Read, Inspire, Repeat: My Day Out at Celebrity Read Aloud
16 year old Oluwatobilola Davis-Olaoluwa, an undergraduate student of the International Institute of Journalism writes her first published report with LightRay! Media on her impression of the Celebrity Read Aloud event organised by the Abuja Book City, a member of the Nigerian Book Clubs and Reading Promoters of Nigeria in commemoration of World Read Aloud Day.
I recently attended the Celebrity Read Aloud event, organized by the National Library of Nigeria, FCT, and the National Book Clubs and Reading Promoters of Nigeria (NBRP) Network, with promotional support from LightRay! Media.
The program kicked off with welcome remarks by Mrs. Oye Omolare Magaret of the National Library of Nigeria, FCT branch. The event brought together students, ladies, and gentlemen, along with celebrity authors and poets like Bassey Ekpo Bassey, Mrs. Funmi Braithwaith, and Lady Ejiro Umukoro, who is my mentor.


The program included a presentation on the ‘Abuja Book City’ project by Chief Loye Olowokere and Dr. Chido Onumah. They discussed the project’s features, including a WhatsApp platform for partners, virtual awareness events, and a membership drive. The event also aimed to secure a venue for the flag-off of the book city project on April 24, 2025.
Dr. Nyaknno Osso, the Librarian who set up the Obasanjo Presidential library for his keynote address provided 17 reasons why students will enjoy reading. He also emphasized the importance of reading in developing our minds and abilities.


The event continued with celebrity read-aloud sessions, featuring Bassey Ekpo Bassey, a Poet, who read from his poetry collection, and Mrs. Funmi Braithwaith, who read from her book “#End malaria.
Lady E Ejiro Umukoro, my mentors read aloud from three pages in her bestselling book #DISTORTION. The children from primary and secondary schools, parents and other invited guests including myself were spellbound by her dramatic style of reading and presentation. We could imagine each of the scenes as she read with her powerful and dramatic radio voice. It was a spell binging moment you missed.
During the interactive session, Lady E asked students from several schools in Abuja when they first remembered someone reading aloud to them. Shockingly, many of them said they were around 8 years old.

This revelation left many who attended the event concerned. The Author of #DISTORTION then asked: “Are we doing enough to promote reading culture among our children if we don’t start reading to them from an early age? The first I recall being read aloud to was in my mother’s womb”, she surprised us with her personal tale on the importance of reading aloud to children and how it may have influenced her journey into media and journalism.
She emphasised on the need to model reading habits before children in their most impressionable age. “Our children love books, but we don’t model enough reading behavior for them to see and copy. Children are great copycats; what you give is what they’ll give you back. Furthermore, Nigeria lacks a single paper mill industry to cater to its over 200 million citizens and residents. This is a huge business ecosystem collapse, leaving millions of young creative minds without jobs.”
Notable public figures who attended the event included Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe (Channels TV, and currently the SSA Strategic Communications to the President on ECOWAS); Ajibola Amzat the African Editor at large with the Centre of Collaborative Investigative Journalism, CCIJ, Joy Jaiyesimi an exceptional radio producer and fellow alumni of RNTC, Netherlands and Mrs. Nwabuwa, who recently clocked 70 years and served as the CBN Librarian before she retired.


While Mrs. Linda Nwabuwa Ahigbe
gives her pep talk.

During her peptalk, Linda Nwabuwa Ahigbe, on the joy readers experience when reading not to mention how powerful one can travel round the world through reading just as Poet Bassey Ekpo “saw the Eiffel Tower before he actually visited France.” That’s the power of the mind she explained.
According to LitWorld, who started the event in 2010, the idea behind Read Aloud Day came from a child. He asked, “why can’t we create a birthday party for the read aloud?” After a special read aloud with his class, World Read Aloud Day was born.
The program concluded with an interactive session moderated by Itoro, ambassador of the ‘Children Book Club in Abuja.’ She solicited feedback from students on their learnings from the event. Overall, the Celebrity Read Aloud 2025 was an eventful and enriching experience.

World Read Aloud Day was founded in 2010 by the non-profit organization “LitWorld” to celebrate the power of reading aloud and advocate for literacy as a fundamental human right.
#books #reading #ReadingCulture #ReadDistortion #ReadingChallenge #ReadNigeria #AfricaReads #DeepSeek #invidia #meta #AI #animation #celebrity #celebritylifestyle
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