NAN-H-70
Library
By Olayinka Olawale
Lagos, Feb. 15, 2018 (NAN) The Winner of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literature, 2018, Mr Ikeogu Oke, on Thursday urged Federal and State Governments to revive libraries across the
country.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that this would engender the culture of reading, education and knowledge-based development.
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“I had to cultivate my own library; I had to buy books. I actually opened a vocabulary in 1988 because I love words and I needed them to write.
“I wouldn’t encounter any word that was new and wouldn’t take it down and try to make it part of my vocabulary.
“I cultivated the habit of culturing words for my literary use from my youth.
“But that is not to say that the need for some kind of concerted effort by the system to create that opportunity for those who rather depend on them shouldn’t happen.
“There should be better libraries than we have in this country. I go to the National Library in Abuja and I feel embarrassed by what I see.
“It doesn’t in any way reflects a country that takes reading and education and knowledge-based development seriously.
”The system doesn’t really behave in a way that encourages the feel that understanding and knowledge matters.
“When you look at the whole world, the countries that take knowledge very seriously are the most developed.
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The poet said the country must emulate developed countries and invest heavily in education.
According to him, these developed countries have the best libraries.
“Go and look at their (developed countries) libraries, you will see books and manuscripts that are our works that are better preserved by them and it shouldn’t be that way.
“Their libraries are important.It is important to create a reward system, whereby people don’t feel that being knowledgeable is a waste of time.
“This is part of what is happening in this country. Our values ought to be revisited and made to be what it ought to be,” he said.
Oke, who emerged the winner of the Prize for Literature, received a cash prize of 100,000 dollars for his poetry ‘The Heresiad’. (NAN)
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Edited by Adeleye Ajayi/Ismail Abdulaziz