Tuesday, 23 April 2019

"Piracy we know is the major problem of publishing in Nigeria and that is the major issue we have at hand , it is not decreasing but increasing because pirates have advanced in terms of technology"- Nigerian Publishing Association Executive Secretary; Mr Emmanuel Abimbola.

Can we meet you Sir?
My name is Emmanuel Abimbola , the Executive Secretary ; Nigerian Association of Publisher.
The issue of piracy on the part of publishing will you say piracy is increasing?
Thank you very much, piracy we know is the major problem of publishing in Nigeria, that is the major issue we have at hand, it is not decreasing but increasing because pirates have advanced in terms of technology, their output, print abroad, import into the country, the quality of their books sometime is alarming compared with the original produced by the publishers, so piracy is on the increasing trend and we as an association are working assiduously with the Nigeria Copyright to make sure that we reduce their activities, if we cannot eliminate them we reduce them to the barest minimum.
 On the issue of publishers engaging in pira rs engaging in piracy what do you have as penalty for these publishers engaging in piracy?
Well, I would say members of NPA are not engaging in piracy, so if there are people engaging in piracy they are not members of NPA , maybe they are other people out there , some other publishers who are not our members and other individuals who are into shady business.
How do you want to save your members from the problems of the piracy?
What we do is that we carry anti piracy campaign , advocacy to schools, ministry of education, to book sellers even among ourselves and at the same time we work very well with Nigerian Ciopyright Commission to make sure that if we hear any information we give to them, sometime they give us information, ,we work together, to make sure that we reduce the activities of these people , clamped them down as much as possible.
Sir , what is the role of your organisation regarding guidance and counselling in our schools and do you have special books on Guidance and Counselling?
There are a lot books on Counselling, I may not be able to tell you the specific books but I know there are lot of books out there on Guidance and Counselling.
The importance of Guidance and Counselling what do you see to it, your view on this?
It is very important , you see if there is nop counselling then people will make mistakes , wrong choices in life, so there is a need for functional guidance and counselling department in schools, right from the primary even to the tertiary institution, functional I say though I know in some schools nwe have guidance counsellors but they are not functionasl, so there is a need for proper functional guidance and counselling department in schools, so students will not make wrong choices in terms of subjects, careers and other decision of their lives.
Sir , what are you doing lately to increase your membership strength?
Of course, we are working to increasing the membership of NPA , you know we dont take in every Dick, Tom and Harry, we want people that are reputable, and that are doing genuine publishing business, this are the people we want, and keep on registering people every year, everyday we register new members.
What standard will you place NPA now?
Well, with our members and the activitiesw ; we are doing now and then couple with the fact that we are so much with technology NPA is improving and our members are doing very well.
What are you doing with the prices of books and the cost of production of books .
Well, the prices of books....., you know the state of the economy , you know that virtually we import everything in Nigeria, we dont have a functional paper mills, we dont have the consumable produce here, the machine are imported, so what do you expect  and as much as possible publishers try to keep their prices at a very bearable minimum.
What method do you think can be introduced to enhance reading culture among people especially students and youth in Nigeria?
Well, there are so many things we can talk about reading , infact I'm even very happy this question is coming up , as you know that this month April 23rd, 2019 is a World Book and Copyright Day, we are celebrating it and the theme of our World Book and Copyright Day for 2019 is Discover the World through Reading", so we are emphasizing on reading because we want to encourage students to read more and that is one of the essence of that day, we are bringing in authors because we are working together with the association of authors, to bring people , lirerary authors, to come and speak with children , do books reading and encourage them to imbibe reading culture, the act of writing and so on and so forth, this are parts of what we have for that day.


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