, right from the primary shool, the organizers should make reading appealing to the young people, they should get novels and literature that they can understand because by the time these children gets to secondary school level in this axis, they are already formed they believe that all they can get or achieve is smuggling, but from the primary school, if they can start from there I believe they will go a long way, and if they can sell it to their big brothers out there I think they will go a long way."