By Adamu Yusuf
National Assembly is set to deepen the digitisation of parliamentary records, translate Nigerian laws into Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other local languages, and expand public access to legislative information as part of efforts to preserve the country’s democratic memory.
The Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, Mr. Henry Nwawuba, disclosed this in Abuja while declaring open the 2026 National Assembly Library Week.
The event, themed “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People,” is designed as an annual platform to promote legislative research, access to information and effective utilisation of the resources of the National Assembly Library.
Mr. Nwawuba described the library as more than a collection of books, saying it serves as the knowledge infrastructure of the legislature and a repository of parliamentary records, legislative information, research materials and the institutional memory of Nigeria’s democratic journey.
He said the library was working to ensure that lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and other stakeholders have access to authoritative parliamentary records, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports, Acts passed by the National Assembly, gazetted laws and oversight manuals.
Mr. Nwawuba said the Trust Fund was investing in electronic repositories and upgrading its E-Library, while developing a National Assembly Library mobile application to make legislative information more accessible to lawmakers, staff, researchers and members of the public.
He added that the library would organise public policy dialogues to deepen citizens’ participation in public hearings and create more opportunities for interaction among legislators, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
The President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, represented by Senator Osita Ngwu, urged lawmakers to make greater use of the library, particularly in an era of increasing misinformation, disinformation and rapid developments in artificial intelligence.
Senator Ngwu described the library as a critical link between evidence, knowledge and legislative decision-making, and called for continued support for its development.
In a goodwill message, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr. Abbas Tajudeen, represented by the House Leader, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, said legislative records were essential to understanding Nigeria’s legislative history and strengthening democratic governance.
Dr. Tajudeen said the strength of a legislature should be measured not only by the laws it enacted, but also by how effectively it documented its activities, preserved institutional knowledge and made such information available to future generations.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Kamoru Ogunlana, said the National Assembly could not be truly independent if it lacked the capacity to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its institutional knowledge and records.
Mr. Ogunlana said the library had an important role to play as a bridge between parliamentary records, legislation and the people, stressing that Parliament could not be fully transparent if its records could not be found, understood and trusted.
He warned against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised Bills, Acts and other parliamentary documents, noting that digital technology had made it possible for documents to be manipulated and circulated to thousands of people within minutes.
Editing by Khadija Kubau
