The National Assembly is set to expand access to legislative information by translating Nigerian laws into Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and other indigenous languages.
The 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 the National Assembly Library’s resources.
Nwawuba said the library was not merely a collection of books but served as the knowledge infrastructure of the legislature and a repository for parliamentary records.
He said the Trust Fund was investing in electronic repositories, upgrading the e-library and developing a mobile application to improve access to legislative information for lawmakers, staff, researchers and members of the public.
According to him, the planned Bills Tracker will enable users to monitor the progress of bills through the legislative process, while infographics, audiovisual materials and video explainers will simplify laws, bills and legislative procedures for Nigerians.
Nwawuba said translating laws into local languages would enable more citizens to understand legislation affecting their daily lives and encourage greater participation in legislative processes.
He added that the library would organise public policy dialogues to promote interaction among lawmakers, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
The initiative, he explained, would also help tackle inconsistencies in official parliamentary documents and the circulation of fake or unauthorised copies of National Assembly records.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, represented by Senator Osita Ngwu, urged lawmakers to make greater use of the library, particularly amid the spread of misinformation and disinformation and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
Akpabio described the library as an important 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 the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, said parliamentary records were crucial to preserving Nigeria’s legislative history and strengthening democratic governance.
He said technology and artificial intelligence could improve legislative research, preservation of records and access to information, but stressed the need for accuracy, security and professional oversight.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, said the legislature could not be truly independent without the capacity to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its institutional knowledge and records.
Ogunlana identified the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as key components of Nigeria’s democratic memory, warning against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised parliamentary documents.
He stressed the need for stronger cybersecurity, digital preservation, authentication systems, access controls, backups and staff training as the National Assembly increasingly digitises its records.
The Clerk said the library must evolve from a document repository into an institution that preserves, authenticates and makes parliamentary knowledge 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, as well as stronger collaboration between the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
Similarly, 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.
