Theme: Go All In on Reading
The Office of Chief Abiodun Oladimeji Lasile DL MnbR, Orunto Baalufe Owu Kingdom, joins UNESCO, the Nigerian Copyright Commission, and readers across the globe to mark World Book and Copyright Day 2026 under the global theme Go All In on Reading.
Why “Go All In”
Reading is not a pastime. It is the first tool of nation-building. A child who reads becomes a citizen who thinks. A student who reads becomes a leader who plans. A people who read cannot be cheated of their history, their rights, or their future.
In an age of short videos and faster answers, we call on Nigerians to go all in — all in with time, all in with attention, all in with support for the books, writers, and researchers who keep our stories alive.
The Stakes in 2026
Our books are our oil. Our research is our seed. Yet in the cloud and on the street, the Nigerian author is losing pages to silence, piracy, and machines that learn without leave. Students submit projects that vanish into databases and return without their names.
To go all in on reading means we must also go all in on protecting what is read. Copyright is not for lawyers alone. It is for every parent who buys a textbook, every teacher who sets an essay, every poet who posts a verse.
Our Three Commitments This World Book and Copyright Day
1. Go All In on Access: We urge federal and state governments, schools, and private partners to fund public libraries, digital reading hubs, and community book clubs from Owu to Otukpo. A nation cannot read what it cannot reach.
2. Go All In on Authors: Buy the book. Name the writer. Respect the price. Report the pirate. The _Copyright Act 2022_ gives every writer ownership from the first word. Let us give them income from the first sale.
3. Go All In on Integrity: Students, cite your sources — human or AI. Teachers, teach copyright as you teach math. Publishers, pay royalties on time. Readers, do not share PDFs of books you did not buy. Truth is the lock on the library door.
A Word to Nigerians
With God, nothing is impossible — not even a country that reads again.
Be truthful in all dealings. Put your name on your work. Put your money behind our writers.
Be vigilant. The thief now uses a keyboard, but every mischief maker meets his day.
If we go all in on reading, we go all in on thinking, building, and leading. The page guards the people. But only if the people guard the page.
Go All In on Reading. Today. Tomorrow. For the next generation.
Signed:
Chief Abiodun Oladimeji Lasile DL MnbR
_Orunto Baalufe Owu Kingdom_
_Advocate for Literacy, Heritage, and Intellectual Property_
April 23, 2026 | Abeokuta, Nigeria
World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated annually on April 23 to promote reading, publishing, and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. The 2026 global theme is “Go All In on Reading.”
