After 18 years in limbo, National Library finally gets new lease of life

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For nearly two decades, the National Library of Nigeria waited behind scaffolding and unfinished concrete in Abuja. However, the project, conceived in 2006 and abandoned two years later, is now at the centre of a renewed completion drive backed by TETFund, N25bn in gifts donated to the First Lady and international collaboration, DEBORAH TOLU-KOLAWOLE writes

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For 18 years, the unfinished National Library of Nigeria headquarters in Abuja stood as a reminder of how a project conceived as a monument to knowledge could itself become trapped in the cycle of abandoned public infrastructure.

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Construction began in April 2006 with a two-year completion target. By October 2008, work had stopped.

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Successive administrations made attempts to revive the project, but the imposing complex remained unfinished.

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The latest push, however, has brought the project to a new stage, with the Federal Executive Council approving the augmentation of the existing contract for the completion and comprehensive furnishing of the National Library of Nigeria Headquarters Complex in Abuja.

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At the centre of the renewed effort has been the Federal Ministry of Education under Dr Tunji Alausa, who has repeatedly returned attention to the project, from physical inspections and funding discussions to efforts to secure institutional and international support.

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The minister’s latest disclosure also revealed an unusual component of the funding effort: about N25bn generated from gifts received by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu during her birthday celebration, after she directed that the proceeds be channelled towards completing the National Library.

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For Alausa, the development is evidence that a project that had remained dormant for years can still be brought back into the national development agenda when political will, funding and institutional coordination converge.

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But the National Library story is ultimately bigger than Alausa.

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It is about whether Nigeria can finally complete a national institution designed to preserve the country’s intellectual heritage and whether the building, once completed, can become a modern knowledge hub rather than simply another government edifice.

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The project Alausa inherited

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The National Library of Nigeria itself predates the Abuja headquarters by decades.

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The idea of establishing a national library emerged in the 1940s, when proposals were made for an institution that would collect and preserve publications produced in Nigeria and serve as a repository of national knowledge.

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The idea gained further momentum following the 1953 UNESCO International Seminar on Public Libraries in Africa held in Ibadan.

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After independence, Nigeria established the National Library in 1964. Its statutory framework was later strengthened through the National Library Decree of 1970.

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The institution’s mandate extends beyond the traditional idea of a library.

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It is responsible for collecting, preserving and providing access to Nigeria’s published intellectual heritage, supporting education and research, providing bibliographic services and ensuring that important national publications are preserved for future generations.

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The National Library also administers ISBN and ISSN services and has developed digital initiatives, including the National Repository of Nigeria and online library services.

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That makes its headquarters more than an administrative building.

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It is intended to be the physical centre of an institution that effectively serves as one of Nigeria’s principal custodians of documentary memory.

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Yet the headquarters project became a casualty of the very governance challenges the institution was meant to help document.

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Eighteen years of waiting

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Construction of the Abuja complex began on April 29, 2006, with an initial two-year completion period.

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Work stopped in October 2008.

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The project subsequently remained unfinished through successive administrations, despite repeated efforts to address its funding and contractual challenges.

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The prolonged delay became a concern for the Nigerian Library Association and other stakeholders.

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In December 2022, then Nigerian Library Association President Dominic Omokaro described the project as a “monumental abandoned project” while also warning about the broader deterioration of school libraries across the country.

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His concern illustrated the wider consequences of neglecting library infrastructure.

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A national library cannot operate effectively in isolation from the wider reading and research ecosystem.

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Schools need functional libraries. Universities need well-equipped academic libraries. Researchers need access to archives. Publishers need a functioning national bibliographic system.

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And the country needs an institution capable of preserving its intellectual output.

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Alausa takes up the unfinished business

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When Alausa assumed office as Education Minister, the National Library was among the major unfinished infrastructure projects confronting the ministry.

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One of his significant interventions came in March 2025, when he visited the abandoned complex to assess its condition and determine what would be required to restart the project.

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The visit was not presented merely as an inspection.

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The ministry announced a target for construction to resume on June 1, 2025, with work expected to cover key sections of the complex and associated external works.

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The minister also made clear that the cost of completing a project conceived almost two decades earlier had to be reassessed.

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The original financial estimates could not simply be carried forward because of inflation, changes in construction costs and the amount of work that remained outstanding.

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That meant the ministry needed an updated assessment, including a current bill of quantities.

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Alausa subsequently disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had directed that TETFund should provide funding towards the completion of the project.

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That directive gave the ministry a clearer funding pathway.

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The project had moved beyond the question of whether government wanted to complete it to the more difficult question of how much it would cost and where the money would come from.

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The search for money

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Funding has been the central challenge in the National Library saga.

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A project that began in 2006 could not realistically be completed in 2026 using the financial assumptions of 2006.

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The cost of construction materials, labour, equipment and other inputs had changed significantly.

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Alausa therefore began pushing a funding structure involving TETFund and other interventions.

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“President Bola Tinubu, when he came in, mandated that we look for funds, real funds, that we use in completing this National Library. He directed that we source funds from Tertiary Education Trust Fund, and we’ve cobbled some funds together,” the minister said.

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The TETFund intervention was particularly important because the agency has historically played a major role in funding tertiary education infrastructure and development.

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But another source of money would later emerge.

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How N25bn from the First Lady entered the equation

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The First Lady’s role has become one of the most striking aspects of the latest National Library revival.

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According to Alausa, Senator Oluremi Tinubu directed that gifts received during her birthday celebration be channelled towards the completion of the National Library.

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The minister said the initiative generated approximately N25bn.

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“The First Lady, during her birthday, had gifts that she directed should be used for the National Library. That has generated about N25bn,” Alausa said.

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He explained that the money was subsequently combined with funds sourced through TETFund and other efforts.

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“Combined with the money we’ve sourced from TETFund, the Council today approved the augmentation of the existing contract for the completion of the construction of the National Library of Nigeria Headquarters Building Complex in Abuja,” he said.

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The development provides the project with a financing base that its earlier revival attempts lacked.

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It also demonstrates that the completion effort has involved multiple actors rather than the education ministry alone.

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From construction to a modern knowledge hub

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Alausa’s intervention has also increasingly focused on what the National Library should look like after completion.

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The challenge is that Nigeria is no longer the country that conceived the project in 2006.

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The way people read, conduct research and access information has changed dramatically.

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A national library today must operate across physical and digital spaces.

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This is an area where the National Library’s management has already begun making changes.

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Prof. Chinwe Anunobi, National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria, described a good library in March 2023 as “the fulcrum of quality education.”

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Under her leadership, the National Library has expanded its digital services, including the National Repository of Nigeria, online cataloguing and virtual library services.

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In September 2024, Anunobi disclosed that the National Library had issued more than 26,000 ISBNs to publishers in the first nine months of that year, highlighting the institution’s continuing role in Nigeria’s publishing ecosystem.

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The physical headquarters therefore needs to complement — rather than compete with — the institution’s digital transformation.

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Looking to Qatar

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That thinking has also shaped another aspect of Alausa’s push: international collaboration.

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In November 2025, the minister visited the Qatar National Library as part of efforts to explore how Nigeria could develop a modern national library capable of serving the needs of the digital age.

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The Qatari institution provides an example of how a national library can combine traditional collections with technology, research, preservation and public engagement.

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The engagement subsequently progressed into formal cooperation.

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In August 2026, Nigeria’s National Library and Qatar National Library signed an agreement covering areas including knowledge exchange, digital transformation, cultural heritage preservation, professional development and technology.

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The development suggests that the Nigerian government’s ambition is not simply to complete the Abuja building.

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It is to populate it with modern systems and make it relevant to a generation increasingly accustomed to accessing knowledge through digital platforms.

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Why the National Library matters

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The importance of the project lies in what it is expected to preserve.

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A national library functions as a country’s documentary memory.

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Books published by Nigerian authors, government documents, newspapers, research materials and other publications form part of the national intellectual record.

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Without systematic collection and preservation, important pieces of national history can be lost.

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The National Library’s responsibilities therefore extend into education, research, publishing, culture and national identity.

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As Anunobi said in May 2026, “Education and access to knowledge should never be the privilege of a few but the right of every Nigerian child.”

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That principle becomes particularly important in a country with millions of young people and significant disparities in access to quality educational resources.

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A modern National Library can help bridge some of those gaps through digital services, research resources, professional support and access to information.

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But completion is only the beginning

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The latest FEC approval represents an important milestone, but it does not automatically end the National Library’s problems.

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The government must now translate the contract augmentation into visible construction and eventual commissioning.

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There is also the question of long-term sustainability.

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A completed building will need reliable power, modern information technology, preservation facilities, trained librarians, updated collections and sufficient operational funding.

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There will also be a need to connect the national headquarters with libraries, schools, universities, researchers and communities across the country.

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That is why experts have consistently warned against viewing the project solely through the lens of construction.

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The former Nigerian Library Association President, Omokaro, was concerned about the wider library ecosystem when he described the headquarters as a “monumental abandoned project” in 2022.

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Completing the headquarters should therefore be accompanied by a broader effort to strengthen libraries across Nigeria.

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The real measure of Alausa’s push

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For Alausa, the National Library represents one of several inherited education-sector projects requiring government attention.

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His approach has been to repeatedly place the project back on the policy agenda, seek a funding mechanism, push for a current assessment of its requirements and explore partnerships that could shape its eventual operation.

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The FEC approval now gives the process an institutional milestone.

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But the most important test is still ahead.

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The government has to ensure that funds translate into construction, construction translates into a completed and furnished facility, and the facility becomes a functioning national knowledge centre.

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That will determine whether the latest intervention becomes another chapter in Nigeria’s history of abandoned projects or the beginning of the final chapter of the National Library’s 18-year wait.

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For a project that began in 2006, that distinction matters.

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The National Library was created to preserve Nigeria’s memory.

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After 18 years of waiting for its own permanent headquarters to be completed, the country is now waiting to see whether this time the building will finally catch up with the institution’s mission.

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