A Must Read: Nigerians React To Port Harcourt's Quest To Become World Book Capital

Come April 2004 to April 2015, Port Harcourt, the oil capital of Nigeria, will become the World Book Capital.



By this, the Garden City, as Port Harcourt is famously called, will be the first city in the sub-Saharan Africa to be bestowed with such honour.

Also, the city will become the centre of literary activities, production, expose, symposia and talk shops all aimed at promoting the reading culture in the country.

The World Book Capital status is a United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation, UNESCO, programme awarded to a city that has a history of literary activities and the support of the government of that city to host the event that will take place throughout the duration of the tenure.

Port Harcourt met the requirements and will take over from Bankok, the current world book capital.

But what do Nigerians think of this privilege?

Koko Kalango, coordinator of the Rainbow Book Foundation and the brain behind the Port Harcourt World Book Capital, believes that this will accelerate the already sagging reading culture in the country.

"We can build more on what we have done in the past. Port Harcourt is ready to go, we are happy, we are ready and we are prepared because everything is being put in place to ensure that Port Harcourt has a successful tenure as the World Book Capital from 2014-2015," he said.

A young author, Abayomi Bamidele is also enthusiastic about the impending elevation of Port Harcourt as the world book capital for the next one year.

"It will certainly give people like me an opportunity to meet writers and book dealers from across the world.

"This means the prospects of getting published are limitless, who knows, I could meet my first publisher there," Bamidele averred.

He was also optimistic about the prospect of an image re-branding the event could do to Nigeria that he said he couldn't wait for Port Harcourt's tenure to get underway.

Jahman Anikulapo, arts advocate and former editor of the Sunday Guardian, described the coming of the World Book Capital as a dream.

This he said was because the city had stiff competition from renowned cities including Oxford in England.

Accprding to Anikulapo, the dream coming to reality stand the chance of "drawing global attention to not just Port Harcourt but to Nigeria and Africa in general," adding that the initiative will draw writers and people interested in creative activities to Nigeria.

This he said will push-up the creative-book reading , writing impulse as well as the cultural productivity of the country.

Other art lovers also expressed their excitements at the prospects of the nation gaining a new reputation for itself in the book industry rather the sordid image that some people have given Nigeria in the international circles.