Mrs. Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, the General Manager of Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK), says the agency plans a day reading in the park to mark the World Book Day on March 7.
Adebiyi-Abiola said in a statement in Lagos State on Wednesday that the gesture was to reignite interest in reading culture and improve literacy level of Nigerians.
She said that the event, being planned in partnership with an NGO, TOS Educational Initiative, would be held at Johnson Jakande Tinubu (JJT) Park in Alausa, Lagos state.
“The programme is to assemble citizens both young and old who will read, review and revise several genres of books in a fascinating and eloquent manner.
” This will be to the admiration of visitors, while also providing free books to children and adults alike.
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” We invite the public to the 2019 World Book Day themed “Open a Book to Read even in the Parks,” she said.
Adebiyi-Abiola said that the desire of the agency was to improve the literacy level of citizens by incorporating reading programmes in most of the activities of the agency in all the state owned recreational parks.
She said that the programme was to advance the educational development of the state by projecting the prospect of synergising recreation with reading in parks and at the same time providing access to knowledge for all citizens.
“Reading in the park is not a common indulgence in the country and we have to start inculcating the habit whenever we visit the parks.
” The pursuit of knowledge and intelligence is not confined to a vicinity, even when having fun, one can engage the brain,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the world book day is an annual event which holds on March 7 and organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing and copyright. (NAN)
