By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
Abuja – Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, has urged writers to champion the course of saving literature and promoting reading culture in the country.
Sani told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja that literature had been facing serious competition with the social media.
He said that writers should move to save books and give new intellectual touch to the country’s political discourse.
“When politicians and citizens do not read, they will have nothing to say; what you say is a product of your experience or other people’s experience or what you read.
“If you don’t read, you are virtually and intellectually empty,” the lawmaker said.
Sani, a playwright and human rights activist, also said the recent foundation lying ceremony for the Writers’ Village at Mpape in Abuja was a welcome development for the future of literature.
NAN reports that the foundation lying ceremony for the Writers Village at Mpape by the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) was done on Friday.
ANA President, Malam Abdullahi Denja, said the land was given to the association in 1985 by the then FCT Minister, Maj.-Gen. Mamman Vatsa.
He said the project would help realise the dreams of the founding fathers of literature in Nigeria.
“The village will serve as a convergence point for writers and people interested in the promotion of culture and arts.
“It will also serve as a fountain for the emission of literary knowledge from within its environs and beyond.
“This is going to be an umbilical cord for authors, writers and people interested in literature and arts.
“Even though the journey of building the Writers’ Village may be long, one day it is going to be realised,” he said.
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