By Dr. Inenyo Esinte.
Cultivating the habit and culture of reading books amongst persons of all gender from infancy to adulthood helps in building and developing great minds and personalities.
Beyond an individual’s genetic makeup and composition, environmental factors play a vital role in influencing, shaping, sculpturing, and modelling the personality of every individual.
Establishing, creating, and providing the right, conducive, motivating, and engaging environment to spur the growth and development of the minds and personalities of youths, students, adults, and the elderly across all gender, to provide a veritable platform and setting for human capital and capacity development.
One such knowledge acquisition environment and setting that aids in human capital, personality, and capacity development beyond the home is the Library, which helps to evoke and stir the drive, thirst, and hunger to read books for the acquisition of knowledge, self-development, and improvement.
Undisputably, the Library, be it public or private owned and managed, remains the birthplace of great minds and personalities who create time to subdue themselves to read, imagine, wonder, ponder, and meditate on the great ideas, thoughts, and knowledge embedded in book by Authors.
The serenity, quietude, tranquillity, and restfulness of the Library environs also stimulate a sense and longing to study, the sight of colorful arrays of books, alluring and captivating titles and themes of books evokes an intense curiosity, and desire to read and study for the acquisition of knowledge and personal development. Indeed, the Library is unarguably the natal arena of great personalities and ideas across all spheres of life.
Furthermore, not everyone or individuals have the opportunity, luxury, and ability to build or establish a befitting, calm, and conducive place in their homes or residence, be it owned or rented, to establish a befitting personal Library. Thus, the construction and equipping of strategically location or sited public Libraries give youths, students, Researchers, and people from all works of life access to serene, decent, and well-equipped public Libraries across the Eight (8) Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State to spur, stimulate, quicken and entrench the culture and habit of reading for human capital, personality, capacity development and continuous acquisition of knowledge cannot be overstated and overstressed.
In continuation, this is an advocacy, a call and appeal to the Bayelsa State Government and its relevant educational ministries, agencies, and departments, to see the need and importance of establishing strategically located and adequately equipped public Libraries across the Eight (8) Local Government Areas of the State to drive reading culture, engage the youths, students and develop future Leaders is vital.
Remember, a Reader today, is a Leader tomorrow, travel to the Stars, and read!
The great ideas, thoughts, and knowledge that governs the world we live in are embedded in books, and it’s through reading and studying that the human mind can be illuminated and liberated from intellectual poverty.
