Firms Launch Million Classic Initiative to Drive Civic Education 

Oluchi Chibuzor 

Academy Press and Ekenua & Co. Limited have launched the Million Classics Programme, a Nigerian civic-education programme that uses the world’s enduring classics to build critical thinking, moral reasoning and leadership in secondary school students. 

Managing Director of Academy Press, Mrs. Oluwakemi Ogunnubi, said as a firm having printed books for Nigerian classrooms for over 60 years, it understands what it means when a young person opens a book that will stay with him for life. 

“The Million Classics Programme is an ambitious and important undertaking, and we are proud to be founding it in partnership with Ekenua & Co. Placing the world’s great classics into the hands of Nigerian secondary school students – beginning today in Lagos – is exactly the kind of work we believe our industry should be doing. We look forward to what this programme will mean for students across Nigeria as it grows,” she said.

Managing Director of Ekenua & Co, Osamede Okhomina, said, “our students can read. What we owe them is the chance to think – carefully, critically, and for themselves. The programme is built on the belief that great books, paired with real engagement, are among the most effective tools we have for building a generation of Nigerian readers who become thinkers, and thinkers who become leaders. This launch cycle is the beginning of something we intend to grow across the country.” 

According to the Local Programme Lead, Maxwell Marshall, “we are grateful for the cooperation of the Lagos State Tutor-General’s office for Education District VI, and for the commitment of our partner schools, educators and supporters who share our belief that access to great books, paired with structured engagement, can broaden perspectives and shape lifelong learning.” 

The programme will see the placement of the first 1,500 copies of George Orwell’s Animal Farm into the hands of students across three senior secondary schools in Ilupeju, Lagos.

The launch cycle of the project is delivered in cooperation with the office of the Tutor-General and Permanent Secretary of Lagos Education District VI, Mrs. Mojisola Christiana Yusuff, whose reading culture initiative is the operational partner for the cycle in the district’s schools.