A Switzerland-based Nigerian, Mr Oluwasegun Adebiyi, has said availability of libraries in villages will aid children to learn and live purposefully.
Adebiyi who converted his family house into a library for the Ajogbo Akia town in Ado – Odo, situated in Ado -Odo /Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, said his village had neither a school nor library, saying he decided to take the lead to help his people.
The library is finalised and 100% completed, opened with some books, and commissioned by Ado-Odo Ota LG Chairman, Mr Sheriff Musa on the 19th of February 2022.
“The building was actually a dilapidated property of my late dad which had collapsed as a result of not being in use.
“The family and all the village elders reached out to me to rebuild our father’s house, I did inform them that instead of building a new house that would be empty again, I will build something else meaningful that will be beneficial to the entire village and the neighbouring villages.
“As there was no school in the village and being an individual that is very personable about education, I rebuilt the structure from scratch into a multi-purpose library,” Adebiyi said.
He also appealed to the government to provide a school for the village.
“We still desire to have a Librarian, staff or official of OGSG to run, manage and work at the facility as an entity of government, while we hope to have a government school in the area as the area does not have any school,” he said.
Adebiyi advised parents to encourage children and young adults to read.
“My advice to Nigerians especially the parents is to play an active part by leading the course for a change and to also encourage our children and young adults alike to read, the first access point to knowledge acquisition for any child is from the homes where they are growing up. So parents should do a bit more by creating time to read for their children at bedtime or at the weekends, they should introduce books to their children. On the part of the government, they have an important role to play, they should be deliberate in their policies, introduce book clubs, book reading nights, book reading competitions, literary and debate and other incentive programs that will draw the attention of the students back to book reading,” he said.
