The National Assembly is planning to translate Nigerian laws into Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and other indigenous languages as part of efforts to make legislative information more accessible to citizens.
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 event, themed “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People,” is a three-day programme focused on legislative research, access to information and the effective use of the resources of the National Assembly Library.
Nwawuba said the library was not merely a collection of books but a key knowledge institution of the legislature and a repository of parliamentary records.
He said efforts were underway to provide lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and other stakeholders with access to authoritative records, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports and Acts passed by the National Assembly.
According to him, the Trust Fund is upgrading the library’s electronic resources and developing a mobile application to improve access to legislative information.
He also announced plans to introduce a Bills Tracker through which members of the public would be able to monitor the progress of bills from introduction through the legislative process.
Nwawuba said the library was also developing infographics, audiovisual materials and video explainers to make bills, Acts and legislative procedures easier for Nigerians to understand.
He explained that translating laws into indigenous languages would enable more citizens to understand legislation affecting their daily lives and improve public engagement with the legislative process.
The Executive Secretary added that the library would organise public policy dialogues to encourage greater participation in public hearings and strengthen interaction between lawmakers, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
He said the initiatives were also intended to tackle the circulation of fake, altered or unauthorised copies of National Assembly documents.
Speaking through Senator Osita Ngwu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio urged lawmakers to make greater use of the library, particularly amid the growing challenges of misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence.
Akpabio described the library as an important link between knowledge, evidence and legislative decision-making and called for sustained 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.
Tajudeen said the effectiveness of a legislature should not only be judged by the laws it passes but also by its ability to document its activities, preserve institutional knowledge and make such information available to future generations.
He said technology and artificial intelligence could enhance legislative research, preservation of records and access to information, but stressed that their use must be guided by accuracy, security and professional judgment.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, said the legislature could not achieve genuine institutional independence without the capacity to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its records and knowledge.
Ogunlana said the library must serve as a bridge between Parliament and the people, noting that legislative transparency would be limited if official records could not be easily found, understood and trusted.
He identified the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as important components of Nigeria’s democratic memory, explaining that the Order Paper sets out the agenda for legislative business.
The Clerk warned against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised legislative documents, noting that digital technology had increased the risk of document manipulation and the impersonation of official sources.
He stressed that the validity and integrity of an Act depended on establishing its authentic and authoritative version and confirming the legal process through which it was enacted.
Ogunlana also highlighted the challenges associated with the continued reliance on the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN 2004, noting that the compilation was not automatically updated whenever new legislation was enacted.
He called for stronger cybersecurity, digital preservation, authentication systems, access controls, backup infrastructure and staff training as parliamentary records become increasingly digitised.
According to him, while digitisation would improve access to legislative information, it could also expose parliamentary records to cyberattacks, manipulation and impersonation.
He said digital platforms must therefore remain both accessible and secure, while electronic records must be authentic, traceable and readily available.
Ogunlana said the National Assembly Library should evolve from a traditional repository into an institution dedicated to preserving, authenticating and providing access to parliamentary knowledge for lawmakers, researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, students and the general 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 closer collaboration between the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Speakers of African Legislatures, Amb. Debo Oyewale, said African legislatures could learn from one another in developing institutions capable of preserving legislative memory.
