By Henry Akubuiro
“It was not quite morning but not quite night. Tobe awoke from her dream of towers of puff that reached the sky,” writes Mazzi Odu, the Ugandan-British author, in the opening page of her new children’s book, Get Rid of Your Phone, Mummy, published by Tanja, an imprint of Quida Books, Nigeria, and illustrated by Adulphina Imuede.
Get Rid of Your Phone, Mummy, a 29-page book, is woven around the main character, Tobi, a young girl whose mum is engrossed with her phone, making her feel ignored. “Do you love your phone more than me?” Tobe asked her mum, one day. Tobi, together with her friends, plots how to have their mothers to themselves for a few hours to address the neglect. They soon find a collaborator in Uduak, a magical character dressed in Efik traditional ensemble.
The picture book is the brainchild of Lola Shoneyin’s Bookstorm initiative aimed at revolutionising the children’s book industry by empowering authors, illustrators, editors, graphic designers and other professionals required to boost the publishing ecosystem. It hoped to publish one hundred children’s books by 2027. Get Rid of Your Phone. Mummy is the third book publisher in 2025 after The Brevity of Beautiful Things and Mrs. Kuti by the publisher.
Odu’s new offering was recently launched at the new office of Ouida Books in Ikeja, Lagos. Held on March 8, the event attracted fans and family of the author, as well as book aficionados. A staff of the publishing house, Ms Sharon Adeoye-Ajanlekoko, welcomed guests to the book launch, setting the stage for an interactive session with the founder of Quida Books, Lola Soneyin, in which the author said, “Although the story is fictional, it is based on research about the negative effects of excessive phone use on both parents and children.”
She affirmed, “It’s important to have stories that reflect our reality. As an African mother, I wanted a story set here in Lagos that children and parents could relate to.” Just as we teach children how to eat and talk, the author noted that “they also learn from watching us” and, “If we are always glued to our phones, they will grow up doing the same.”
She would like parents to dedicate more time to their children and curtail the hours spent on the screen daily. “I’m not saying don’t use your phone for work, but if you’re endlessly scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, you might be missing out on important moments with your child. With each passage of time, you have less time with your children. We have potentially twelve years of their time,” she said, stressing, “The time you spend on your phone can be spent on self development or in the context of the book on your child.
“I am not talking about you being on your phone doing your job functions but you have been on your phone scrolling on tiktok, Instagram. I think it does more harm, because now you see young adults and teenagers, they are not good at eye contact; they are anxious because most of their interfaces are on the screen.”
The interviewer, Shoneyin, lauded the author’s timely intervention on the issue, for “if we don’t tackle it now, the next generation may grow up completely disconnected from real-world interactions.” Her husband, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, who said he witnessed the transitional period to the new phone culture, compared to his own days, warned that, “If we continue like this, the children we ignore today will ignore us tomorrow.”
Also, the founder of the Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation, Chief Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe, praised the timely and cultural relevance of Get Rid of Your Phone, Mum.
Photo: The author, Mazzi