INTRODUCTION
Books play a vital role in the development of a society and an individual. For a country to fully utilize its potential and revolutionize itself , the society must promote book development and publishing. In Nigeria, millions are spent on publishing books without profit due to piracy. Paying royalties to authors despite not making profit has remained an impossibility to run an independent publishing house in Nigeria. The quest for qualitative publishing has driven so many creative minds abroad to get their books published. With a country that has produced the likes of renowned world authors such as late Professor Chinua Chebe and Professor Wole, Soyinka Chimamanda Adichie, among others, still trying to find its feet in the publishing sector is giving great concerns to most publishers.
Indigenous book publishing industry in Nigeria actually began as a fall-out of the economic crisis of the early ‘90s. The formal, more establised publishing firms were before then mostly foreign owned, like Longmans and Heinemann or those aligned to foreign ones, such as Hudahuda in Zaria. But of course there were some university presses that offered publishing services. That economic crisis, which was occasioned by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), made life difficult for most businesses, including the book publishing ones. The publishers in particular devised ways of surviving, such as focusing more on publishing textbooks for schools and spurning new creative works except those in the exam syllabus.
The process frustrated authors, especially those who had written literary books, to set up their own publishing outfits to supply their works to the market. Some of them, as well as some business-minded folks, offered the service to other would-be authors.
CHALLENGES
Piracy
Piracy is a huge problem that faces the industry. Photocopying by students is the least of our problems. When we talk of piracy, we are talking of wholesale reproduction by way of printing of our books by a few young boys who are traders. They contribute some money and go to South-East Asia to bring in these books in large quantities, and because of the advancement in technology, it is almost difficult, if not impossible, to know the original from pirated copies. It has assumed a very dangerous dimension. Under the auspices of the Nigerian Publishers Association, in collaboration with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, we are trying to tackle this, but it would have been better if we were able to tackle it at the point of entry into the country. Unfortunately, that has proved difficult so far. We are now establishing contact with the Nigeria Customs Service, even the Nigerian Standard Organisation had also been of help in the past.
All the law enforcement agencies in and around the ports are being contacted to help stop the influx of these books into the country because the danger is that piracy will become a disincentive to authors such that they may stop writing, and that will be a disaster for the educational system.
the high level of infringement of copyright, most especially by students is also a huge concern, many of whom engage in widespread photocopying of recommended textbooks, which reduces sales of the original copies. It is sad that students who should be championing the intellectual rights of authors are involved in such illegal activities that discourage scholarship and creativity.
Poor reading culture
It is said that Nigerian students prefer watching movies on television to reading, and this is killing reading culture. How do you react to this?
Reading culture is not dying but it is slightly poor in Nigeria. Television, internet and computer are only alternative media of transforming information and knowledge. They can never or neither do they intend to replace the book.
It now depends on the individual to allocate time to the various media transmitting knowledge. You in the media also know that reading culture is relatively poor in Nigeria compared to a place like Japan, where an average newspaper sells two to three million copies daily, because their literacy level is close to 90 per cent. I think the problem that confronts the people is the dwindling buying power of the average individual. Over the past few years, people’s incomes have shrunk; I think that is the problem and reading is a pastime that flourishes in a progressive economy.
Without any doubt, the poor reading culture in our country is a big challenge to the publishing industry. Books rank very low on the preference list of an average Nigerian and this has made it difficult to achieve turnover that is commensurate with our huge population. Some parents would rather spend money on electrical appliances, jewelry, clothes and frivolous ceremonies than buy recommended books for their children.
infrastructural problems:
There is no stable electricity in Nigeria. From observations, the only surviving generator they have may soon pack up due to age and over use. Power cuts are rampant in all urban centres, and several non-metropolitan areas lack electricity supply entirely. While examining the problems of Nigerian publishing with special focus on NEPA, NITEL, and NIPOST. Adesanoye (1995) has named the three as partners in inefficiency.
Nigerian government promise to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009, is still an illusion for now and Nigerians still don‘t enjoy electricity supply. In 2009 several industries had to move out of the country to other neighboring countries for reasons
bothering on this issue. Publishers are therefore are faced squarely with the high cost of running generators for its day to day activities. To what extent is government assistance for the book industry necessary? To what extent is it useless? Can industry practitioners deal with the government in a manner that will not be considered slavish? Are there possible/genuine fears about censorship?
REFERENCES
Adejoke, L. A, (2001). Indigenous publishing in Nigeria: Problems and prospects. In Folarin, B. (Ed.) Topical issues in Communication arts and sciences, 1, Ibadan: Bakinfol Publications: 159-181.
Adedamola A. (1997). Ifaturoti BPN Newsletter 21 http://www.bellagiopublishingnetwork.com/newsletter21/toc.htm
Federal Republic of Nigeria (1989). The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ilorin, Nigeria: Woye Printers & Publishers.
Iwu Juliana James (2014) Problems of the Book Publishing Industry in Nigeria: The Onibonje Publishers Experience after 50 Years. Pdf
Books play a vital role in the development of a society and an individual. For a country to fully utilize its potential and revolutionize itself , the society must promote book development and publishing. In Nigeria, millions are spent on publishing books without profit due to piracy. Paying royalties to authors despite not making profit has remained an impossibility to run an independent publishing house in Nigeria. The quest for qualitative publishing has driven so many creative minds abroad to get their books published. With a country that has produced the likes of renowned world authors such as late Professor Chinua Chebe and Professor Wole, Soyinka Chimamanda Adichie, among others, still trying to find its feet in the publishing sector is giving great concerns to most publishers.
Indigenous book publishing industry in Nigeria actually began as a fall-out of the economic crisis of the early ‘90s. The formal, more establised publishing firms were before then mostly foreign owned, like Longmans and Heinemann or those aligned to foreign ones, such as Hudahuda in Zaria. But of course there were some university presses that offered publishing services. That economic crisis, which was occasioned by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), made life difficult for most businesses, including the book publishing ones. The publishers in particular devised ways of surviving, such as focusing more on publishing textbooks for schools and spurning new creative works except those in the exam syllabus.
The process frustrated authors, especially those who had written literary books, to set up their own publishing outfits to supply their works to the market. Some of them, as well as some business-minded folks, offered the service to other would-be authors.
Piracy
Piracy is a huge problem that faces the industry. Photocopying by students is the least of our problems. When we talk of piracy, we are talking of wholesale reproduction by way of printing of our books by a few young boys who are traders. They contribute some money and go to South-East Asia to bring in these books in large quantities, and because of the advancement in technology, it is almost difficult, if not impossible, to know the original from pirated copies. It has assumed a very dangerous dimension. Under the auspices of the Nigerian Publishers Association, in collaboration with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, we are trying to tackle this, but it would have been better if we were able to tackle it at the point of entry into the country. Unfortunately, that has proved difficult so far. We are now establishing contact with the Nigeria Customs Service, even the Nigerian Standard Organisation had also been of help in the past.
All the law enforcement agencies in and around the ports are being contacted to help stop the influx of these books into the country because the danger is that piracy will become a disincentive to authors such that they may stop writing, and that will be a disaster for the educational system.
the high level of infringement of copyright, most especially by students is also a huge concern, many of whom engage in widespread photocopying of recommended textbooks, which reduces sales of the original copies. It is sad that students who should be championing the intellectual rights of authors are involved in such illegal activities that discourage scholarship and creativity.
Poor reading culture
It is said that Nigerian students prefer watching movies on television to reading, and this is killing reading culture. How do you react to this?
Reading culture is not dying but it is slightly poor in Nigeria. Television, internet and computer are only alternative media of transforming information and knowledge. They can never or neither do they intend to replace the book.
It now depends on the individual to allocate time to the various media transmitting knowledge. You in the media also know that reading culture is relatively poor in Nigeria compared to a place like Japan, where an average newspaper sells two to three million copies daily, because their literacy level is close to 90 per cent. I think the problem that confronts the people is the dwindling buying power of the average individual. Over the past few years, people’s incomes have shrunk; I think that is the problem and reading is a pastime that flourishes in a progressive economy.
Without any doubt, the poor reading culture in our country is a big challenge to the publishing industry. Books rank very low on the preference list of an average Nigerian and this has made it difficult to achieve turnover that is commensurate with our huge population. Some parents would rather spend money on electrical appliances, jewelry, clothes and frivolous ceremonies than buy recommended books for their children.
infrastructural problems:
There is no stable electricity in Nigeria. From observations, the only surviving generator they have may soon pack up due to age and over use. Power cuts are rampant in all urban centres, and several non-metropolitan areas lack electricity supply entirely. While examining the problems of Nigerian publishing with special focus on NEPA, NITEL, and NIPOST. Adesanoye (1995) has named the three as partners in inefficiency.
Nigerian government promise to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity by December 2009, is still an illusion for now and Nigerians still don‘t enjoy electricity supply. In 2009 several industries had to move out of the country to other neighboring countries for reasons
bothering on this issue. Publishers are therefore are faced squarely with the high cost of running generators for its day to day activities. To what extent is government assistance for the book industry necessary? To what extent is it useless? Can industry practitioners deal with the government in a manner that will not be considered slavish? Are there possible/genuine fears about censorship?
REFERENCES
Adejoke, L. A, (2001). Indigenous publishing in Nigeria: Problems and prospects. In Folarin, B. (Ed.) Topical issues in Communication arts and sciences, 1, Ibadan: Bakinfol Publications: 159-181.
Adedamola A. (1997). Ifaturoti BPN Newsletter 21 http://www.bellagiopublishingnetwork.com/newsletter21/toc.htm
Federal Republic of Nigeria (1989). The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ilorin, Nigeria: Woye Printers & Publishers.
Iwu Juliana James (2014) Problems of the Book Publishing Industry in Nigeria: The Onibonje Publishers Experience after 50 Years. Pdf
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