The National Assembly is set to expand public access to legislative information by translating Nigerian laws into Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and other local languages.
Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, Henry Nwawuba, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while declaring open the 2026 National Assembly Library Week.
The three-day event, themed “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People,” is aimed at promoting legislative research, access to information and effective use of National Assembly Library resources.
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.”
He said the library was working to provide lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and other stakeholders with access to authoritative parliamentary records, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports and Acts passed by the National Assembly.
According to him, the National Assembly Library Trust Fund is investing in electronic repositories and upgrading its e-library. It is also developing a mobile application to make legislative information more accessible to lawmakers, staff, researchers and members of the public.
Nwawuba also announced plans for a Bills Tracker that would allow users to follow bills and monitor their progress through the legislative process.
The library is also developing infographics, audiovisual materials and video explainers to make bills, Acts and legislative procedures easier for Nigerians to understand.
He said translating laws into local languages would broaden access to legislative information and help more citizens understand laws that affect their daily lives.
Nwawuba added that the library would organise public policy dialogues to encourage citizen participation in public hearings and create opportunities for interaction between legislators, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
He said the initiatives would also help address inconsistencies in official parliamentary documents and reduce the circulation of fake or unauthorised copies of National Assembly records.
Lawmakers Urge Greater Use of National Assembly Library
Senate President Godswill Akpabio urged lawmakers to make greater use of the library, particularly amid increasing misinformation, disinformation and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
Represented by Senator Osita Ngwu, Akpabio described the library as a critical link between evidence, knowledge and legislative decision-making and called for continued support for its development.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, represented by House Leader Julius Ihonvbere, said legislative records were essential to understanding Nigeria’s legislative history and strengthening democratic governance.
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.
He said technology and artificial intelligence could improve legislative research, records preservation and access to information, but stressed that their use must be guided by accuracy, security and professional judgment.
National Assembly Warns Over Fake Legislative Documents
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, said the National Assembly could not be truly independent without the capacity to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its institutional knowledge and records.
Ogunlana described the library as a bridge between parliamentary records, legislation and the public, stressing that Parliament could not be fully transparent if its records could not be found, understood and trusted.
He identified the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as key components of Nigeria’s democratic memory, explaining that the Order Paper provides the agenda for legislative business.
The Clerk warned against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised bills, Acts and other parliamentary documents, noting that digital technology has made it easier for documents to be manipulated and distributed.
He stressed that the integrity of an Act depended not merely on the existence of a document, but on the ability to establish which version was authentic, which was authoritative and the legal process through which it emerged.
Ogunlana also highlighted the continued use of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN 2004, as an example of the challenges involved in maintaining a current and authoritative collection of federal legislation.
He explained that the LFN 2004 reflected the laws covered by its revision exercise and was not automatically updated whenever a new Act was enacted.
According to Ogunlana, the National Assembly must strengthen cybersecurity, digital preservation, secure authentication, access controls, backup systems and staff training as parliamentary records become increasingly digitised.
He warned that while digitisation could make legislative information easier to access, search and share, it could also expose records to cyberattacks, manipulation and impersonation of official sources.
The Clerk said digital platforms must therefore remain accessible and secure, while electronic records should be available, authentic and traceable.
He said the National Assembly Library should move beyond being a repository for documents and become an institution where parliamentary knowledge is preserved, authenticated and made accessible to lawmakers, researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, students and the wider public.
The President of the Nigerian Library Association, Dr Lawal Umar, called for sustained investment in libraries and modern information technology to improve access to legislative information.
He also urged stronger collaboration between the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Speakers of African Legislatures, Ambassador Debo Oyewale, said African legislatures could learn from one another in developing institutions capable of preserving legislative memory.
