The Director-General, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr John Asein, on Tuesday urged Nigerians, especially youths, to reduce the time spent on phones, and in its place, cultivate good reading habits and culture.
Asein made the call in Kano during a one day workshop with the theme: “Promoting Reading Culture”, organised to mark the 2019 World Book and Copyright Day in the state.
The UNESCO says “ World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading.
“Each year, on April 23, celebrations take place all over the world to recognise the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures’’.
According to Asein, who was represented by the NCC’s Kano State Coordinator, Mr Hassan Usman, reading unlocks the potentials in us and fires our creative talents to innovate and build our society.
“The aim of the programme is to celebrate the contribution of books and authors to our global culture as well as highlight the connection between copyright, creativity and books to propagation of our common values as humanity,’’ he said.
The director-general said that the commission would continue to develop policies and strategies to facilitate a culture of respect for authorship and copyright works.
He said the commission would also step up enforcement and prosecutorial activities to stem the tide of copyright infringement both off and online.
Usman, apart from representing Asein, also gave some remarks at the event in his capacity as the State Coordinator of NCC in Kano.
Speaking in his capacity as state coordinator, he also stressed the need for youths in the state to cultivate good reading habits.
He said the commission was concerned with the poor reading culture prevalent in the country, especially among the youth.
“The importance of reading books cannot be overemphasised, because as the saying goes, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body,’’ Usman said.
He said that reading books widens ones scope and horizon as well as draws one toward perfection.
“Reading books develops your personality and makes you think, thereby stimulating creativity.
“And this creativity is what the Nigerian Copyright Commission protects with vim and vigour,’’ Usman said.
Speaking earlier, the Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Mr Tijjani Mohammed, said the importance of reading could not be over-emphasised.
According to him, reading is very important in order to make an individual aware of information, develop one’s thinking and to pass information from one generation to another.==NAN
