A Nigerian teenage author, Jessica Ovie-Whiskey, on Saturday warned that Nigeria’s quest to be among the world’s 20 most developed economies by the year 2020 would remain a mirage until the reading culture in Nigeria was improved.
Ovie-Whiskey told journalists in Jos, about 400km from Abuja that at the launch of her book `Nigerian Folk Tales’ that: “Nigerians are ignorant of many important developmental information because they don’t read.”
“The students of today will be among the leaders by the year 2020. So if the government can improve the reading culture now, Nigeria will be the better for it in the not distant future,” she added.
Ovie-Whiskey said that she started noticing her talent and got the inspiration to write the book while in junior secondary school, while she said the writing of the book was completed in senior secondary school.
Speaking on the book, she said while she was in junior secondary school; “I noticed my environment and saw many social vices. So I believed I could make a change and was determined to do something.”
This student of St Louis College, Jos, who aspires to study medicine, advised her fellow students to develop their talents irrespective of the career they intended to pursue later in life.
In his remarks, the father of the author, Mr Augustine Ovie-Whiskey, challenged parents to invest in the education of their children, saying, “Education is the greatest empowerment to eradicating poverty”.
The book reviewer, Reverend Sister Mary Dimlong, observed that the book would go a long way in addressing Nigeria’s societal ills and recommended it for everybody.
Source African Press Agency
