OLODO: The Stigma For Not Knowing

"Olodo rabata
Oju eja l'oma je
Koni lo paper,
Silati l'oma lo
Ore mi ki lo gba
Odo oloju eja..."

If you knew of this song in your childhood, then you're probably smiling or laughing. But thinking about it, why was there stigmatization if you didn't know the answer to a question asked during class? We go to school to know, not because we already know(At least for elementary and secondary education). I remember one of my classmates in secondary school who said I was asking the teacher a stupid question, I retorted that one of the reasons my parents paid school fees was for me to learn the answers to stupid questions too.

All that aside. In our (African/Nigerian) culture do we consider a child's individual ability to learn? Or we just generalize and stereotype the intelligence of children using one yardstick.

*Edidiong is in Primary Four and can't spell beyond the four letter words she learnt three classes behind, and all the Head Mistress tells the new class teacher out loud (Pointing to Edidiong after she couldn't not spell a word she was asked to) is "That's the problem you have in your class o, that is why her seat is separated from the those of the bright ones."

Okadabooks- The Future For Nigerian Reading Culture.

I'm about to sleep but I stumbled on this and couldn't resist doing a post.

I really love Nigerian Literature, I get all hyped up when I come in contact with the creative imagination of Nigerian minds, but it happens that I've not been able to read as much of their works as I desire. Then comes the knight in 'shiny armor', riding on two wheels, who tells me I can get to read as much Nigerian literature as I want on my mobile device.

Now, I'm elated! Meet 'Okadabooks', a platform that is set to raise the reading culture in Nigeria to a higher level, by bringing books to our mobile devices (The major distraction nowadays). I've been browsing their site and I thought I should broadcast them in my little way. Here's an excerpt from their FAQ's page.

"What Is Okadabooks?
It’s a fast, simple and fun way to read books without ever leaving your couch!
Send a text , choose a book, then download and start reading – it’s as easy as riding an okada. It’s book reading, reinvented.
Oh yeah, did we mention it’s cheaper than riding an Okada!
The Idea
Mobile devices have been blamed for the poor reading culture in Nigeria. But rather than criticizing mobile devices and accepting the notion that Nigerians don’t read…okadabooks seeks to harness the power of the mobile phone to make it easier and cheaper for Nigerians to read. At the end of the day we are powered by the belief that Nigerians do indeed read, if given the chance
Why Okada?

The name okadabooks was thought of when the founder was riding an okada in his dreams. He noticed how okada’s were able to by-pass the congested roads of Nigerian by offering a cheaper, faster and more flexible alternative to conventional means of transportation. Today the conventional way of reading and publishing books is currently experiencing a traffic jam from poor distribution to high printing costs. Okadabooks seeks to by-pass the traffic in the Nigerian book publishing industry by making it easy to publish books, making it cheap to buy books but more importantly making it fun to read books on mobile devices! At the end of the day we are driven the concept of Okada."

So that's it. For more answers . In fact just go there and do what I've been doing so far, browsing. Also,
they have the app just for you, don't forget to get that too.

Photo Source: Okadabooks