Ayengbe Ebhohimen, the author of a children’s textbook, has broken his silence following intense online backlash sparked by a Nigerian mother’s concerns over the book’s content.
Mrs. Udoka Mary Queen recently went viral after sharing a video highlighting a disturbing passage in her five-year-old son’s reading material. The story depicts an old man punishing a dog by burning it with a hot iron for failing to guard meat.
“I came online simply to ask if such material is appropriate for young children, especially at the early learning stage,” Mrs. Queen explained, questioning the suitability of the story for young readers. She further alleged that after her post gained traction, she received multiple calls, including threats from a person claiming to be a lawyer, pressuring her to remove the post.
In response to the uproar, the author, Ayengbe Ebhohimen, has defended the content, stating he sees nothing wrong with the narrative. In a statement addressing the backlash, Ebhohimen accused critics of being “gullible” and allowing empathy to cloud their judgment.
He argued that the book’s primary purpose for five-year-olds is to teach reading skills, rather than to instill moral values.
‘’There is nothing wrong with what I wrote. If anybody is not satisfied with what I wrote, it is a matter of differences in opinion.That I have written something is not in line with your own opinion does not make it wrong.
What Udoka was saying is that the story has no moral lesson, that the children have nothing to learn from that story. Unfortunately, that is not the purpose of the story for the children. They are between age 3-5 and at that age, they are not to talk about moral lesson because they cannot even read” he said
The author stated he does not oppose the review of his work, but expressed dissatisfaction with the approach, noting the concerned mother petitioned the government to ban a book that has been in circulation for years.
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