Between a Book and Meatpie

“I was at the Shoprite shopping mall at Ikeja, Lagos and couldn't help but notice that only my daughters and me were at the bookshop to buy books in that huge crowd. The mall was teeming with people buying fast food, etc. It was obvious the bookshop was struggling. Our reading culture, as a nation, is dead! This is truly sad.”

The above was a friend's contribution to a Facebook debate we had a few years ago on Nigerians' reading habit. It prompts me to ask, which will it be for you between a book and meatpie?

Any author or bookshop in Africa that hopes to break even must struggle indeed. In Nigeria books are not sold; they are hawked in traffic hold-ups and on the streets to get a modicum of attention. The average African author or bookseller constantly risks occupational frustration and hunger. #ReadingHabits.

Too many Nigerians stop reading the moment they acquire their academic degrees. They only read to pass examinations. But, in reality, the proper education of a person starts when they acquire their degree. My guess is that ninety per cent of the essential knowledge we need to make a success of life must come from the informal education we get outside the four walls of a learning institution. The real value of a degree is that it equips you to read for the rest of your life.

Besides, things change so fast that a non-reader will not only be left behind in today’s world, their treasured certificate will soon become outdated. How can any literate person allow half a whole year roll by without conscientiously reading a book? That is intellectual suicide.

Education is a continuous process. Let me repeat: reading does not stop with acquiring a degree. Indeed, that is where it actually begins.

This is how I will describe the fast-food-buying folks at the mall my friend visited: they feed their bodies to become fat and sick, and starve their minds to become intellectually emaciated and sick. Their bodies are sick; their minds are sick.

Let me quickly summarise why it is important that you develop a strong reading habit:

• Reading offers you one of the best uses of your free time. If you can divide your television-watching time equally with reading good books, you will fare much better all round. Reading a good book can provide more entertainment than watching television.

• Reading equips you with more information, thereby broadening your intellectual capacity and helping you gain mastery of yourself. Hear God’s counsel on this from the Bible book of Proverbs 24:5, “Knowledge increases strength.”

• Read for the sake of good conscience. Read because someone took the pains to write a book. If a person with one head, two hands, and two legs—just like you—can take the pains to write a book, what excuse can you give for not reading it? I was reading one of Bishop David Oyedepo’s books when, getting to the end and turning over the last page, I was confronted by a list of fifty-eight books he had already written as at that time! Given his extremely busy schedule, I was stunned by the list. I thought: if a man as busy as he is can go the additional distance of writing so many books, won't it be unpardonable laziness on my part if I do not read at least half, if not all, of those books? God will charge me guilty of that, I imagine.

The Bishop himself is a man made in part by books. Hear him: “My life as an individual has been dramatically influenced by Christian literature. I am largely a product of books. I believe that my worth would be far less than what it is today without access to life-changing books.”

• Reading positions you to be a better leader. No one can be an effective leader who does not covet new information and better strategies of leading. These are treasures that are hidden in books.

• Reading prepares you to speak or act extempore. When called upon impromptu to say or do something at a forum, it is your acquired knowledge that is your preparation. That has happened to me on several occasions.

• Reading perfects your knowledge of the use of the language you read in. It improves your grammar, writing, and speaking skills. The story is told of an Easter sermon preacher who got caught in a grammar crisis when he blurted, “When Jesus Christ arise…arose…arisen, rather!” A language communication error may amuse your listeners. It will not amuse you; it will embarrass you. Anyone who is into speaking to audiences should be an avid reader, in my opinion.

• Reading is to the mind what physical exercise is to the body. Without exercise, your mind, like your body, will go numb. Reading is a desirable exercise for the mind.

• We need constant education to remain relevant. It is one thing to live long and quite another to live productively. It has everything to do with stimulating your mind. Do not read because you want to pass an examination. Read because you want to pass life’s many tests. Reading provides that constant education of the mind that helps one deal with life’s unavoidable challenges. Above all, knowledge is transient. What you know today will become outdated tomorrow. Therefore reading is, in part, a constant race to catch up with a constantly changing world. People who do not read risk getting trapped in the past. If degrees were awarded for the amount of reading we engage in, some of us will probably be multiple degree holders by now.

• If you are going to be an author, reading must become second nature to you. I speak as an author. I estimate that, to write a book, you may need to have read probably twenty related books and materials.

Beyond all of this, I challenge you to do more than read. You should aspire to be an author. My philosophy is that the experiences of life make each of us one expert or the other. We must commit our vital knowledge and experiences to writing for the benefit of posterity, or be buried with them. As you read this sentence, a rich endowment and legacy is being buried in a cemetery somewhere. Completely lost to humanity!

(For the complete version of this article, get my book Laughing Over Serious Matters. It is available on my website, https://www.chrisekpekurede.com