Dr. Raphael James is the founder and Director General of the Centre for Research, Information Management and Media Development (CRIMMD). He runs the largest Photo Museum in Nigeria history with over 36, 000 photos and also operates a free 
public library that has contributed to the upliftment of the educational standard in Nigeria. Dr. James has earned over 100 awards for his commendable works to humanity. Recently, he declared his intention to donate 40,000 books to individuals, schools and book clubs before the end of the year. In this interview with JOY NGWOLO, he shares his motivations for indulging in selfless services to humanity.
You have pledged to give out 40,000 books this year, what do you aim to achieve by doing this?
MY target to give out 40,000 books this year is an increase from my annual donations. I started the book donation in 2008. Then, I had donated 21,000 books so in 2019 I said I would make it 40,000. The whole idea is this; long before I set up my free library in 2004, my belief was that a day would come when I would set up 774 libraries in all the local governments in Nigeria but due to lack of resources, I decided to opt for another means of achieving this dream. I began to look out for people who are interested in setting up libraries and existing libraries that have less books and support them by giving them free books.
How has the journey been so far, have you been able to achieve your goals?
We have donated over 36,000 books since we started and I am impressed. I have seen a couple of libraries that people have started and that has actually encouraged me. Till date we have had over 30,000 registered members in the library, this is the 15th year running and it is free. The larger population of registered members are young people. I have a couple of adults who come around only when they have professional exams. My focus is on those who come to read for the fun of reading and not just because of exams.
How do you get the books you give out?
I buy most of the books myself. Though some people have donated books to me but they are different from the ones I give out. Besides the free things I do, I am a media person and an author, so the money I get from the sales of my books and my media consultancy jobs is what I use to finance this project. On few occasions, some friends support me financially and some authors donate their books, this way, I feel encouraged. But
most times I go beyond these books because I give out educational books like Biology, Chemistry, Physics and other books that will be of benefit to secondary school students.
Why are you running a free library?
The free CRIMMD library and the book donations are initiatives geared towards supporting individuals, schools and clubs who cannot afford to buy books. Initially, I was running a business centre and in the process I found out that a lot of young people came to falsify their certificates. What they did was that they changed the names on the certificates, wrote theirs
and used those certificates for employment purposes or for admission. If we have a situation whereby people can read and understand even if they do not have a certificate to back it up, personally, I feel it is better for them than to have certificates that they cannot defend. So I asked myself how I could correct the situation and I found out that the only way to make an impact is to make people read. If I tell them to go and read their books, they will tell me that they do not have money to buy books so I said instead of telling them to read books, let me set up a library and invite them over to read.
What challenges have you faced with running the library and the museum?
I have been building an e-library but it is not open to the public and that is because of the poor electricity supply in my area. You cannot do e-library services without light and a good network service provider, these things cost money. Maybe someday when I get a sponsor, we can do it and that means that even people outside Idimu will be able to access it.
Another challenge is that sometimes the local government officials come to harass us because they do not understand what it takes to provide the services I am rendering. I cannot be running a free library and you will be telling me you want me to pay for lockup shop of N3,000 which cannot be compared to what I am giving the society. How do you think the reading culture in Nigeria can be promoted? If parents encourage their children to read, they can achieve whatever they want to achieve. My first daughter became the youngest published author in Africa at the age of six and the second youngest published author in the world. My second daughter published her first book at the age of 10. My son also goes with the title of being the youngest photographer in Nigeria and at 14, he earns money taking photographs. These are the things they see at home, they see us read always. Even without being compelled, it has become a thing of special interest to them. I believe that if my kids can do it, then other kids can do it too.
Do people visit the museum? How has the turn out been?
I started the museum in 2012 and so far it has not been encouraging because we live in a society where creativity is not appreciated. I see the government clamouring every day that Britain should return some of the artworks that were ‘stolen from Nigeria’ during the slave trade era but if these things are returned back to us, will we value them? We do not value our artworks. The museum here is rated the richest photo museum in Nigeria about Nigerian history. I have over 36,000 photographs about the Nigerian story and yet people hardly come. Schools are supposed to come here for excursions. When schools come here for excursions, children see pictures of
people they have heard about. As soon as they see those pictures, it keys into their brains immediately. In my secondary school days when we heard about Mungo Park, to us he was like a god. When I started this project, I got to see his picture. I read about Ajayi Crowther in secondary school, I never knew who he was but eventually I got to see his picture. When you walk in here, you see practically everyone that has played a role in making Nigeria what it is today.
How do you get all the artefacts in the museum?
I buy them and then I re-shoot from books and magazines. I do tours, I travel a lot. I have visited 32 states in Nigeria and I go with my camera to take pictures. I have visited the remains of the room where Ajayi Crowther was born, it still exists after a 100 years. The tree where Ajayi Crowther was tied to during slave trade is still standing.
