By Paul Joseph
The National Assembly is working on plans to make Nigerian laws available in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and other indigenous languages in a move aimed at widening public understanding of legislation.
The Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, Henry Nwawuba, made this known on Monday in Abuja at the opening of the 2026 National Assembly Library Week.
The event, themed “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People,” focused on strengthening legislative research, preserving parliamentary records and improving public access to information.
Nwawuba said the initiative was part of broader efforts to modernise the National Assembly Library and make legislative materials easier to access and understand.
He said the library was upgrading its E-Library and developing electronic repositories containing authoritative parliamentary documents, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports and Acts passed by the National Assembly.
The Trust Fund is also developing a mobile application that will provide users with easier access to legislative information.
Nwawuba disclosed that a Bills Tracker was being developed alongside the application to allow citizens and other users to monitor bills as they move through different stages of the legislative process.
He said the library would also produce infographics, audiovisual content and video explainers to simplify Bills, Acts and legislative procedures for the public.
According to him, providing laws in indigenous languages would help more Nigerians understand legislation that directly affects their everyday lives.
Beyond digital access, Nwawuba said the library planned to hold public policy dialogues to encourage citizens’ participation in public hearings and strengthen engagement between lawmakers, researchers and the wider public.
He added that the measures would help reduce the circulation of fake, altered or unauthorised National Assembly documents.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, represented at the event by Senator Osita Ngwu, urged lawmakers to take greater advantage of the resources available at the National Assembly Library.
Akpabio said the library had become particularly important at a time when misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence were rapidly changing the information environment.
He described the library as a critical connection between knowledge, evidence and legislative decision-making and called for continued investment in its development.
Similarly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, represented by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, stressed the importance of preserving legislative records.
Tajudeen said parliamentary records provide an important account of Nigeria’s legislative history and contribute to the strengthening of democratic institutions.
He noted that the performance of a legislature should not be judged solely by the laws it passes, but also by its ability to properly document its activities, preserve institutional knowledge and make records available for future generations.
While acknowledging the potential of technology and artificial intelligence to improve legislative research and information access, he said their deployment must prioritise accuracy, security and professional oversight.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, said legislative independence also depended on the ability of the institution to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its records.
Ogunlana warned that digital technology had made it easier for incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised parliamentary documents to be circulated.
He said it was therefore important to establish which version of a legislative document was authentic and authoritative, as well as the legal process through which it was produced.
The Clerk also pointed to the continued use of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN 2004, noting that the compilation reflected laws covered by the relevant revision exercise and was not automatically updated whenever new Acts were passed.
He called for stronger cybersecurity measures, digital preservation systems, authentication mechanisms, access controls, backups and continuous staff training as the National Assembly expands its digital records infrastructure.
Ogunlana said digitisation could significantly improve access to parliamentary information but could also expose records to cyberattacks, manipulation and impersonation of official sources.
He said the National Assembly Library must consequently move beyond simply storing documents and become a centre for preserving, authenticating and disseminating parliamentary knowledge.
Such resources, he said, should remain accessible to lawmakers, researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, students and members of the public.
The President of the Nigerian Library Association, Dr Lawal Umar, advocated sustained investment in libraries and information technology to improve access to legislative materials.
Umar also called for greater cooperation 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 parliaments could benefit from sharing experiences and developing stronger systems for preserving legislative memory.
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