The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that the National Assembly Library project’s primary aim is to deepen the legislative competence of lawmakers and by extension, strengthen research on policy formulation for the whole country.
Gbajabiamila said the 9th Assembly viewed the project as one of its most cherished initiatives, envisaged to serve several functions, including a resource centre, a national museum and a digital archive for Nigeria’s democratic journey.
He spoke in Abuja on Wednesday while declaring open a public hearing on a “Bill for an Act to Establish the National Assembly Library Trust Fund”, organised by the House Committee on Legislative Library, Research and Documentation.
He noted that it was saddening that Nigeria, which prided itself as having the largest legislature in Africa, had no legislative library, adding that it was the reason the 9th Assembly took up the challenge to initiate the “ambitious” project.
A statement by the spokesperson of the speaker, Lanre Lasisi, said the services the library will render include “to build a legislative library, archive and research centre comparable to any that exists anywhere else in the world.
“It is our vision that when this library is complete, it will dramatically improve the legislative capacity of the National Assembly by providing legislators and their aides with the resources they need to conduct thorough research and advance policies that serve to make our world better.”
He said the National Assembly library will house the National Assembly Museum and a digital archive of our nation’s democratic journey thus far.
He described the ambitions as “enormous”, requiring the sacrifice of time, resources, collaboration amongst stakeholders and partnerships with those “who share the vision of what we hope to achieve.”
Besides seeing to the early completion of the project, Speaker Gbajabiamila informed the session that the legislature must also articulate a statutory framework for sustaining the future of the library.
He explained, “For that purpose, we have convened here today to consider the Bill to Establish the National Assembly Library Trust Fund.”
