Title: IF YOU REALLY LOVE BOOKS, YOU WILL HAVE COMPLETE SUCCESS.
By  OGOCHUKWU PROMISE
May 27, 2008 (At the NLNG event, Dowen College, Lagos, Nigeria.)

I decided early in life that books which I love, which I read, which I write will bring me complete success. Books taught me to dream and I dream a lot. Books taught me to WAKE  UP and go after my dreams, and make them come true. I did just that and I haven’t stopped doing that. When writers talk about making money from their books, some seem to do so very shyly because a lot of writers are not business inclined. I was like that when I started, but I realised that I am in fact in the best profession, the profession of creating words, moving words, healing words, powerful words capable of transforming lives. Every profession should in addition to bringing food to the table, improve the lives of others. It is necessary that my work feeds me and a host of others. So I sought for the publishing company that would deliver quality and good spread, ensuring that my books get to people who need them, at a reasonable price and that I am not the poorer for it. 

The peace of mind I have derived from both reading and writing books has kept me in one piece, I must confess. Often I hibernate to quiet places and enjoy a most beautiful communion with my God, often in the solitude of sanctuaries. I love going to the monastries and losing myself before The Blessed Sacrament, my lover and God. I love the sea-side exchanges with birds and crickets. I love taking the yoga postures, exhaling and inhaling the raw innocence of fresh air, running my hands through the greeness of leaves and seeing so much beauty hidden in rotten banana peels.

Peace of mind comes with good health. And the health that is good is that of sound mind and body. Books also tell us how nice aerobics, good diet and healthy living are. They tell us that spiritual exercises in which we learn such things as self-control and the yearnings of our spirit to connect to higher values are of paramount importance.

For me, security comes with the renaissance of the spirit within. When we realise that the essential things we have are actually the ones that reside in us, the ones no one can take away, because they are the ones that return home with us, that is when we give premium to the well-being of the inner self. It is then we begin to pay attention to more of ethereal things and less of the ephemeral. Security comes from within, not from high walls, rugged metal doors and machine guns.

Books have brought me untold happiness. Each time I hold a book in my hands, I get the feeling that I am alive, that everything is possible, that all I need is the courage to create and recreate my joys. Books fill me with joy when I read them, they stretch my imagination and they take me through new lanscapes, through life’s tropes, and each time I get to the end of each book, I feel that I am born again. I become a brand new creature, a bundle of possibilities. It happens to me too each time I write a new book, as I hold the published work in my hand and allow it to caress my cheeks, I close my eyes and savour the silence of love flowing from me to the person standing by, to anyone, anywhere. Love pure and selfless.

Books have also helped to solidify my relationship with my family. It has taught me how to appreciate loved ones, how to read silences, passions and recognise that everything counts especially when you are living with children, whom you know you can only lead by example. Books have helped me to be more understanding, tolerant, and to know that people are sensitive and that they have the right to grow their own individuality and be respected and loved.

I have dared to hope in every situation, in each of my books, pushing ahead and knowing quite well, that what I seek may just be next door and will be mine if I search keenly.

Finally, permit me to observe that contrary to  the general belief that Nigerians do not read, I think they do in fact read. But they read for utilitarian purpose (to pass exams, to get jobs, get into positions of authority and earn promotions). But they still have not developed the capacity for sustained reading and reading for leisure. A lot of people read soft sales for gossip and to assuage voyearistic appetites. The habit for leisure reading is still nascent.

Having made this observation, what are you and I doing about it? I believe in identifying problems and even more importantly in problem-solving.

I consider a forum like this where we talk about books very important. I urge you all, especially the young ones, to grab as many books as you can get. Grab and read. Let books come alive to you by making the words you love in them your own. Be challenged by books. Like embers you can fan into flame, books can fan your dreams into realities. The title of one of my motivational books is Everything You Need Is In You.  That is the truth you can enliven in you. Just as you are now, sitting calmly, listening to me, tell yourself silently, that everything you need to come into your own in the society you live in is right inside of you. All you need is to reach inside you and use it to its full potential.

What we have done at the Lumina Foundation is to create opportunities for young ones to begin to read again leisurely. When we were growing up, we had Mills and Boons and books on adventure, and what have you. With the help of my team at the Lumina Foundation, we enlisted the support of distinguished writers from different parts of Africa to write African stories for the African children, telling our own story, our own way. We call them AFRICAN-EASY-TO READ-BOOKS. They are stories of the people we know, of things that happen to us, of things we need to know about and possibly learn from. They are of things that bother us, of things we need to confront, things that interest us and have often defined us.  These books are not more than eighty pages, with bold prints to get us to read for leisure. We also discover talents and encourage young ones to write. From the workshops we have held on reading and writing, three young writers have emerged. One is twelve years old, the other thirteen and the other sixten. They are the authors of THE LION AND THE PEOPLE, THE MISSING PRINCESS and A TIME TO LOVE, respectively.

We also recently launched CHILDREN’S CLASSICas well as TEEN’S CLASSIC. They are motivational magazines for the young ones and we run a mobile library  scheme that ensures that children have access to books authored by African writers. In various schools, we have formed LUMINA WS PRIZE READING CLUBS, and we read a different book each week and discuss it in a thirty minutes television programme. These reading sessions usually precede THE WOLE SOYINKA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE IN AFRICA, a pan African literary prize we instituted in honour of Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature. The Prize money is $20,000 USD. The reading sessions culminate in the award dinner of this prestigious prize during which the top three schools that participated in the reading sessions get a prize from the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka himself in addition to enjoying a weekend encounter with distinguished Laureates at Essay Foundation, Abeokuta. 

We also publish THE LUMINA, a motivational journal of Arts, Literature and Social Responsibility as well as THE MANAGER, a monthly journal of managerial excellence, to help you manage every aspect of your life. This is the little effort my Foundation and I are making to ensure that everyone benefits from the numerous opportunies books offer us. I believe that if we take these opportunities, we will both individually and collectively attain complete success.

Once again, I thank Nigeria NLG, Dowen College and all the schools and students who are here today for organising this beautiful event. May we all keep reading, keep learning and improving our lot.

Thank you.

 

Ogochukwu Promise, Ph.D.
May 27, 2008.