Children can make the most of their abilities by embracing literacy

My name is Abraham Omorogiuwa. I’m in my late twenties and from the most populous black country on earth: Nigeria!

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Population Division, Nigeria, as of June 2022, has a population of no less than 217 million people. With a daily increase in its population, more than ever before, there lies the need to address the issue of illiteracy head-on.

In 2018, statistics showed the youth illiteracy rate in Nigeria was 9.36 million young people. It became necessary for me to advocate for commitment from everyone to correct the anomaly bedeviling the world of literacy in Nigeria. This led me to join the World Literacy Foundation, first as a blogger and later as an Ambassador.

In the words of Kofi Annan, “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” I firmly believe this hope must be shared, from up North to down South, from the East all through to the West. The uneducated must not be left uneducated for it was Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon with which you can change the world.”  I hold these sayings dear to my heart.

Again and again, I have had a concern or two about illiteracy. My concern lies on the fact that if the position of John F. Kennedy is correct -for which I have no objection to- when he said: “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource,” then we have for too long shortchanged ourselves as a committee of nations and necessity lies on us to act and act now!