The Gombe State Deputy Governor, Manassah Daniel Jatau, Ph.D, has lamented the dearth of reading culture among Nigerians, and stressed the need for the reviving of the culture among the teaming youths who are leaders of tomorrow.
According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant, Media in the Deputy Governor’s office, Mr. Jack Tasha, Dr. Jatau was the Special Guest of Honour and co-opted chief launcher at the public presentation and launching of 7 books, authored by Halima Usman, an indigene of Gombe State at Yar’adua Centre, Abuja.
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The Deputy Governor expressed optimism that with efforts of people like Halima Usman who are authors and contributing towards encouraging the reading culture among the school children, the reading culture will be revived.
Mr. Daniel Jatau encouraged Nigerian youths on the need to thrive and write books in order to educate their fellow youths and keep their names alive, especially that authors never die.
The Deputy Governor however was quick to note that as a writer himself, he has observed that writers faced numerous bottlenecks of translating their manuscripts to published books due to lack of money.
He called on the governments to come in through the ministries of education to assist individuals who lack the financial strength to publish their books so that people are not bereft of their potential due to inability to make money available for publication of their potentialities.
The Deputy Governor stressed that, “what we have now are printing press, instead of publishers who would sponsor people that have ideas to put in writing as books”, calling on the federal government to assist writers and help them publish their books for improvement of reading culture and education as a whole.
He commended the author of the seven books, Halima Usman for complimenting Gombe State government’s efforts in the area of education where a state of emergency was declared because of the APC administration’s commitment to the provision of education in the state.
In his remarks the Minister of State, Science and Technology, Barr. Mohammed Abdullahi, who is also the Chairman of the occasion, applauded the author, describing her as a personality who has a creativity that needs to be encouraged.
He said, in this clime it is very rare for women to bring themselves and show their talents, pointing out that, for Halima to publish 7 books, she deserves a resounding applause, calling on the general public to support her in this very important effort to develop humanity.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Paullen Tallen, who was mother of the day at the occasion, said Gombe is great when it comes to women to be reckoned with, praying God to raise more women in the state like Hajiya Amina Mohammed, the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Halima Usman, etc that will continue to contribute to humanity.
She appreciated the Governor of Gombe State for supporting women, recalling that during her visit to the state, the Governor has granted all her requests aimed at women development.
The Mai Kaltungo, Engineer Saleh Mohammed Umar expressed happiness over the effort of Halima Usman, especially on the good news about her excellent performance in place of work as narrated by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
He informed the gathering that the likes of Halima are many in his domain and need just a push to explore their potentials to surprisingly high level performance, that can move Nigeria to greatness, appreciating the Minister of Petroleum and NNPC Staff for supporting her.
