President Jonathan congratulates Rainbow Book Club

‘The city of Port Harcourt, here in the heart of the Niger Delta, has just been declared the UNESCO World Book Capital City for 2014... The UNESCO Selection Committee chose Port Harcourt over ten other world cities... We welcome UNESCO’s recognition of our collective efforts to revive the reading culture. I would also like to congratulate The Rainbow Book Club led by Mrs. Koko Kalango, for their vision in moving this now historic bid for a Nigerian city, Port Harcourt, to be the World Capital for books, in the year of our beloved nation’s centenary’.

President Jonathan was speaking at the launch of the Bring Back the Book campaign in his home state of Bayelsa on July 12. He was represented by the Federal Minister for Education (State), Barrister Nyesom Wike. The President kicked off his campaign in December 2010 with a reading for children, in company of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. The campaign trail has since made stops in major cities such as Benin and Abuja. Its latest outing in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital, coincides with 2 notable achievements in Nigeria’s literary life: the emerging of our 4th winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Rotimi Babatunde, as well as the emergence of Port Harcourt as UNESCO World Book Capital for 2014.

Continue reading.