A good book contains more real wealth than a good bank – Roy L. Smith

More than ever before, there is much information that stare us in the face, some begging for our attention, other are forced down our throat by interruption marketing. There is noise everywhere.

The youths are happy to be born into the technological age. They toot their horn; they want their ‘voice’ to be heard. The elders don’t feel their time is up; they also drop their wisdom in the awkward pool of the deafening noise, using the media.

The monthly twitter chat, #Read2Riches that connects passionate readers, authors, bookstores and educators to sharpen their mind towards a literate nation was live on the 31^st of November in an enchanting discussion of how we can deliberately use information that we read and hear to improve national development.

Practical questions and answers where asked. Here are some of the insights shared below:

Q: How can young people propel profound change in literacy in our country?

Philip Amiola (@philipamiola), a published author said, “young people themselves should become avid readers before they can facilitate literacy.”

Q: How can reading and literacy improve the economic status of a nation?

Adesanya Ajoke (@ajoke_adesanya), a teacher and blogger said, “reading helps to broaden one’s mind and horizon, it exposes you to more possibilities” She affirmed that she has been to so many countries and has done a lot of exploits through the pages of different books.

Q: What topics do you feel schools should teach to improve national development?

Onyekachi Onuoha (onyipoet), an avid reader and author, wrote that ”honesty and self sacrifice should be a key discourse in our schools” He said lack of honesty will always reflect the poor state of any country.

Q: What is the major influence on a child’s literacy and intelligence?

Dupe Killa (@dupekilla), a prolific public speaker said, “it is a mix of many things, it ranges from a love-filled home to an enriched exposure to stimulating books, music, talks and so on.

As citizens, we must be aware that there is no middle ground, everything counts! If we read or don’t, something is happening to us, we are either growing or gradually dying.

The will always be a difference between those that are curious to explore, think, imagine and examine through reading to be able to discover the information that can help them become better, see the world and learn about history.

Reading has a powerful effect of unlocking our potentials and unleashing the ‘better angels of our nature’.

Paper intelligence will not bail us out of economic hardship; it is how often we transform our intelligence into practical and tangible solutions for our nation.

Information isn’t power until it is acted out. Reading is a good source to acquire knowledge and acting out the knowledge acquired is what will bring damage to ignorance in our nation.

You can catch up and still add you voice to the conversation by searching for the hashtag #Read2Riches on Twitter and replying to the questions.

In the first 30 minutes of the 2 hour tweet session, we reached 61,384 twitter accounts with an exposure of 135,812 impressions.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Fasoranti Damilola is a Social Entrepreneur and Personal Growth Strategist helping young innovators and coaches transform their limitless spark into maximum benefits. He blogs at fasorantidamilola.wordpress.com