Tony Edike
28 October 2008
FOR Nigeria to succeed in her current campaign against piracy of published works, the federal government must, as a matter of urgency, initiate special grants for authors and writers as a way of making their works affordable and available to Nigerians. Chairman of Awgu Local government, Uche Anioke, who made this assertion in Enugu yesterday shortly after he was conferred with "Life Time Achievement Award" by the Nigerian Book Fair Trust, explained that until govern-ment provides special grants which would help reduce cost of producing books to writers and authors, the campaign against book piracy in the country would remain elusive.
He lamented that the habit of writing and publishing of books by knowledgeable Nigerians have continued to dwindle as a result of piracy, stressing that authors no longer reap from the huge investments they made from writing.
Anioke, a writer of repute and author of several books including the popular "Moon light Stories of Nigeria", further said that the economic situation of the country, which has left many families poor, would continue to encourage piracy as, according to him, "Nigerians prefer to buy things that are cheap".
He insisted that though the anti-piracy campaign has been making inroads, it would not entirely solve the problem writers' encounter in the act of publishing.
"For years, we have been engaged in the fight against piracy so as to encourage writers reap from their work; but I want to say that this fight will not realize fully its objectives if the federal government does not intervene with the provision of grants to writers as a way of ameliorating the huge expenses they make in publishing the books. I believe that if something like subvention is given to a writer, it will, in turn, reduce the cost of production of the books as well as make the book cheaper for people to buy," Anioke said.
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