The National Assembly is set to translate Nigerian laws into Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and other local languages as part of efforts to improve public access to legislative information.
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 focused on promoting legislative research, access to information and effective use of the National Assembly Library’s resources.
Nwawuba said the library was more than a collection of books, describing it 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 authoritative parliamentary records, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports and Acts passed by the National Assembly.
According to him, the Trust Fund is investing in electronic repositories and upgrading the e-library, while also developing a National Assembly Library mobile application to make legislative information more accessible to lawmakers, staff, researchers and members of the public.
He said a Bills Tracker was also being developed to allow users to monitor bills and follow their progress through the legislative process.
Nwawuba added that the library was developing infographics, audiovisual materials and video explainers to simplify bills, Acts and legislative procedures for Nigerians.
He said the translation of laws into local languages would enable more citizens to understand legislation affecting their daily lives.
The Executive Secretary also announced plans for public policy dialogues aimed at encouraging citizens’ participation in public hearings and creating more opportunities for interaction between legislators, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
He said the initiatives would also help address inconsistencies in official parliamentary documents and curb 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 increasing misinformation, disinformation and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
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 the 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 cautioned that their use must be guided by accuracy, security and professional judgment.
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 identified the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as key components of Nigeria’s democratic memory, noting that the Order Paper provides the agenda for legislative business.
He warned against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised bills, Acts and other parliamentary documents, noting that digital technology had made it easier for such documents to be manipulated and circulated.
The Clerk said the authenticity of an Act depended not only on the existence of a document, but also on establishing which version was authentic, authoritative and produced through the proper legal process.
He noted that the continued widespread use of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN 2004, highlighted the challenge of maintaining a current and authoritative consolidated body of federal legislation.
Ogunlana explained that the LFN 2004 reflected the laws covered by the revision exercise and was not automatically updated whenever a new Act was enacted.
He said the National Assembly must strengthen cybersecurity, digital preservation, secure authentication, access controls, backup systems and staff training as parliamentary records become increasingly digitised.
According to him, digitisation would make parliamentary information easier to access, search and disseminate, but could also expose records to cyberattacks, manipulation and impersonation of official sources.
Ogunlana said digital platforms must therefore be both accessible and secure, while electronic records must remain available, authentic and traceable.
He said the National Assembly Library should move beyond being a repository for documents to becoming 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, 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, Debo Oyewale, said African legislatures had much to learn from one another in building institutions capable of preserving legislative memory.
Titilope Adako is a talented and intrepid journalist, dedicated to shedding light on the untold stories of Osun State and Nigeria. Through incisive reporting, she tackles a broad spectrum of topics, from politics and social justice to culture and entertainment, with a commitment to accuracy, empathy, and inspiring positive change.
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