Bayode, a voracious reader with a mission

Call him a bookworm, you may be right. Call him ambitious, and you may be right again; but Bayode set his eyes on it, and never looked back until he got it.

At exactly 3:30pm on Saturday at the YouRead Library, Yaba, Lagos, Treasure Olawunmi Bayode set a new Guinness World Record for ‘The Longest Reading Marathon (Read Aloud)’, having read aloud for 120 hours.

The father of three began reading at 1:30pm on Monday and set the new record of 120 hours over a period of five days.

With that feat, Bayode effectively unseated Nepali Deepak Sharma, the erstwhile world champion who until then held the record of 113 hours 15 minutes set in 2008.

Treasure (and what a name!) read mostly Nigerian literature by Toni Kan , Leye Adele, Sarah Ladipo Manyika and many others.

“This is the most adventurous thing I have ever done as an individual. It is not easy for an individual to sit down and decide to read for five days, almost non-stop.

“The plan is to create awareness for reading and writing culture in Nigeria. I accumulated 20 minutes each day to eat, sleep and have my bath. I don’t even sleep very well but I am glad it is over and I have set a new Guinness World Record,” he told newsmen.

A brand specialist, Bayode was said to have read aloud for 122 hours, with only two hours break every 24 hours.

But just to ensure that all things went well with him, a Lagos state ambulance was constantly on standby at the library premises while the challenge lasted.

Well, expectedly, his wife never took him seriously when he first spoke of his plan to read for four straight days (who would?).

Tosin, a financial services expert, said she was surprised when her husband told her he planned to read non-stop for four days.

She said, “I had just returned from work one night when he told me he wanted to read for 120 hours, and I just walked past. I told him what mattered most was putting cash on the table, settling the bills and not book reading. I told him to jettison the idea because it made no sense.

“A few days later, he came back to me and repeated the same thing, and as usual (I didn’t take him seriously).

“But one thing I can tell you is that my husband is so brilliant and focused. Our children have taken after him in this regard. Now, I feel very happy because this is a dream come true and I am glad I finally supported him.”

The challenge was jointly sponsored by Guaranty Trust Bank, Tagheuer, and the Lagos State government, among others.

As the holy book said in Proverbs 18:16: “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men…” The new world marathon reading champion was on Wednesday received by the Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode in his office.

His Special Adviser on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said the state government and the country were proud of the feat.

“All said and done, we are still waiting on the Guinness Book to get back to us to confirm and affirm the new record; but regardless, what the governor was trying to emphasise is the fact that his attempt was very commendable and it helps us to bring to the fore something we always talked about as a state to improve the reading culture, and the governor is committed to supporting this in anyway,” Bank-Olemoh said.

The Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, also described the new world record as “extraordinary.”

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“I think Bayode is the ultimate dreamer who is sending a message to Lagosians, Nigerians and to Africans that they can do it,” Ayorinde said.

Bayode said his intention of embarking on the project was to make reading popular and famous in Nigeria and Africa, as well as change the narrative that ‘if you want to hide anything from the black man, you put it in the book.’

“The western world is not built on the back of entertainment and sports; it is built on the back of education, research, reading and intellectual exertion. That is my mission.

“I believe in a way it has been accomplished, but it is a seed sown already and we are going to water it to ensure that there is harvest in the next five to 10 years whereby there will be Africans that will arise with great intellectualism to move us forward in the continent,” Bayode said.