Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has charged the Nigerian youths to leverage on the transformative power of books in their quest to succeed in their chosen endeavour.
Mr. Obaseki made the call on the occasion of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)’ World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated on April 23, each year.
According to UNESCO, the day is set aside “to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors and encourage everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.”
The governor said: “The printing era disrupted the cultures that preceded it by increasing access to knowledge and wisdom on an unprecedented scale. Ever since, the pace of human advancement has been supersonic, thanks to the deluge of information contained in books.”
He urged the youth to “appreciate the wealth of knowledge contained in books, apply same and join the growing army of global youth in the knowledge economy, who are responsible for modern inventions.”
He assured that his administration “is set to commence the reconstruction of public schools across the state in the coming days, and on completion, the schools will have rich libraries where students can read and carry out research.”
Mr. Obaseki pledged to work with the relevant federal government agencies to protect intellectual property.
“All our books for our new libraries will be sourced directly from the publishers. We appreciate the enormous intellectual rigour and creativity that go into book making and writing, and as a government, we are committed to rewarding such efforts. We place high premium on the Rule of Law and are ever ready to join forces with other agencies of the federal government to protect the works of authors and other creative people.”
He saluted authors for sustaining the tempo of documenting events, happening and occurrences, preserving and transferring knowledge across generations, mirroring society and advancing ideas that foster development.
“Young people must make the best of the knowledge economy and enrich themselves with the avalanche of ideas at their disposal and become global citizens, who ‘know something about everything,’” Mr. Obaseki advised.
