Nigeria: Book fair to emphasize publishing in indigenous languages

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Monday 10th, April, 2006

HIV/AIDS, Book Policy To Dominate 2006 Book Fair

By Chux Ohai,
Correspondent, Lagos


The Nigeria Book Fair Trust (NBFT), organisers of the Nigeria
International Book Fair, easily one of the biggest book advocacy events in
Africa, has decided to anchor this years edition of the fair on the
National Book Policy, HIV/AIDS, and sustainable development. The decision
was made known to the public last week during an interactive session with
journalists. Obviously latching on an opportunity created by the recent
approval granted school administrators nation-wide by the National Council
on Education to integrate HIV/AIDS instruction in the formal school
curriculum, NBFT plans to review the provisions of the National Book
Policy and their implications for sustainable development in the light of
the spread and ravaging presence of the dreaded HIV/AIDS in the country.

For this reason, the theme for the International Conference of the 5th
Nigeria International Book Fair scheduled to hold at the University of
Lagos between May 8 and 13, 2006, has been named as National Book Policy,
HIV/AIDS and Sustainable Development. Aside expecting a wider forum, which
it hopes would accommodate inputs from all stakeholders of the Nigerian
book industry, relevant book advocacy agencies, government ministries and
parastatals, as well as local and international organisations with fixed
interest in education, publishing, curriculum development, and health,
NBFT has set aside two days, May 8 and 9, for the conference in order to
achieve meaningful and result-oriented discussions on the theme.

While day one would feature discussions on National Book Policy and
Sustainable Development, as well as a keynote address on the subject to be
delivered by Trond Andreassen, president of the European Writers Congress
and General Secretary of the Non-Fiction Writers Association of Norway,
the second day would be devoted to examining the implication of HIV/AIDS
and current efforts to halt its spread, for sustainable development and a
lecture by Dr. Inon Schenker, an HIV/AIDS prevention specialist with the
Jerusalem AIDS Project in Isreal. The Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe
Obaji, and her counterpart in the Health Ministry, Professor Eyitayo
Lambo, are expected to lead the plenary sessions of the conference, while
Prof. Grace Alele-Williams and Prof.  Shehu Idris will each chair the
event on the respective days.

It is hoped that at the end of its two-day duration, the conference would
have succeeded in evolving strategies that could engender sustainable
development through the establishment of a viable book policy for the
country and visible improvement in public health. As usual, other
activities are scheduled to take place during the book fair and they
include a three-day programme for children, an international copyright
workshop by the Reproductive Rights Society of Nigeria, a World Bank
workshop on trends in publishing in Africa, roundtable discussion by the
Nigeria Library Association, and an interactive session between old and
new Nigerian writers, among others. This years event will also witness
presentations of the Victor Nwankwo Book of the Year Award, Lifetime
Achievement Award, and Lantern Books Award for Children Literature, in
addition to the newly introduced Idris Animashaun Printer of the Year
Award, sponsored by Academy Press. These awards are intended to reward the
recipients and recognise their individual contributions to the growth of
literacy in the society. One of the highlights of the build-up to this
years Childrens Programme was an essay writing contest for Junior and
Senior secondary school pupils that was held nation-wide on March 4, 2006.
Contestants in JSS 1-3 were asked to write about How to Prevent the Spread
of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, while the topic for SSS pupils was The
Socio-Economic Implications of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Winners from each
category will be guests of honour at the Childrens Programme, which will
also be attended by no fewer than 1,500 school children drawn from various
secondary schools.

The Nigeria Book Fair Trust aims primarily at bringing the book closer to
the people for better education and self-improvement. Its other set goals
include improving the reading culture in Nigeria, inculcating readership
and authorship skills in the youths for a wholesome book society, raising
public awareness for the importance of books and instructional materials
to educational development, promoting a conducive environment for
partnership authors and publishers, and finally showcasing the Nigerian
book, as well as books from other societies, thereby expanding the book
space in addition to making books and other instructional materials
available to the general public at affordable prices. The theme of the
2005 book fair was Publishing in Indigenous Languages, which was clearly
in line with global efforts to promote and preserve minority languages
around the world, as well as NBFTs desire to seek new ways of expanding a
Nigerian book space that seemed to lean heavily on the production of books
in English Language. At the time, Otunba Yinka Lawal-Solarin, chairman of
the Trust, had implied in a public statement to mark the International
Mother Tongue Day that by focusing on this subject, the NBFT would be
helping to restore indigenous Nigerian languages as necessary tools for
book, even literary production in the country. By initiating a major
discussion on the possibility of publishing in indigenous languages
successfully, it was believed the Trust might have set an entirely new
agenda for the Nigerian book industry.

Perhaps, eager to fulfill this dream, it also decided to examine how
printed materials could best be utilised to promote and sustain the
teaching of Nigerian languages in schools, to examine factors that were
likely to limit the teaching of such languages, to look at how to
encourage friendship and co-operation among people of diverse linguistic
and cultural backgrounds, and to develop a strategy for sustaining
education and communication in Nigerian languages. It is no surprise that
this year attention shifts to the spread of the dreaded HIV/AIDS and the
National Book Policy and their implications for sustainable development of
the book as a cultural item, literacy on one hand, and the Nigerian book
industry, on the other hand. The choice of theme is naturally founded upon
the premise that the interrelationship between sound education, healthy
society, and meaningful development cannot be overemphasised.



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