SONALA OLUMHENSE FROM PUNCH
The National Library Project in Abuja, which began in 1981, was woken up last week, courtesy of Minister of Education Tunji Alausa.
But it is a little murky as to exactly what he announced.
According to The Cable, for instance, the government plans to complete the first phase of the project by June 2025, about two months from now.
Leadership heard it differently: The project is “finally set to restart construction by June 2025,” it reported.
Alausa disclosed that the project’s new fortunes are owed to President Tinubu directing TETFund to set a certain percentage of its budget aside for it.
The first phase, including “Basement level one, basement level two, ground floor, first floor, and second floor, and all external work [will] “commence on or before June 2025.”
I applaud Tinubu for this gesture. Consider that we have had 10 other leaders since 1981.
Hopefully, this project—not simply Phase I—will be completed. Nigeria is dotted with thousands of projects that never progressed beyond that mythical stage.
Better still, I hope it will be speedily completed as a singular demonstration of commitment in no more than one year.
In many of those thousands of “Phase I” projects, which were plundered so that the beneficiaries could become landlords in Abuja and chieftains of political parties, there was indeed some kind of start..
Keep in mind: only recently, Musa Aliyu, the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, told the stunning story of an undisclosed hospital “in Nigeria that was paid 100 per cent five times,” without it being built.
Neither the National Assembly nor the mass media has shown the requisite courage or concern to compel him to identify the thieves or resign.
But the real problem is that, as a people, we are often on the side of the thieves. They know we do not care and that they can thrive because we are too busy admiring their mansions and new cars while they steal from us and our children.
This is why the National Library, which ought to have inspired states, local governments, and institutions to develop their own, was never built. Like the thousands of looters quietly protected and nurtured by powerful institutions such as the ICPC and EFCC, Aliyu’s collectors of five full payments for that one hospital are out there somewhere, bragging about how “hard” they worked for their “wealth.”
The truth is that a society can be no wealthier than its appreciation of education and history. In Nigeria, we have no such respect, which is why we lack libraries and archives. We are never going to see the presidential libraries that some former Nigerian leaders claim they are building. Remember, in modern times, a physical building alone does not make a library—digital structures are far cheaper, easier to establish, and far more impactful, reaching people across the world and through generations.
What have we done with this bold new world? Nothing. I have often complained in this column, for instance, that Nigeria’s National Assembly is a caricature of a true legislative body, with no interest in legislation or history.
Look at their version of Nigeria’s legislative history.
Of greater importance, NASS has no archive, let alone a comprehensive one. Consider that Nigeria has now had 10 consecutive legislatures in 26 years of the Fourth Republic, but there is nothing substantive about it let alone the previous ones, reflecting the development of our laws and when they were passed, let alone the legislators who have served various constituencies and committees in every legislature.
Our legislature’s website is the emptiest, most irresponsible and most illiterate of all the 181 legislatures of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Where others offer extensive buffets of history and information, including complete records, transparent insight and citizen participation, the Nigerian legislature offers Nigerians this empty wasteland.
Consider the examples of Australia or South Africa. With a serious legislature, such as the United States, you can track and trace your representatives over the years, and the archives are available when you are.
Although I have praised President Tinubu for his decision to build the National Library, the executive is at the heart of Nigeria’s information hollowness.