Library in flames

I read your article and had to call you even when you stated text only. Please pardon my excitement. I inherited a library from my late father G.N.I Enobakhare. He was the first indigenous principal of government college Ibadan. My attention was first drawn to the importance he attached to this priceless property when my wife bimbo said she dreamt my father asked her to please clean up the library. The following night. he appeared to her again thanking her for doing what he asked her to do.
Not being very well versed in library matters, I employed a librarian to put the books in proper order. I now started a project the Edo bronze festival. Every year, we have an exhibition of artworks in bronze, ivory and wood. The information from the library helped in convincing sponsors from the private and public sectors part with, till date, eight figure sums. Now properly hooked up, a major bank recently repackaged bronze heads and sent them to Switzerland. The Nigerian export promotion council has delivered papers at the bronze festival and co sponsored trips abroad. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that there is wealth in books but you have to read them.
The level of ignorance on all matters can only be reduced by burying our heads in books. I pronounce that any man without a personal library of at least a hundred books cannot call himself a real man. In the trains in New York, posters often project, read a book. The top ten books are as important as the top selling movies or cds. Now that we have an intellectual as our president, I mean a president who knows about the black hole certainly spends sometime reading, the reading culture must be taken very seriously. For instance, the state library in Benin City sits above a bank. I took a hard look at the set up and told a staff of the bank why don’t you encourage students to use the library and attach a stipend. After a while it will become part of their lifestyle to read. The who wants to be a millionaire show is an example of how knowlegdeability can be translated to wealth. We are listening and we are reading too.





Eno Louis Enobakhare


Edo Orodion Ventures,
Benin City.
Tel: 08033888864