NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Dr Adesanya Adelekan Got It Wrong On Nigerians

By Dr Solomon Ojehonmon

I beg to disagree with the managing director of Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, Lagos, Dr Adesanya Adelekan, on some of his comments during the interview with Sunday Punch published on the 11th of July. In the article Dr Adelekan intoned that Nigerians do not buy or read books except to pass examinations, and that they are not interested in novels, magazines, articles etc. Sadly, it is now commonplace to hear Nigerian publishers grousing about poor sales and heaping the blame on poor Nigerians while the fault, in my honest opinion, is almost entirely theirs.

With the ongoing revolution in the music and movie industries in Nigeria, interest has been largely drawn away from foreign movies and music. Only last week, I attended a gig and it was local music all through. In a moment of sober reflection, it occurs to me that, ten, fifteen years ago, not a single local song would have been played at such a party. The other day I was watching a group of artistes perform on Silverbird TV and actually thought they were westerners until I was corrected of my erroneous notion by my wife who pointed out that they were selected African artistes, including Nigerians. That is an indication of how far the music industry has developed in Nigeria and Africa.

In recent times Nollywood has taken over the heart and soul of the film industry, relegating foreign movies to the background. Our local movies may not have been upped to western standard but they have enough sap to nosh local and continental interest. Even in western countries most Nigerians, Africans and Caribbean residents now have a predilection for our movies and music. We do not hear much complaining from these sectors. The reason is not farfetched. President Barrack Obama once said during his campaign that the world is changing and we must change with it. Our film and music industries have changed with the tide. ( Continues below..... )

The literary industry in Nigeria and Africa in general has failed woefully to join this revolution. So Dr Adelekan believes we do not read novels. No, sir, Nigerians do read plenty of novels but mostly foreign ones: compelling historical thrillers, intriguing murder mysteries, action-adventures, cutting-edge medical thrillers, spellbinding romance, revolutionary general fiction, and provocative, even controversial, religious thrillers. These are what most Nigerians love to read. So where are Nigeria or Africa equivalents of Sidney Sheldon, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, Jeffery Archer, Robin Cook, JK Rawling, Steven King, Michael Connolly, etc?

With our rich cultural heritage, a change in orientation, and a small push in the right direction, our authors can produce novels with equal flare to those by these international best-selling authors, and have Nigerians rushing back to the bookshops. But, no, what we are saddled with instead are boring novels on civil wars, slave trade, the colonial era, poverty, disease, prostitution, and politics. Some of these themes may have worked well in the past but not now as Nigerians hurried to keep pace with a fast-moving world.

To make matters worse, most of our publishing houses now prefer the pusillanimous way out to keep afloat: vanity publishing. A manuscript accompanied with a fat check—five hundred thousand to a million—will be rushed into publication without the slightest consideration whether the book will interest the reading public. Of course, the publishers don’t even bother to advertise such books. Why waste time and money when they are already aware that not a single copy will probably leave the bookshops?

Notable exemptions are two relatively young and vibrant publishing houses, Cassava Republic and Farafina, who seem not afraid to experiment with unusual works but they still need to encourage their authors to focus more on entertainment in other to excel in a global competitive market.

The problem is not peculiar to Nigeria, or even to Africa, alone. Publishers and agents on the international scene—America and Europe—most of whom cares nothing for books, only interested in making money, has taken over the industry. Their newest strategic is to hype novels into bestsellerdom. Most of the novels end up in the rubbish bins for recycling only a few hours after they are released, instead of being on their way to Africa and other developing countries as second-hand books. So our bookshops are starved of foreign novels as well. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Building Complex

That brings me to the reason I was particularly irked by Dr Adelekan’s comments. A few years back, I realized my appetite for reading novels had considerably dwindled but, unlike our publishers, I quickly realized that the problem wasn’t with me as a reader per se. Instead, I was finding it difficult to read beyond the first thirty or so pages of some of the new books I bought. So I was challenged to write my first novel titled The Methuselah Conspiracy, an historical cum medical cum religious thriller, which centers on man’s epic pursuit of immortality and also offers plausible scientific explanation to one of the greatest mysteries of all times: the longevity of the biblical Methuselah. Even, my wife, Beatrice, enthusiastically joined in by writing her own novel, The Black Omen, a mystery thriller, dwelling on the epic clash between traditional beliefs and medical perceptions regarding mysterious birthmarks. We had hoped these intriguing thrillers will kick start the much needed revolution in Nigeria and Africa literary industry.

After spending the last two years fine-tuning the novels, with the help of members of our international writers club, we passed the books to some Nigerian publishers for consideration. But, no, the publishers did a Hussein Bolt: they don’t want novels in those genres, prefer to leave it to the Americans and Britons to feed our appetite for intrigue and entertainment while they sponsor and publish books that effectively serve as cure for insomnia.

I will like to remind Dr Adelekan that Nigeria comprises of millions of enlightened, well-read people who love entertainment, and will go to any length to get entertained, and not even poverty will stop them from going after a good book, if there are any on the shelves that will merit their time and money. Has the respected Macmillan publisher ever gone to the streets or the local bookshops, to meet with readers and inquire about the sort of novels they like to read?

What must be done is not in the abyss: the literary sector is not just living up to its billing and will need a massive shake-up. Firstly, the publishers must give us interesting books to read. Then there must be effective advertising and distributive network so that books can get to all nooks in Nigeria. Our government must act to make local novels less expensive and more affordable. The media must play their part in promoting novels, as they do in western countries. And, finally, Dr Adelekan and his cronies should realize that books are sold by word of mouth. No reader will recommend a book that did not make any impression on him or her to others, so they should get back to the drawing board.

Article by Dr Solomon Ojehonmon, KILADEJO HOSPITAL AND SPECIALIST CLINICS, OKOKOMAIKO, LAGOS, PHONE: 07036701022, E-MAIL: ojesolomon@yahoo.com

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