Give us Authors’ Day

On Saturday, June 8, 2017, I woke up at about 3:00am; I began to think about the project I had at hand then for which the money contributed by the family was not enough to execute. As I was thinking about how to source for more funds, the words, ‘Oliver Twist asked for more’ dropped into my mind. At this point my mind went off the project to dwell on the author of the book, Charles Dickens. I had read this book over twenty years before that time and I was surprised that it was still speaking to me. I began to appreciate the author for all efforts he put into writing and publishing the book.

• Battling paedophiles

And by extension, I began to think of other authors like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and other authors whose books I read and which continues to impact my life; authors of my Technical College books inclusive. I concluded that authors all over the world have done and are still doing the population of the world a great service and need to be appreciated.  There is no one who is educated, his position notwithstanding, who has never read a book by an author. Sometimes, we even quote from their works as a reference point to back up our suggestions and ideas because their ideas have imparted and shaped our lives.

Authors need to be appreciated by recognising and honouring them, with a day set aside as Authors Day all over the world. This will go a long way to encourage more people all over the world to read and author books in different areas of life. It is gratifying to note that the world has set aside specific dates to celebrate or commemorate diverse issues and topics and doing so for authors will be a fitting cap to such global endeavour.

Thank you in advance for sharing this vision and assisting in your own little way in bringing Authors’ Day to a reality all over the world. Anyone who is interested in this laudable project should contact me and we can begin thinking of the strategies to be employed in actualising the dream.

Baba A. Yusuf

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