Senator representing Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State, Ned Nwoko, and other dignitaries attended a launch of four books by Dr Chris Onyemaechi Okobah in Abuja.
Participants also witnessed an official unveiling of a website at the ceremony.
The four books include: “Maritime Law in Nigeria, Nigerian Property Management, Nigerian Risk Management, and Arbitration in Nigeria.”
Speaking at the official launch of the books, Nwoko, who doubles as a special guest of honour, commended the author for his work.
He described the books as very informative and celebration of knowledge, scholarship and endurance.
Nwoko, who also represented the chairman of the occasion and former Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdulahi Ganduje, bought 400 copies on behalf of himself and Ganduje at an undisclosed amount.
He also recommended the books to higher institutions of learning, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, political institutions, libraries, and legislative entities across Nigeria.
“No doubt the books are very informative, not only that, it is a celebration of knowledge, scholarship, and endurance,” he said.
The author of the books, Dr Okobah, said the publication was necessitated by paucity of intellectual academic works in the country and the need to revive reading culture.
The publication, he noted, reflects a lifetime of engagement with the legal and institutional frameworks on which Nigeria’s prosperity depends.
While giving more insight and what went into the publication, Okobah, a prolific author, lawyer and Arbitration scholarship, who has written 67 books spanning law, governance, risk, biography and fiction, said writing is united by a single conviction that nations are built on institutions.
According to him, institutions stand on knowledge.
Okoboh, who decried the menace of reading culture among children and youth in the country, urged the government to make laws dissalowing kids of certain ages from accessing social media because this has distracted them from cultivating reading habit.
The icon of African literature and recipient of African best living author in Africa award said: “Through my writing, I speak for the voiceless and through books offer solutions and suggestions to challenges plaguing us daily as a people.
“My books, for instance, centre on happenings in our society like injustice, oppression, human trafficking and all that.
“It is fundamental that government through legislation and parents must work together to bring back the culture of reading in our society,”
The reviewer, Dumebi Henry Emma-Dibia Esq, stressed the need for maritime sector regulation and risk associated with transactions, urging urgent reforms in the sector.
Another reviewer, Augusta Massey Esq, also dwelled on arbitration in Nigeria, whiile recommending that only Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) could help break down mediation process as obtainable in the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Rwanda and Ghana.
The occasion had in attendance dignitaries from the political class, academics, military institution and other endeavours.