A lawyer and writer, Theresa Ebi Tobuyei, will bring in experts to a conversation on Tuesday this week to discuss the essentiality of reading culture in Nigeria.
This is just as there will be a review of her first book, ‘Gasps, which reflects on the 1997 crisis in Warri, Delta State.
Addressing journalists during the weekend, Tobuyei struggled to come to terms with the present state of aliteracy currently bedevilling the contemporary world and age.
“Interestingly, the lack of desire to read is not peculiar to just here, just Nigeria, or just Africa; it is a global phenomenon. It’s quite sad because, first, what we dealt with was the ability to read and write—illiteracy.
That has been sorted now; annoyingly, what we now contend with is an apathy for reading. The same skill we struggled to learn. And this includes me.
“There is this saying that teaching and speaking about your weakness also helps you deal with it and overcome it.
“I also struggle with aliteracy, not all the time though, but then that is a struggle that should not be in the first place because our prayer before now was against illiteracy. Now that we have the ability to read, we must use it. No excuse. But that’s on a lighter note”, she said.
She therefore said, “On Tuesday, August 29th of august 2023, we will be having an event here; it is a twin event; in the first lap of the event is the topic titled Appraising the Aesthetic of a Reading Culture in Nigeria, and in the session we are going to be talking about the essentiality of reading culture to the Nigerian state.
Then after that, there is going to be another session, which is the second lap, which will be a review and a conversation on my debut, Gasp.
She said among the persons that will grace the occasion are Ambassador Bolade Igali, who will be the Chairperson of the occasion, and Mr. Ken Etete, CEO of Century Group, who will give a keynote address on reading culture.
Tobuyei, who is a Judiciary Research Officer with Bayelsa State Judiciary, said the second lap of the event is a conversation on her book where readers of the work can appraise and criticise the book.
“GASP is a fictional tale about the aftermath of a war or crisis, as in this case, the Warri crisis of 1997. To tell a relatable tale because of the lessons I intend to pass along with the work, I used a well-known crisis, one that is also very personal to me and my childhood.
“GASP is a tale of three teen girls, all friends, who lost principal members of their families and how they had to struggle with the loss and the reality. It was as bad as these teenagers witnessing the gruesome butchery of one of their fathers by villains I tagged “the hunters” in the work.
“It tells the important tale that decades after the end of active crises and even passive violence, the victims and casualties still have to deal with the scars inflicted on them and the demons who invaded their space”, Tobuyei noted.
She revealed that a movie firm in Lagos, Nigeria, some months ago purchased the movie rights to the work, and she believes that the gospel preached in the book will be taken to every ear and eye in every nook and cranny of the world.
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