Nigeria’s Heritage, National Library Under Threat – Librarian

National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria, Professor Veronica Chinwe Anunobi, has said the apex library and Nigeria’s documented heritage preserved in the National Repository of Nigeria are under threat.

Anunobi disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.

Noting that the state of a national library speaks volumes about the place of education in a country, Anunobi declared the state of Nigeria’s national library was ‘endangered’.

From the absence of a permanent headquarters to the dilapidated state of resources (newspapers, journals and book publications) housed in the space-deficient National Repository of Nigeria, inadequate staff and low budgetary allocation incapable of supporting its virtualisation, these challenges threaten the existence of the National Library and Nigeria’s heritage.

Emphasising the role of the national library in the preservation of a nation’s heritage, to serve and to engender an informed public, Anunobi said the library not only lacks the space to store its legal deposits, but also adequate staff to process them. Likewise, previous deposits housed in the national repository have either grown brittle with age, or are worn-and-torn from constant use.

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“Newspapers in the national repository published post-independence are still tendered in the court of law today. Last month, the courts had 40,000 requests for certification which drove Nigerians to the repository to dig through materials everyday which have caused them to wear and tear, or due to age are now brittle,” she said.

According to the CEO, 20,000 legal deposits were collated from local publishers between January and September 2024. At the library’s permanent building located in Central Area, Abuja, work has come to a halt. With little future prospect of acquiring a new repository, the apex library has resorted to moving its legal deposits to states branches for lack of space.