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,” insisting the facility is a national monument that deserves proper government funding.
The president’s wife had recently announced her intention to support the completion of the library as part of her upcoming birthday celebrations.
However, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC maintained that the National Library should be treated strictly as a public asset and funded through transparent, sustainable, and predictable federal budgetary provisions.
“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) acknowledges and appreciates the thoughtful gesture of the First Lady, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, in drawing attention to the abandoned National Library of Nigeria project as part of her birthday celebrations.
However, as a responsible party, we must firmly state that 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,” the statement read.
Abdullahi stressed that the National Library, established by an Act of Parliament in 1964, serves as the custodian of Nigeria’s collective memory, culture, and intellectual heritage, and its completion must be treated as a national priority.
“Now that Mrs. Tinubu has shown interest in the National Library, what is required is not personal charity, but presidential attention,” he added. “The First Lady should use her influence to impress upon President Tinubu the urgency of completing this project through budgetary allocations.”
The ADC noted that funding responsibility for the library was previously shifted to TETFund, which partly explains the absence of direct allocations for the project in the 2024 and 2025 federal budgets.
The party emphasized that the library is “too important to be treated as an afterthought or left to depend on goodwill donations,” stressing that a nation’s intellectual heritage “cannot rest on acts of benevolence while being deliberately neglected in the appropriation process.”
