Reading as black man’s albatross

Reading maketh a man whole, according to Lord Bacon. If we go by this maxim, the indisposition of the black people to reading is one of the reasons blacks are not wholesome, lacking in many areas of human endeavour.

There is no single area in life where the black man is not lagging behind. Even in sports and entertainment, where we appear to excel, it is because of the infrastructure and managerial skill the white folks have made available in various parts of the world.

All these deficiencies boil down to the black man’s refusal to read. It’s a problem for members of our race to read.

It should be understood clearly that reading for pleasure is a good habit that keeps one informed, educated and intellectually vibrant. It’s as important as engaging in a course of study in an institution of learning to achieve a given end either in research or to attain a degree or some academic laurel.Whatever the objective, reading and studying are noble ideals that must be pursued by people to advance their lot as civilized people in the comity of nations.

I feel ashamed that whites and Asians are responsible for most of the inventions and advancements in the world today. None of the top-10 hi-tech companies originated in black nations, not even one.It is no surprise because black nations don’t invest in education as they ought to. Black African nations fall far behind the UNESCO benchmark.

Black Africa should endeavour to build it’s education infrastructure and encourage our people to develop the reading habit so as to catch up with the rest of the developed world in the technological rat race.

While Asian power houses, China and India, are already sending astronauts on exploratory missions in space, black nations are still grappling with existential challenges like food shortages, corruption, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, mismanagement of resources, civil wars,and other byproducts of leadership failure. We’re still to industrialize, but America, Europe and some Asian nations are already in the post-industrial era. These developed nations are already experimenting with artificial intelligence, but many Black African nations like Sudan are being torn apart by internal power struggle, political instability, terrorist attacks, poor governance and tribal and religious rivalries.

Black Africa must get its priorities right by investing in its youth, and by implication, their future. As it is, hardly can we find one black nation in any hemisphere that ranks with even the least developed nation in the West. Whereas some Asian and Arab nations are already breaking out of the Third World bracket into the fold of advanced nations. They were able to achieve this feat because of their high investment in education and training.

I watched in amusement the other day, when one of the presidential candidates in the just concluded Nigerian general election, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, complained that youth of this generation are more interested in the social media than reading. No doubt, the social media has become a big disincentive to reading for youth of this generation. It is killing interest in reading and writing. Intellectual development is also a big challenge to our Internet-addicted young folks. They cannot bend down and read, let alone engage in any type of rigorous academic exercise.

A lot of posts on Facebook and other platforms are so badly written, you wonder if the writers of such posts went to school at all.

Black people must begin to realize that technological innovations can only be possible if people study diligently and are prepared to face intellectually challenging research projects.

Black nations must submit to modernity by being innovative in managing their human resources. Development of any people can only be done by the people themselves. Unless people are educated, well trained and properly motivated to learn and evolve into a creative workforce, they would not be productive.

Many black youth today waste precious time on social media, seeking cheap popularity and attention, instead of pursuing productive careers that could contribute to their countries’ GDP. Young black people are pursuing get-rich-quick projects or engage in cyber crime, Ponzi schemes and other fraudulent acts just to get by.

We are not making any significant contribution to the upsurge of new technology, and knowledge explosion going on in the world. Instead, our youth are migrating to developed countries to seek greener pastures because their own nations are badly rundown by incompetent, irresponsible leaders.

Black youth must wake up to the stark reality of our pitiable social conditions and diligently take up the challenge of developing their nations. Nobody will help us run our nation or improve our conditions.

My admonition will not be sufficient to change anything. We need strong, positive action. That’s why I am promoting the World Black Congress as a corporate platform that could spearhead this global campaign for the renaissance of the black race. This is because the current state of the black man will not change unless we mobilize all our people all over the world in a determined, collective effort to inspire our youth to embrace a new attitude that could create mass awareness for dramatic change in the circumstances of black people as a whole.