A Nigerian educationist who has devoted his time to writing and publishing biographies for children has disclosed his two-fold mission: To get the kids to rediscover the joy of reading, and to inspire them to achieve great heights in life.

“There are so many things that have gone wrong in our society today which boils down to the fact that we missed our steps years ago. For that to be changed the notion that Nigerians and indeed Africans don’t read has to be corrected. And the only way we can correct such notion is by going back to the basis by instilling the discipline of reading in our children,” Femi Abati, who is also proprietor of The Hill School in Lagos, South-West Nigeria, told News Express.

Abati emphasised that the series deliberately centre around people who have inspired humanity by their works in the past and have become role models. He said it is important to concentrate on the children because they are the future generation and are vulnerable.

On how he conceived the idea Abati said: “I read a book: ‘First Mothers’, in 2010 which fascinated me. In the cause of reading every page of the book I observed that the reason why some past American presidents: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush got to the White House was because their mothers introduced books to them at a very tender age. There were cases of mothers who packed biographies of great heroes to their sons to read at ages two and three.

“I went out to Nigerian bookshops to see if I could get biographies of great heroes but could not find any. Then I said to myself that it was necessary I looked in that direction for our children’s sake, which led to the ‘Biographies for Kids’ series.”

Ten books have so far been published under the series. They include biographies of the late Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa; Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone; and Mother Theresa, a humanitarian; amongst others.

Abati is of the opinion that the biographies which come in hard cover and electronic format (e-book), if adopted by schools, will change the mentality of the children from the things which appeal to their emotions to that which task their mind; from engaging in watching cartoons to discipline themselves with information seeking which comes by exposing them to books at a very tender age.

“We have been to over 600 schools to introduce the books to the proprietors and head of schools, few have started using it few are still afraid of change, which is the normal thing. But recently we went online by creating a site because we feel that the international audience will equally benefit from the books,” Abati said.

“In Africa most especially we keep talking about failed leadership and that has to be tackled from the cradle. We are in an information technology age where the children struggle with our gadgets,” he added.

The e-book can be downloaded for $1 via www.mykabod.com because the concept in the books is a global one irrespective of one’s location in the world.

•Photo shows Femi Abati.

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