EDITORIAL: Prioritising National Library completion, but not as charity project

The country’s National Library in Abuja has remained incomplete since the contract for its construction was first awarded in 2006. Conceived as an 11-floor architectural landmark, its original structural plan has been subjected to bewildering changes in successive acts of poor governance.

Its chequered history speaks volumes about an entrenched anti-intellectual outlook and the consistent non-prioritisation of knowledge by Nigerian leaders.

The project began with promise. Messrs Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) was awarded the contract at ₦8.590 billion, with a 22-month completion deadline. Yet, 19 years on, the library remains a work-in-progress—if not a mirage—after five administrations have come and gone. What was once envisioned as a national treasure is now a symbol of shame.

Ironically, it may now take charity initiatives to complete this long-neglected project, if the appeal of the First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, gains traction.

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To mark her 65th birthday in September, she urged kind-hearted Nigerians to forgo gifts, flowers, and birthday adverts, and instead channel funds into a special account for the completion of the National Library. She declared passionately, “This will be the best birthday present I’m going to receive.”

While her intention may be noble, the underlying message is deeply troubling. It exposes the degree to which our national values have been eroded, reducing a vital intellectual institution to the status of a charity project.

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu (PHOTO CREDIT: X @NigAffairs) — **Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu (PHOTO CREDIT: X @NigAffairs)**

The gesture underscores how little seriousness the Nigerian state attaches to intellectual development, literacy, and a reading culture that many say is already dead. Instead of soliciting public donations, the First Lady should impress upon her husband, President Bola Tinubu, the urgency of treating the library as a national priority, worthy of direct public funding.

This matter transcends charity. National honour, dignity, and history are at stake. It is scandalous that a key institution relocated from Lagos to Abuja as far back as 1995 still operates from a rented building nearly three decades later.

A National Library is not an optional luxury; it is a public monument, a powerhouse of knowledge, indispensable for research, innovation, and intellectual cultivation. In every serious country, it is preserved, funded, and revered.

The repeated official neglect is most evident in the countless contract variations and structural alterations. In 2009, the original eight-floor design was inexplicably reduced to five, even as the cost jumped from ₦8.5 billion to ₦17 billion. By 2012, a directive demanded a return to the original plan, leading to even more cost reviews—₦23.1 billion and ₦48 billion in 2013.

In 2017, the Senate, through a motion moved by Senator Gbenga Ashafa, condemned this circus of revisions and called for urgent completion.

**The First Lady of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.**

Then-Senator Remi Tinubu was part of that chamber when the cost had risen to ₦50 billion. Yet, despite a resolution to leverage the 2018 budget, nothing materialised.

Today, reports suggest that completing the project could gulp as much as ₦218.44 billion, based on prevailing exchange rates.

Such dereliction of responsibility fuels Nigeria’s intellectual decay, accelerates the decline of reading culture, and deepens the youth’s immersion in wasteful distractions, such as unproductive social media usage and even digital delinquency.

It validates the concern raised by Professor Nolue Emenanjo during the 2013 Authors’ Forum of University Press Plc, when he asked: “How Safe is the Book?”

The National Library is not merely a repository of books. It is the nation’s prime domain for archiving all published works, enabling intellectual consultations, research referencing, and legal deposits. It also has roles in ICT-driven services, printing, and binding.

That such a critical institution remains trapped in endless limbo is an embarrassment at home and abroad. Indeed, the National Librarian, Professor Chinwe Anunobi, lamented that at international conferences of National Library Directors, Nigeria is constantly spotlighted for failing to deliver on its project. “What is holding the project?” her colleagues routinely ask.

Even after the Buhari administration directed TETFund in June 2021 to fund the project’s completion, nothing tangible has happened. The agency earmarked ₦15 billion but attached conditions, including FEC approval of revised costs and RCC’s firm commitment to completion. The stalemate persists, showing how red-tapism and lack of political will continue to strangle the project.

This must end. Bureaucratic bottlenecks should never stall a project of this magnitude. Political will can sweep away excuses if leaders truly care about national progress. PREMIUM TIMES insists that the Tinubu administration must immediately remove every obstacle to completing the National Library.

When ₦142 billion can be earmarked for six bus terminals, ₦90 billion casually dispensed as Hajj subsidies in 2024, and ₦39 billion hurriedly used to renovate the International Conference Centre, Abuja, it is indefensible that the National Library is left abandoned. Knowledge is more fundamental than all these.

Other societies value their libraries with pride. In the United Kingdom, the National Library is sacrosanct. Any suggestion of underfunding sparks public outrage. In 2016, a minor funding cut from £944 million to £919 million triggered an uproar, with the celebrated author Philip Pullman warning against “the slow death of civic decency.” That is how societies that value civilisation respond.

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In Nigeria, however, the shoddy treatment of the National Library is mirrored in the deplorable state of its branches across the country. Ideally, the National Library should have functional, modern branches in all 36 states.

Yet, past attempts, including those of former National Librarian, Professor Lenrie Aina, failed.

A comprehensive survey of state branches revealed dusty and empty shelves, chronic power outages, and a lack of trained librarians. In summary: “if you have seen one, you have seen all.”

Until the National Library is completed, fully equipped, and adequately funded to function optimally, it will remain a monumental emblem of Nigeria’s official negligence, a testament to our leaders’ disregard for knowledge, and a lingering national disgrace.