Soyinka warns of evil effect of internet on scholarship

FOREMOST Nigerian writer and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has warned y that if reasonable steps were not taken, the current internet revolution would destroy scholarship.

Delivering the 3rd Zik annual lecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Soyinka said the heavy reliance on internet for academic activities would soon witness the end of books as instrument for mind development and potential building.

According to him, there has been so much decline in writing and reading among the younger generation and urged them not to allow any primordial considerations to hinder them from developing their innate potentials.

He observed that certain traditional, religious and western teachings enslaved Africans from exploiting their environment and potentials, adding that the problems in Nigeria today such as Boko Haram, which could be attributed to poor mental development occasioned by wrong teaching.

Speaking on the theme; “The Magic Lantern, Excursions in the Creative Realm,” Soyinka said that the sun remained the magic lantern of the entire universe which gave life to the earth.

He said that such communication gadgets like computers and IPAD were capable of bringing an end to the culture of book writing and reading, adding that the end point should be how to find a way of collaborating between book writing and use of internet knowledge.
Their partnership, he stated, may have witnessed a revolution in the communication world, but regrettably has essentially destroyed the realm of imagination in young people.

He enjoined the young people to tap their potentials and not allow certain primordial factors within their environment inhibit them.