Tuesday 17 July 2012

PEN Nigeria Supports the PH WBC Bid

Ropo Ewenla, the Secretary General of PEN Nigeria expresses his support for the bid.

We are proud to support the bid of the Rainbow Book Club for Port Harcourt to be the UNESCO World Book Capital City in 2014. While it is a direct bid for Port Harcourt, it is also a bid for Nigeria and the whole of Africa. It is a bid that speaks to the social responsibility of book advocacy. Irrespective of the profile of other contending cities, we are of the opinion that books have a past, present and future. This is a bid that captures the trajectory of books from its past, the present to the future that Port Harcourt represents.

This, for us is a bid that justifies the trust and commitment of the current Rivers State Government and the trust it has in the Rainbow Book Club. It is a bid that strives to project Nigeria and the whole of the African Continent in the right light given the grudgingly acknowledged contribution of people of the continent to the global knowledge industry.
An endorsement of Port Harcourt by the UNESCO (the second after Alexandria in Egypt) will thus, affirm the organisation’s commitment to an even growth and development of its component parts. We do not only support this bid, we call on all well meaning individuals and organizations to lend a voice to this noble cause.

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