Art & Creativity Quote by Ibrahim Babangida

There is a politician's sleight of hand in this line: it flatters reading while quietly defining civilization as something already grown, already gathered, already stored. Babangida frames books as the sole ticket to the "great harvest" of human achievement, a metaphor that does two things at once. It dignifies knowledge as hard-won labor (a harvest implies seasons, risk, and collective work), and it turns culture into a reserve you can draw from - if you have access to the granary.

The specific intent is aspirational and disciplinary. Aspirational, because it invites citizens to see themselves as heirs to a long, transnational story rather than trapped in the present tense. Disciplinary, because it suggests a preferred route to legitimacy: literacy, canon, institutions. In a country like Nigeria, where colonial education systems privileged certain texts and languages, "only through books" carries a loaded implication about whose records count as civilization and whose memories get treated as folklore. Oral traditions, lived practice, and communal transmission are sidelined by design, not accident.

Coming from a statesman, the line also functions as soft power. It makes "civilization" feel like a shared, neutral good, while implying that the state - via schools, curricula, and libraries - can decide how that inheritance is accessed and interpreted. The quote's elegance is its moral leverage: it converts reading from a private hobby into civic participation, and it dares you to opt out.