Literature

Eugenia blazes the trail in book promotion (report)

Eugenia Abu of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, has held a public reading of her book, In the Blink of an Eye, on 24th June, 2008, at Protea Hotel, Maitama, Abuja ? the 26th public reading since the book was published last year.

Hosted by Abike Dabiri, member of the House of Representatives, and former staff of the NTA, the event had in attendance prominent personalities like the Honourable Minister of State for Education, Dr. Jerry Anthony Agada, President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Dr. Wale Okediran, and the General Secretary of ANA, Malam Denja Abdullahi.

Highlight of the occasion included reading from the book by the author and some of the guests, musical and poetry performances and story telling.

About ten readings were taken out of the over seventy essays in the book. The essays read ranged from those on national issues to the ones on international matters.

The entire collection is a reflection of life; man?s everyday living and what it entails. It also touches on monumental socio-economic and political issues that affect humanity in general. Burning societal issues such as prostitution, slavery and corruption are brought to the fore in such a manner that compels the reader to have a rethink on the prevailing state of morality.

In his remarks, Dr. Agada commended the author for her effort. He observed that it is not easy to write, adding that ?when a writer goes further to market his or her book, then such a writer deserves every commendation?. He said by organizing readings, the author is contributing in no small way to the reading campaign embarked upon by the Ministry of Education.

Hon. Abike re-echoed this fact, saying ?I believe that it is not easy to write a book, so when you see an author promoting her own book, it is worthy of support. She said reading should be supported by everyone because it is the bedrock of any development. According to her, ?we have to work on our reading culture; we must bring back the culture of establishing good libraries in schools so that our children would imbibe the culture of reading.?

To this end, she said, there is a bill before the National Assembly aimed at developing libraries in schools.

Dr. Okediran, who was among those who encouraged the author to publish the collection, commended her for taking the bold step in publishing the book and embarking on massive promotion to get it circulated. He also commended Hon. Abike for sponsoring the event ?at a time when politicians don?t care much about matters relating to book?. He expressed the hope that other members of the National Assembly would take a cue from her noble example.

Eugenia Abu, who was born in Kaduna, is one of Nigeria?s foremost broadcasters. A 1981 Master?s degree graduate of City University, London, she won the Nigeria Media Merit Award for the Best Newscaster in 1995.

She intends to carry on with the promotion across Nigeria till she covers all the major cities.

(c) reported by SUMAILA UMAISHA in the New Nigerian edition of 28/6/08

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