You may have heard it several times. At the risk of it becoming a cliché, I start off with the one liner which says “readers are leaders and leaders are readers”. It is a good saying and I’ll like to take it further by saying that reading is living and to read is to live, and vice versa. This week’s topic is so dear to my heart, in fact, it is a passion for me and it is fast transmuting into a campaign because at every of my speaking engagements and classes, I love to dedicate at least ten to fifteen minutes for encouraging my audience on this life-enhancing lifestyle. If the audience responds or behaves to be ‘too old’ for this admonition, I stylishly bypass them and send my message to the ‘Yers’ and Gen 2020 back home.
As it is written, “…Till I come, give attention to reading…” I have to dive into the ‘archives’ to retrieve, dust up and fine tune this 2-part series that was first published in The Sun stable a couple of years back. This subject’s currency and relevance has never been in doubt more so as I keep coming across different groups of delegates in seminars, conferences, workshops and fellowships whose responses to this my poser on books and reading keep betraying a lack of currency and good reading habit: “If you drop gold and books, pick up the books first, then the gold…” (Arabic Proverb). At times I even hear them saying it aloud, “Na book we go chop?” literally translates, “Will reading books put food on the table?” I make bold to say that a good reading habit does more than putting ‘food on the table’. It builds lives, educates, enlightens, shows leadership by example, gives relief from constipation, purges from junks, enables discernment, engenders wisdom and improves knowledge, just to mention a few. One more, it brings prosperity and good success, “this Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8 NKJV). If you don’t read, or listen via your devices, it does not get to your mouth, and you can’t use it to save your life.
Before going too far, let me acknowledge the source of the title of this week’s essay and that is the new King James Authorised version of the Bible (NKJV, I Timothy 4:13). Apostle Paul having admonished the young Timothy (as well as all readers) that he should not let anyone think less of him because he was young, and for him to be an example in words, in comportment, and in purity, went further to say emphatically “till I come, give attention to reading…” If a people matter like reading could be so important to occupy such centre stage in Apostle Paul’s admonition to Timothy, please permit me to spend some quality time here or anywhere encouraging you on what I have come to identify and ‘preach’ as the ‘Profitable Habit of Reading (PHR)’ and why it is even of greater relevance in, and to this generation.
As you read me this week on this precious topic, my emphasis would be on that solid kind of reading that develops the mind, and grows the individual. In other words, I’m talking about a reading lifestyle, and not just reading any junks or reading just for the sake of it. This campaign is not limited to that theoretical heart-pounding, adrenalin-pumping, forced-mind-set, cramming kind of reading which is solely for examinations. Let us reason together: How about creating time for reading for pleasure with the aim of gaining a lesson or two? How about shopping for books? Yes, having a shopping list with books as must-buy items. I can’t forget whose array of books, yes, call it a library, first encouraged me, and having borrowed his books a couple of times, I fell in love with the idea of having a well-stocked library that would ever be refreshingly current. It was Kemi and Kehinde Lawanson’s library.
That was more than twenty years ago. Kemi is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University, I mean UNILAG. Great Akokites! and her ‘bookworm’ husband, a successful banker, who you can’t really say is retired, so I just refer to him as a ‘re-fired!’ gentleman whenever I have the opportunity of introducing him. Fine Christians they are by the grace of God. I’m tempted to say that part of their vitality and freshness comes from the quality of what they read. You see, you wouldn’t know who you are firing up by your act of good deeds. Their library inspired me. So with the help of my wife, we started stocking up our library, both the ‘bricks-and-mortar’ version and the subscription-paying e-library, and over the years, it has become not only a reference point but a selling advantage. Our reading lifestyle goes in the same direction with the volumes in our library though I can’t boast of having read 20% of the books. We keep reading, and lending to trustworthy friends and protégés.
To birth or to improve on a quality reading lifestyle, please permit me to ask you: Do you read at all? Are you a reader? What do you read? What or who are you reading? I beg you, read quality literatures and not junks, edifying stuffs and not deflating no-values-add junks. Trust me, reading is not for leaders alone. In whatever role you are right now, good reading habit would help your effectiveness. Effectiveness is achieving, and/or surpassing the goals either set by you, your team/family or your organisation, and no room for excuses. Effectiveness is results! When you read, you are lighter, you are nimble and sure footed. We read for pleasure, we read to learn, we read for continuous improvement, and we read to excel. You may even read to compete as long as you are gaining therefrom. Healthy competition is good for one’s health. It was Walt Disney (1901-66) who said, “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.”
Regrettably, the reading culture in this clime generally is so bad and has fallen ridiculously (I wouldn’t say dead) to a level that rumour has it that some racists and bigots do say “if you do not want an African to know a thing hide it in a book”. I do not know the source of this rumour but what I do know is I’m not one of those that books would be used as an object of concealment. On this, I speak for myself and a few of us. Are you in that number? The adverse effect and outcome of this lack of a reading lifestyle or culture is huge ignorance arrogantly showing itself off in the avalanche of fake news, social media junks, Photoshop images, and an epidemic-in-waiting that I have tagged ‘#JustForwardAnything!’ Being too lazy to read or discern or verify, this group of ‘will-reading-put-food-on-the-table?’ cohort just keep circulating trash on the social media and other online platforms. Lies, half-truths (if there is anything so called) and outlandish unsubstantiated conjectures are trademarks. Some of those contents still in circulation are as old as the advent of the WhatsApp platform itself. Old wives fables. This trend is fuelled by ignorance. If they really know, they’ll know better. Knowledge applied is real power. You are empowered by the quality of your reading habit and when you are empowered you have the ability to delete fakes of all kinds and you do not ignorantly just forward anything. The same social media and Google would be your source of power if you play to your strength by the knowledge acquired through self-developed reading lifestyle. Reading lifestyle is self-education.
This article is a campaign. It is a wooing strategy. I’m reaching out to you. I’m no veiling it, I’m naked about it and I’m not ashamed. It is time to go back to the basics of an effectual reading habit, making it a lifestyle. Let us bring back the reading culture. It is beyond that of mum or dad reading to the children or for the children. It is for the individual to pick up books and read for good, for pleasure and for results. A reader would always be ahead because he has requisite knowledge. When you read about a subject or project, you know more about it and no man can gainsay you. When you read more about a topic, you become more enlightened about it. You are as good as the last book you read.
Reading is growing. If you are not reading, the opposite is also true. Forming a reading habit and the staying power is both hereditary and developmental. I grew up seeing my dad read the Koran (aloud) cover to cover, no wonder they used to call him ‘Ari-kewu-yo’ which translates roughly as ‘the happy and proficient one in Arabic language’. Forgive my rough translation. Today, by the help of the Holy Spirit and by training, I set target for myself to go through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation periodically. I also saw my dad reading some legendary Yoruba literatures even before we read them in school. Books like D. O. Fagunwa’s ‘Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole’, ‘Igbo Olodumare’, ‘Ireke Onibudo’, and J. F. Odunjo’s ‘Alawiiye’ of many parts.
To be continued…
Acknowledgement/Sources of Resources for this article:
- Snippets and clip arts from the Internet to drive home my points.
- A compendium of over 25 years of manuscripts of my thesis and lecture series HR matters (to be published soon).
- BezaleelConsulting Group Library bezaleelconsultingrw.com