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By Merit Ibe
History was made recently in memory of the late Damanze Akaraka and Madam Regina Okoroafor of Oguta, in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, with the inauguration of a modern library built by their children, Oguefi Ejina and Oguefi Agboma Okoroafor.
The library was presented to the children’s alma mater, Maria Asumpta Girls’ High School, Oguta, Imo State, the then Oguta Girl’s High School, where the late Madam Regina Okoroafor taught literature.
Launching the library, minister of state for education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah, eulogised the children for their patriotic and philanthropic activities within and outside Imo State, saying the facility, which would boost reading culture, would also prepare youths to take competitive advantage of the 21st-century knowledge-driven economy within and outside the country.
Opiah praised the hard work, selfless community services and quintessential leadership of the late Damanze Akaraka and Madam Regina, who in their lifetime contributed immensely to the wellbeing of their community.
Highlighting the place of education, which the library will boost in the school, the minister noted that education is an instrument par excellence for engineering national change, building character and sustainable development.
He said: “No nation or society can progress beyond its education. This
is because education serves as the spring board of development. Nigeria‘s education system is focused on preparing its children for the responsibilities of citizenship and national development.
“You will all agree with me that no quality education can be attained without a well equipped and functional library. This is what has made the event of today apt and exceptional.
“The importance of the library cannot be overemphasized as it is the store house of knowledge. It provides access to information, countless teaching and learning resources, supports literacy, promotes lifelong learning and helps students to develop reading habit.”
He implored sons and daughters of Oguta and all stakeholders in the education sector to keep contributing their best to ensure better and more impactful education service delivery in Nigeria.
He also pleaded with the management, staff and students of the college to make good use of the library.
On what informed the construction of the library,
one of the children, Oguefi Ejine said it was a no-brainer deciding on construction of a library while contemplating the labour of love in the memory of their beloved parents.
“My father was very dynamic and an enigma to most. He was well-versed in current and world affairs. He never trifled with his daily dose of the national newspapers and monthly Time Magazine subscription. Our early family dinner conversations on world affairs and politics were very engaging and inspirational.
“My mother was an erudite literature teacher, whose reputation preceded and succeeded her. She was not only emphatic about education but encouraged her students in ail spheres of life. She undoubtedly had positive influence on countless lives.
“Suffice it to say that books were an integral part of our upbringing. My parents encouraged us to read, not just school textbooks, but novels, newspapers, magazines and you name it.
“I was a bookworm in my time and had temporarily served as this school’s librarian.”
On what books mean to her, she said: “They are pleasant eye-openers, which cannot only transport one back to the past, but also transmit one to the future. Books can act as a window to an imagined future, entirely new worlds, and endless possibilities.”
She emphasised that the gift of the library was entrusted to the school with the hope that it broadens the horizon, charges the imagination and magnifies the dreams of the pupils. I trust that you treasure and uphold it for next generations that would come after you.”
Ogbuefi Agboma, one of the children noted that the library was purposely built to serve as an enduring testimony, a lasting legacy and an abiding appreciation of her parents efforts in the children’s upbringing.
She said the project was intentionally chosen to instigate a renaissance of the reading culture in the youths, especially the ‘girl-child’ in Oguta community.
Quoting former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, Agboma stated that literacy is a bridge from misery to hope and that can be achieved through reading widely.
She urged everyone young and old especially the girl child, “given that the facility is domiciled in our Alma mater; to use this facility to the fullest.
“It is our hope that mighty oaks will grow from this little acorn being planted here today.”
Reminiscing, Agboma said: “It seems like only yesterday when my sister and I were running around these same grounds of Maria Assumpta (MA) / Oguta Girls High School (OGHS) with youthful exuberance and little knowledge / care of the challenges and worries of everyday life.
“Our parents must have deeply understood the lasting benefits and importance of knowledge and reading. Perhaps, those informed their decision to introduce us to reading books from very early in life.
“There was a seeming endless supply of reading materials in our home, including but not limited to academic books, magazines , random titles ranging from romance, literary works, comedy as well as articles on various fields and topical issues for us to read, digest and learn.We were regularly assigned specific pages/articles in the newspapers / magazines to be discussed over /after dinner. Ensuing lively discussions explaining our understanding of the topics, justifying our opinions /stances were usually our family highlights, just as much as the little tokens earned for outstanding performances.
“So, from an early age, we were groomed to form personal political opinions and to justify them critically/informatively. I was also conversant with the works of some prolific writers like Buchi Emecheta, Chukwuemeka Ike, poets and playwrights John Pepper Clark, Gabriel Okara and other romantic novelists like Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, to mention just a few.
“I actually belonged to the Barbara Cartland’s Fans Club in those days and devoured many of her books. In my teens, I had started cultivating a private mini library, which I still maintain to date. I still get the same thrill from browsing my old tomes or reading new ones.
“It was our parents belief that books read transcends knowledge, gives you wisdom , broadens your horizon but also allows one to relieve the experiences of the writer, visit the places mentioned and be a better conversationist having acquired facts and ideas.We were meant to interpret what we read in our own understanding .
“In the words of Garrison Keillor, “A book is a gift you can open again and again.”
During my student days in MA/OGHS , and cued by my beloved parents’ encouragement and my versality, I had represented the then Oguta/Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area at the National Festival of Arts and Culture that held in Imo State; in the poetry category having dramatized one of JP Clark’s poem both at the local government and state levels.There is no doubt that those early reading habits instilled by our beloved parents had helped to propel us, their children to our present status in life.
Our life situations today ring true to the ancient words of E. P. Whipple that, ‘Books are lighthouses planted in the great sea of time’ and as Sidney Sheldon also opined that, “Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve and contribute to improving our quality of life.”
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