Akada festival promoting reading culture, says Aboderin-Talabi

With over 60 per cent literacy rate in Nigeria, according to MacroTrends, Akada Children Book Festival (ACBF) has provided a platform for Nigerian authors and publishers to showcase their works and engage readers.

The fifth edition of the festival, held in Lagos at the weekend, enabled children to participate in a variety of activities such as book reading, signing, story-telling sessions and book discussions, and provided an opportunity for children to meet and interact with authors and publishers, to gain a better understanding of the books.

This year’s festival, theme ‘Through the Pages’ provided a platform, where authors and illustrators shared their stories of Africa, their culture, heritage, and communities through children’s literature.

Author and convener of the festival, Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi, said the book festival promotes the reading culture among children and boosts their comprehension.

“Book festival is a showcase of writing for a variety of people from different backgrounds, all over the world. So it’s also an opportunity for writers to discover that there is a huge market for children,” she said.

Author of children’s book ‘Puff Puff’, Irene Omiunu, said literacy is important in any country, what she does now is a result of her reading culture while she was young.

She emphasised that ACBF has pushed and increased the reading culture in the country as children can now express themselves.

Seven years old Michelle Ojo said she loves reading fiction, most especially authored by Chinua Achebe as it helps her learn and improve how she expresses herself.

“I have written three books, though not yet published: ‘The Magic Car’, All About my Mum’ and ‘A Day in Life with Me.’ Books have always encouraged me to write books and my mum is also an inspiration to me,” she said.

Speaking on the rights of children for the prevention of child abuse, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said children have a role to play in their own protection, understanding the forms of abuse and process, which perpetrators employ to abuse victims.

With a document developed by the agency, titled, ‘My Passport of Rights for the Prevention of Child Abuse in Lagos State’, she explained the rights and responsibilities of a child, coupled with how to relate with opposite sex and measures to take when abused.

“To ensure our children are safe and protected, they need to be protected and by ensuring that they have a role to play in getting protected by voicing out and letting their Yes be Yes and No be No,” she said.

The festival celebrates the richness and diversity of African culture and hopes to create a community of reading enthusiasts, who will champion the cause of literacy and education in Nigeria, providing access to books from different authors and genres.

The festival seeks to address the educational deficit of reading culture by encouraging parents and guardians to cultivate reading habits among their children.