As Nigeria marks the 2025 Children’s Day, educationist and partners have called on the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike to prioritize human capital development by ensuring that schools and health facilities remain open.
They stated this on Saturday, while fielding questions from journalists at the sideline of a Book Hangout organized for children in Abuja.
Convener of the Book Hangout and founder, LaVie Learns, Sandra Onojetah stated that the narrative that children dislike reading should be changed:
“There is this thing that children don’t like reading, and it’s not because they don’t want to read, it’s because we’ve not gotten their interest in reading. So that’s the reason why we brought about book hangout.
“Book hangout is a platform where we bring children all together just to give them opportunity to see a reason why reading book is important”, she said.
Onojetah added that the program was an initiative to help build children’s confidence to love reading and also author books:
“We’re expecting that at the end of this program, when they leave here, they will go and motivate their peers to love the act of reading. I believe that at the end of this program, the child would not just read but write, we will now have children Nigerian authors.
“My message to parents on this children’s day is that there’s a lot to get from books, it builds the brain, it changes the mind. It takes us beyond the level where we are. Refuse the screen time, go out there, get a book”, she said.
On her part, the Executive Director, Gem Hub Initiative and partner of the book hangout, Oyeyemi Pitan noted that children who read widely have a mind that is rich in knowledge and can proffer solution to problems in the society.
She therefore called on the government to pay attention to the quality of education offered to the children:
“We are calling on the government to ensure that the quality of education is improved. You go to some schools, they don’t have infrastructures, the teachers, are trying their best, but they can actually improve the quality of the education that they are giving these children, because this is our future, and we need to ensure that we take them seriously by developing human capital.
“I’m using this opportunity to call on the FCT Minister the Local Governments to ensure that schools don’t get closed. Two months ago or thereabouts, all public schools in FCT were under lock and key, even the PHCs.
“Imagine a child losing, being at home, not being in school. Imagine a pregnant woman going to the facility, not being able to access care. This is our future.
“Human capital development is very key, and I’m calling on the FCT minister to take it seriously. We appreciate all the development that is happening in the FCT, the roads and everything. But more importantly is human capital”, she said.
Also speaking, Director of the Reconcilers Children Academy, Lugbe and partner of the book hangout, Amanda Omachi stated that readers are leaders. “The more you read, the more your mind is open to so many new things, and the more you are able to think in a different way than others who do not read”, she said.
Omachi further admonished: “If you want to make something amazing out of your life, pick up a book. Watching videos and comic, cartoons and all that looks very, very relaxing, and it is to an extent. But when you make too much of it, your brain just becomes very recessive.
“When you pick up a book, you are able to read and explore and imagine and become much more creative. So pick a book”.
She also informed that the decline in children’s reading culture informed their decision to start convening the program three years ago:
“The reason why we went into this majorly is because we realized that there is a decline in the Liberian culture of the Nigerian child, many children these days, just pick up a device and begin to watch and just watch cartoons, watch movies.
“But we realized that if we do not revive the reading culture in Nigeria, then the future looks really bleak, and that’s why we had to go into this”, she said.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria faces a learning crisis wherein 74 percent of school children aged 7–14 lack basic reading and math skills.
Meanwhile, Local Education Authority (LEA) schools in the FCT are closed since March as disgruntled teachers have been on strike, owing to poor working conditions.
