In a city known for its scholars, writers and educational institutions, bookstores have long helped sustain Ibadan’s reading culture. But behind the shelves, booksellers are contending with piracy and changing habits among parents, children and adult readers.
Our correspondents visited OAJ Bookshop on Lebanon Street, Dugbe, one of Ibadan’s longstanding bookstores, to find out how the business has evolved and the role bookshops continue to play in the city.
Its shelves hold hundreds of titles for different age groups, ranging from early learning materials and school textbooks to literary and motivational books.
The manager, Mr Adewale Adepoju Abiodun, who has been selling books for more than 30 years, said the shop caters to readers from kindergarten to tertiary level. It also markets books for authors and helps writers publish their manuscripts.
Despite the growth of digital platforms and online book sales, Abiodun said these developments had not significantly affected demand at the shop. He maintained that committed readers still value physical books and the experience of becoming engrossed in them.
“Readers are always readers,” he said.
According to him, book buyers generally know what they want and how much they can afford to spend, adding that “nothing can change that, not even phones.”
However, he identified book piracy as a major challenge facing the industry and called on the government to take stronger action against it.
With schools recently resuming for a new academic session, Abiodun said primary and secondary school textbooks currently account for most sales at the bookshop.
Looking back at the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, he said reading habits had changed. While Nigerians still read, he observed that many people now show greater interest in material connected to making money.
“People just want to hear about money,” he said, explaining that subjects unrelated to financial gain often attract less attention.
He acknowledged that this shift was affecting his business, although he stressed that a market for books remained.
Abiodun did not place the blame entirely on digital technology. He said the time people devote to reading had also declined, recalling activities that once helped introduce children to books.
The bookshop previously ran a readers’ club, which has since stopped. Schools also used to bring pupils on excursions, while parents regularly bought storybooks for their children.
Today, he said, many parents give their children iPads but pay less attention to their reading ability.
Speaking on efforts to encourage reading, Abiodun pointed to storybook programmes aired by some radio stations. He said bookstores supply books to support the programmes, which attract listeners and help sustain children’s interest in stories.
His account reflects both the pressures facing booksellers and the continued place of physical books in Ibadan’s intellectual life. For Abiodun, changing habits have created challenges, but readers have not disappeared.
