The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has cautioned First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu against reducing the National Library of Nigeria project to what it described as a “personal pet project,” stressing that the facility is a national monument deserving full government funding.
Mrs. Tinubu had recently announced plans to support the completion of the long-abandoned library project as part of her birthday celebrations.
Reacting, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, welcomed her interest but insisted the project must be treated as a matter of national priority, not charity.
“The National Library of Nigeria cannot, and must not, be reduced to the status of a personal pet project of any individual, no matter how well-intentioned,” Abdullahi stated.
He emphasized that the library—established by an Act of Parliament in 1964—remains the custodian of Nigeria’s collective memory, culture, and intellectual heritage. According to him, its completion requires transparent and predictable budgetary allocations, not donations.
“Now that Mrs. Tinubu has shown interest, what is required is not personal charity, but presidential attention. The First Lady should use her influence to impress upon President Tinubu the urgency of completing this project through budgetary allocations,” Abdullahi added.
The party further noted that shifting funding responsibility to TETFund had partly explained the absence of direct allocations for the library in the 2024 and 2025 federal budgets. It maintained that the facility is “too important to be treated as an afterthought or left to depend on goodwill donations,” stressing that Nigeria’s intellectual heritage “cannot rest on benevolence while being deliberately neglected in the appropriation process.”
