Tosin Jegede

ADEWOLE AJAO
A reading campaign by Tosin Jegede tagged 1 Child 1 Book continued its drive to complement current reading and literacy activities with a press brief and media reading earlier in the week at the Planet One Hotel in Lagos. The September 4 event preceded a September 8 visit to the Jelly Las Primary School in Agege, Lagos. This visit which coincided with World Literacy Day was to evaluate the use of books and progress of kids in reading.

According to Jegede, the initiative which seeks to stimulate reading by putting books into the hands of children has a lot of other activities earmarked for the remainder of the year. This has been its purview since it was launched last year and registered at home and in the United Kingdom.

“I believe we will go on to do many things and increase the reading culture,” Jegede enthused. “International books are cheaper because they come for as little as N60 compared to locally-made ones that go for around N250.”

The event had readings from Peace James and 12-year-old Peter Onowu. Their reading abilities were above average and gave an inkling of the promise the year old initiative can deliver on if given the right touches and support.

“Our major challenge has been compiling data. This is new to the country. The other is finance and we really need money because it costs money to get where we are going,” Jegede added. “There is a serious issue with reading and if we do not do something about it now, in a few years it will be a bad thing.”

Already, the initiative has compiled a book on Obafemi Awolowo. Jegede said with support from Mrs H.I.D. Awolowo, they were in the process of taking it to the Awolowo Foundation before rolling out its production. This might precede or follow its list of activities that will run in the remaining months of the year, and its drive to put a book in the hands of every primary school pupil in the country.