The distribution of the Association of Nigerian Authors  (ANA)'s A-Book-A-Child Project to Secondary schools was successfully conducted in Kwara state, with the donations of Salamatu Sule's "Oma: The Drummer Queen", along other published works by the Kwara State Chapter of the Association to schools in the state.

Flagged off at Malete on Thursday, 24th of May, 2018, the distribution which was zone base, reached out to five Secondary schools each at its Malete, Ilorin, Fufu and Omupo zones, where each school was represented by five students and a tutor at the programmes.

The Kwara state Chairman of ANA, Mallam AbdulRahman Aderinoye, during the book distribution at the zones,  expressed his gratitude for the responses of schools to the book distribution exercise, which he said contributed to the actualization of A-Book-A-Child project of the National body of the Association.

He stated that the intention of the Association is to distribute the books for free to students of both Primary and Secondary schools in Nigeria, with the view of promoting reading culture among younger ones.

Aderinoye also said that the project was a product of the 2017 financial grant received from Barrister Yusuf Ali (SAN) for Literary Awareness Campaign programme of the Association for the Nigerian Primary and Secondary students.

In his lectures as the resource person during the programmes, the Secretary of Kwara ANA,  Mr Babayemi Opeyemi sensitized the students on the need to read books as well as the advantages of reading good books.

He pointed out nine major reasons and benefits of reading good books to the represented schools.

According to him, reading among other things, exposes one to new ideas, improves one's understanding generally, prepares one for actions, helps one gain experience and helps one gets self-improvement.

He noted that the first phase of the book distribution was meant for school libraries, where students would have access to read books at anytime.

Opeyemi urged school heads to make the library open and the books available to the students at all times.

Prominent among members who attended the programme was Dr Usman Oladipo Akanbi, former Chairman of the State Chapter of the Association.

In his own contributions, he stressed the need for teachers and schools to encourage students in cultivating the habits of reading and writing irrespective of their fields of study, adding that writing has no class.

He cited great African and non-African writers whose backgrounds were from different academic disciplines, but have made names and achieved a lot through writings.

The Secretary of the Mustapha Akanbi's Knowledge Platform, Mallam Shuaib Folorunsho, who represented the Chairman of the Mustapha Akanbi Foundation (MAF), Dr. AbdulSalam Mudashir, also offered some uplifting words of wisdom to the students of the schools represented at the programme.

Other members who graced the programmes include Mr. Ahmad Saliu Toyin, Kwara ANA's PRO; the two anchor men, Mr. Abdulhafeez Oyewole and Mr Sheriff Olanrewaju; and Mr Stephen Adedoyin.

Meanwhile, at the end of the project, some copies of "Oma: The Drummer Queen" were also donated to the national and state liberaries in the state.

Below are collages from the exercise.