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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Nigerian Copy Rights Commission has raised the alarm over incidences of piracy, charging publishers to report incidences to tackle the menace.
Director General of the Commission Dr. John Oro Asein, who spoke yesterday in Abuja, at the Fortham National Education and Book Exhibition, described piracy as a Hydra-headed evil negatively affecting creativity.
Asein, represented by the Director of Operations, Ajala Oluwafemi, said: “Piracy is an Hydra-headed evil that we all need to tackle. It is not really the duty of the Nigerian Copyright Commission alone. As a nation, we have one of the most dynamic copyright act.
“The most recent was passed into law in 2022, but signed in 2023. And that law, is so wide enough to tackle the usual piracy, even in this country.
“But as I alluded, as a nation, we need to embrace the creativity because when we don’t create more, piracy was time for this aspect. And the reading culture that we are celebrating today might go down the hills.
“As parents, as ordinary citizens of Nigeria, we should do all we can to assist the Nigerian corporate commission to stem the tide of piracy or publishers as at now are doing their best. However, we can do more.
“The Nigerian Copyright Commission expects publishers to report incidences of piracy wherever it is found. And I will extend that to the ordinary citizens of the country. When you go buy books in the bookshop.
”You are giving the original for instance, 10,000 Naira. The pirated is offered at 3,000. But because of the economy raising, some parents go for the pirated, which is wrong in itself. Because for every single pirated book you buy, you are stifling creativity.”
Beyond piracy, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) Professor Salisu Shehu, observed that reading culture has significantly reduced in the society.
“So it is really an unfortunate thing but then the poverty of reading or the poor the reading culture is almost dead among our younger ones, with the digital devices around and these younger children are more attuned to these digital devices, you can almost say that they have almost a zero relationship with paper.
”So we need to actually work together to revive the culture of reading. And the National Reading Framework, like I told you, identified about 10 different steps to revive reading culture.
“And the framework is not just there, but even the implementation guide was also developed so that the ways we would follow to make sure that the National Reding Framework does not only remain a paperwork, but something really practical was also developed.
“So there is the framework and there is the implementation guide for the framework and I believe that once this thing is put to practice it will actually change the fortunes of our country, especially as it relates to the question of reading.”
On his part, Director of the Foatham National Education and Book Exhibition, Msurshima Comfort Chenge, said the reason for the event was to bring everyone in the educational ecosystem together to implement policies on reading and creativity.
“If you look at the team for this year, we want to ensure that everyone knows the importance of reading. They say if you want to hide something from an African, you put it in a book. But we are changing the narrative, and it will not start with one person.
“Nigeria will become a reading nation. Therefore, we want to promote reading because we know that once Nigeria becomes a nation where citizens read there will be development, innovation, and progress.
“So we are looking forward to Nigeria being a reading nation. One of the things that should be done is what we are doing right now: bringing together people, sensitizing them, letting them know the importance of reading. When you read, you advance yourself, you develop yourself.
In addition, Vice President of Nigeria Publishers Association, Isiaka AJibola,.pointed out that the book industry is growing very fast in Nigeri.
According to him, a lot of people are getting more conscious of the need for them to read and understand all the interconnectivity in the society, be it science, philosophy or religion
“They show the interconnected that the social media itself has expanded it, has exposed us to this kind of understanding. And what we need to do, as we all know, is to continue to read from surveys and world research,
“There was a time we invested so much on tablets, reading books on your tablets and other devices. But we recently found out that children are not retaining knowledge through that. They are not assimilating.
“So they have gone back to that. And several other countries and researchers have shown that the book industry is bouncing back.
