Nigeria, April 5 -- Over the past two months, I embarked on a mission to complete two reading tasks: first, General Babangida's autobiography, A Journey in Service, followed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dream Count. Unfortunately, I have barely progressed beyond the opening chapters of either. My focus, the essential ingredient for profound reading, has remained elusive.

I first realised the extent of my fractured attention and the reason behind it when I was absentmindedly fiddling with my phone and stumbled upon an app that tracked my screen time. It showed my total hours spent on Facebook and other social media platforms that week. It was an epiphany.

Every time I picked up a book, before I could even settle into a chapter, my phone...