Rolling Away A National Embarrassment -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

For Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s First Lady, the  rot must now be brought to a stop in a country seemingly stuck in a rut. Since 2006, the  National Library, which was supposed to serve as a symbol of a  progressive, productive country moving from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, has stuck out like a sore thumb in its incompletion.

To celebrate the grand occasion of her 65th birthday on September 21,  the First Lady appealed to her well-wishers to use the  opportunity to raise funds  to facilitate the  completion of the National Library. So far, well over twenty billion naira has been raised. It is worth celebrating. She is worth celebrating.

Undoubtedly, the pulse of a country, any country, can be felt, unmistakably, in the temperature that radiates from the pages  of its books. From the lowest rungs of the society to the corridors of power, books that open up to embrace education, literacy, egalitarianism, equality, and measurable progress can tell a society where it is at any given moment. This has been true from time immemorial.

All over the world, for centuries, public libraries have served as a monument to enlightenment but also equality. Indeed, in keeping books safe and accessible to all, no matter their standing in the society, public libraries have  often served as a bastion of progress and a bulwark against  creeping dictatorship. Yet, since 1981, when it was first mooted, Nigeria’s National Library has stood incomplete, a sign of a country  racking up miles in a feverish race to return to its retrogressive past.

In the time the National Library has stood incomplete and inconsequential, mocking a country’s futile efforts to make any appreciable progress, bloated budgets have been dedicated to far less meaningful projects by successive administrations.

In the time the National Library has become a national eyesore, government houses have been  renovated and refurbished many times over at outrageous amounts, even when there was no need for such; many other public structures have sprung up in different areas. There has also been no shortage of instances where government officials grew inventive in devising new ways and means to spend public resources.

For many years, the reading culture in Nigeria has been steadily declining. Today, many young people in Nigeria would rather do anything else than open a book. With the standard of education calamitously falling at the same time, Nigeria has come to face a problem brewed by ignorance and illiteracy. The  consequences have been devastating.

With so many young people at crossroads, crime rates have soared and poverty deepened, with many  young people dissatisfied with  the quality of their lives.

It is  thus highly commendable that  the First Lady has turned her benign attention towards such an important project. In a country where past presidents prefer to set up gigantic personal libraries, it is refreshing that something will  finally be done to complete such a  national  monument.

If she can coordinate the resources for its eventual completion, she will be fondly remembered for it. But, even more than  the space its completion would  reserve for her in Nigeria’s history books, she would have rolled away a national embarrassment for Nigeria while giving the country the beacon it needs  to navigate its  turbulent seas.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

ikewilly9@gmail.com