THE Association of Independent Publishers, Nigeria (AIPN) has called on governments at all levels to take measures that would help in turning around the fortune of the publishing industry in the country, especially in the area of funding.
The association made the call last week at a press conference held in commemoration of the 2016 World Intellectual Property Day.
The AIPN National Chairman, Mr Ayotunde Opakunbi, who addressed the conference, listed the problems presently bedevilling the book publishing sector to include piracy, poor power supply, lack of fund, high taxation, corruption and declining reading culture.
The national chairman stated that it was imperative to declare a state of emergency in the book publishing sector, as books play a fundamental role in individual and national development.
“If a country is to progress in all spheres, she must promote book development through publishing. Most publishing houses are confronted with inadequate fund and all the policies of government to provide fund for businesses exist on paper only,” Opakunbi said.
Describing perceived poor quality of books in recent times as a reflection of paucity of fund, Opakunbi said books which could have been published with quality papers and in colour were now usually produced with cheap papers in order to save cost.
He also advanced piracy as “very criminal act that bedevils publishing,” calling for strict anti-piracy laws so that perpetrators could be brought to justice.
He, however, commended the National Copyright Commission for its efforts at ridding the industry of piracy.
Also speaking, the AIPN Publicity Secretary, Chief Akeem Ajibade, called on governments and banks to provide loans for registered book publishers, just as he urged the Federal Government to stabilise the exchange rate “so that we can buy papers from abroad at normal prices.”
The 2014 winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, Mr Akin Bello, decried poor reading culture in Nigeria today.