Every human being seeks to be recognized but many are severely limited by the fact that they cannot read or communicate effectively in writing. An illiterate especially suffers multiple social injuries; he cannot read letters sent him by his loved ones. Someone else will first have to read these, learn his secrets and then inform him what the letters contain. And the accuracy of the interpretation of the contents of the letters will depend on whether or not the interpreter fully understands the contents of the letters is willing to let the owner have the true contents to benefit from them, or had ulterior motives for not doing so. Some help me read these letter assistants on reading the content of the letter can be envious or jealous especially if the letters contain what will very much benefit the owners. Besides the owners of the letters stand the risks of their contents being divulged by their help-me readers. Some can really be horrible talebearers. Similarly an illiterate person will not be in position to convey his messages to those he would have liked to without the third party being having knowledge to it.
There are other disabilities the illiterates suffer which you and I know very well. So to bring the shrine back to their lives you can tap into this goldmine as there are so many illiterate people in society. You may not know it but will be shocked to learn that some of the gorgeously dressed persons next to you can hardly spell his name or even say “come”. Immense opportunities exist for hard-noised entrepreneurs to exploit. By the way if you live in Lagos you will have seen a lot of banners hung and posters passed in strategic locations inviting the target market to come and ‘Learn How to Read and Write in Three Months”. They dot the whole place and speak of the yawning gap that needs to be filled.
The market is wide and despite the advances of science and education it appears to be growing. Think of the old people who because of the peculiar situation around them when they were young could not go to school but who yearn now to recover all the lost ground. Think of the rich, wealthy and apparently fulfilled buyers and sellers who, inwardly, suffer one kind of complex or the other. And to assert themselves or show that they have ‘arrived’ manifest such characteristics of overdoing things-over-dressing, riding larger-than-life cars, build outsize mansions etc. Think of the many young short-sighted and misguided school drop-outs who without being barely being able to spell their names rush into “business” “to have that money” overnight. When they have made that money they now come to realize their literary inadequacies and that money is not the be-all and end-all of life. Some realistic, horrible and honest one want to remedy this situation by engaging private teachers to brush them up and so take away much of the brashness and outlandishness acquired over the years.
