THE Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), the umbrella body for all reputable book publishers in Nigeria, has criticised the recent introduction of 50 per cent tariff and duty on importation of printed books into Nigeria by the Federal Ministry of Finance. According to the association, this introduction, if not reverted, would bring untold hardship to teaching and learning in Nigeria.
Besides, it said the policy is against President Goodluck Jonathan’s Bring Back the Book campaign, which he had been clamouring for since inception of office, saying that as much as the President wants books for Nigerians, government policy does not.
Also, the NPA said if Nigeria, which was among the 189 Heads of States and Governments in New York that reaffirmed their commitments to the achievement of Education for All (EFA) and other goals by Year 2015 has this good intention and still goes ahead to introduce duty/tariff on learning materials, then, it is contradictory.
It, therefore, called on well-meaning Nigerians to rise up to this challenge and prevail on the Federal Government, which had been misled by a section of people with selfish interest to remove any embargo on knowledge acquisition in Nigeria and make it a centre of affordable teaching and learning.
The statement said: “In the first instance, the introduction of any duty/tariff on printed materials negates the UNESCO Convention. The United Nations 1954 Florence Agreement states that there should be free flow of educational, scientific and cultural materials into member-nations’ countries to allow for free flow and exchange of knowledge and ideas for the development of mankind. This agreement was further corroborated by the Nairobi protocol of 1976. Nigeria is a signatory to both agreements.
“Apart from negating the UN agreement, the tariff on books would force up prices of books and make books unaffordable to Nigerian students and further contribute to churning out educated illiterates and furthering inability to compete academically worldwide. It would have serious effect on libraries, booksellers, scholars in various research institutes and universities as well as authors. The outcome in the long run may be so devastating for anybody who professes to like the ‘book.’”
It further said: “It is obvious that Nigeria does not have the capacity to produce all the books needed locally and we can only build such capacity gradually with concerted efforts of everybody. In actual fact, levying books coming into Nigeria will only encourage smuggling and piracy through our land borders. Piracy, if allowed, may drive few existing publishing firms in the country into extinction and that means job losses to many professionals. Book pirates are economic saboteurs as they infringe copyright law, pay no taxes to government or royalties to authors on the sale of their pirated books, reduce sales by genuine publishers and booksellers and discourage creativity and intellectual growth. The taxation threatens the Nigerian publishing industry greatly.
The statement added: “Again, according to a recent interview with journalists, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education, Mr. Jibrin Paiko, revealed that 35 per cent of Nigeria’s 160 million people are considered to be illiterate. This amounts to about 56 million illiterates by estimation. If tariff/duty is further placed on imported printed books, the percentage of illiterates in the country would continue to increase as people may not be able to buy books as they wanted. To corroborate this, a fact sheet just released by the Nigerian Economic Summit and published in one of the newspapers shows that:
• Forty-four per cent of Nigerian students cannot read a complete sentence on the completion of their primary education.
• Over 70 per cent of Nigerian candidates in the 2013 senior secondary school examinations conducted by WAEC failed.
• Only one in three applicants to tertiary institutions in Nigeria secure admission.
• Between 2007 and 2010, the number of Nigerian students enrolled in foreign universities rose by 71 per cent from 22,712 to 38,851. The cost to the nation is estimated at 1.5 trillion yearly. (If our educational system is alright, all these students could be educated in our country)
• World Ranking for Quality of Mathematics and Science Education states that Nigeria is rated 117th out of 148.
“This is quite alarming, yet, government policy on free flow of educational and scientific materials is still tight. It is not in the best interest of the country to indirectly impose restrictions on the free flow of books into the country.”
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