Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sent millions of children in America, Europe, Asia and Australia panting in feverish excitement for the last book in the phenomenal magical fantasy of the boy wizard and his class mates. But there was no Harry Potter fever in Nigeria.

Is it not ironical for the most populous black nation in the world with over 140 million people and boasting of famous prize winning writers such as the first African Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka, youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize, Ben Okri, youngest winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other popular authors, to be left out of the fever pitch excitement over the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of Harry Potter, the most popular fictional hero in the history of literature since Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist?

Whilst millions of children kept vigil at book stores in America, Britain, Australia, India and even in South Africa, the millions of children in Nigeria were gaping and moping at get-rich-quick contests on TV and were not really bothered if Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a must read or not.
Nigerian children are not rushing to the bookshops for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and please, don't blame poverty for their apathy. Because, the average Nigerian child from a middle class family can spend over $10 monthly on sweets and the teenagers spend about $20 monthly on recharge cards for their GSM phones.
There are millions of Nigerian children from rich families and they are not excited over Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
In fact, the sight of a fat book of over 700 pages can give them heart attack!
They don't even read the Holy Bible anymore.

I see Nigerian children gazing at the TV, watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal and other get-rich-quick schemes and contests on TV. But they don't get excited over any book, except a book or magazine on sex.

The only way the Harry Potter books can captivate millions of Nigerian children is by giving cash prizes to them to lure them to read all the seven books.

Lady J.K. Rowling's genius is a blessing to modern literature.

The millions of children who have read "Harry Potter " are now open minded and more willing to read other similar fantastic stories. And the passion ignited by "Harry Potter " will continue to be stoked by superlatives of the magical Harry Potter.