Adelani Adepegba, Abuja
The Emir of Suleja, Niger State, His Royal Highness, Awwal Ibrahim, has lamented the poor reading culture among youths, noting that they waste a lot of time browsing the Internet.
The traditional ruler observed that students no longer engaged in intellectual discourse, stressing that they spent most of their time on social media, which he said had eroded their intellectual capacity.
Ibrahim said this in his address at the 11th Literature in Northern Nigeria Conference organised by the National Open University of Nigeria on Monday in Abuja in collaboration with Kwara State University, Malate and Bayero University, Kano.
The Emir called on parents, teachers, policymakers and academics to correct the situation by applying technology and the Internet to chart the way forward to ensure quality education.
He said, “In the days gone by, you hear of students ‘burning midnight oil’, but now they spend their nights browsing via their handsets or laptops and chatting. They do not engage in intellectual discourse.
“How could we look up to them to promote healthy and effective scholarship and hopefully become literary giants like our Prof.Wole Soyinka or Amos Tutuola, or late Abubakar Gimba or Prof. Zaynab Alkali?”
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