By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
Ikeja Metro Lions Club has stressed the need for an improvement in the reading culture among school pupils and others.
The appeal was brought to the fore during the celebration of the International Literacy Day held recently at Shogunle Primary School, Ikeja, Lagos State.
The President of the Club, Godson Anigbo said that September 8th is celebrated as a day to focus attention on the importance of promoting worldwide literacy.
He added: “It is encouraging to see children in school who are being brought up to imbibe the art of reading but it is regrettable that there is still a huge gap since the number of adults who cannot read and write in the country is still discouraging. “
Anigbo tasked pupils to utilize the opportunity provided by the club sensitizing them, to make good use of the book donated as tools for their development, nothing that this idea impacts positively not just on the children but also on the family as well as the nation.
According to him, he expects that Nigeria to take advantage of the mood of the celebration to renew their efforts towards promoting literacy and demonstrating the country’s commitment towards providing education for all.
On her part, the District Leo Programme Chairperson, Blessing Umebali, said the day is set aside to promote literacy in the world, which is about self development and building human capacity for a better nation building.
Umebali, draws the pupils attention to Harry S. Truman”s quote “Not all Readers are Leaders, but all Leaders are Readers”. She said to a large extent l want to agree with him adding that only exceptional leaders who have excel exceedingly in their Roles and Responsibilities are Readers, and this could be that at some point they came across an inspiring quotes from a leader or leaders or a particular book they read changed their life for good.
She advised the pupils of Shogunle Primary School to develop the culture of reading, writing and communicating effectively with one another and take their class work and home work seriously and that the sky will be the beginning of success for them.
The school manager, Mrs. Edith Ehirim expressed joy for the sensitization campaign as well as the donations, noting, ‘World literacy day is celebrated every 8th of September to commemorate the special day, the club has set aside their busy schedule to promote literacy in the world. It’s all about self development and human capacity building.”
Ehirim said that the Lagos State government has equally initiated Zero project to ensure that every child in the community becomes literates and have access to education.
“We are moving into communities, speaking with families, as well as traditional chiefs and rulers, who knows any child that is not in school at the moment to contact, the schools in their locality, they will be taken to school and it is tuition free. We give them up to uniforms, school bags and other necessities to ensure they have access, other state government need to emulate so we can reduced the number of out of school children, drastically”, she pointed out.
Meanwhile, the President of the club, Lion Godson Anigbo, stated that the event is in line with the club core area of service and to create awareness, which focuses on making positive impact in society. We had taken this awareness campaign against childhood cancer to Ikeja communities, to curb and reduced the number of children affected by it.