18 YEARS AFTER ABANDONMENT, TINUBU BREATHES LIFE INTO NATIONAL LIBRARY AS FEC APPROVES COMPLETION FUNDS By Beauty Akporidoh Aroh
Eighteen years after construction work stopped on the National Library of Nigeria Headquarters Complex in Abuja, the Federal Government has finally moved to revive the abandoned project, with the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approving additional funding for its completion and comprehensive furnishing.
The breakthrough, announced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, marks a major step towards ending years of uncertainty over the fate of the imposing structure, whose construction began on April 29, 2006, but was halted in October 2008.
Alausa attributed the renewed push to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who, according to him, directed that sustainable funding sources be mobilised to ensure that the project is completed.
The Minister said the intervention included financial support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), alongside other funding efforts.
“President Bola Tinubu, when he came in, mandated that we look for funds, real funds, that we use in completing this National Library,” Alausa said.
He disclosed that another major financial boost came from the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who directed that gifts received during her birthday celebration be channelled towards the completion of the National Library.
According to the Minister, the initiative generated approximately ₦25 billion, which has now been combined with funds sourced through TETFund and other interventions to strengthen the financing of the project.
The development culminated in FEC’s approval of the augmentation of the existing contract for the completion and furnishing of the National Library Headquarters Building Complex.
“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,” Alausa said.
The National Library project was originally designed to be completed within two years of the commencement of construction.
But after work stopped in 2008, the project became one of the most visible symbols of Nigeria’s prolonged struggle with abandoned public infrastructure.
Successive administrations had grappled with the challenge of completing the complex, leaving the structure standing unfinished in the nation’s capital for nearly two decades.
Alausa said the latest intervention has changed the outlook, expressing confidence that construction activities would resume fully in the coming months.
For the Minister, however, the significance of the project extends beyond the completion of another government building.
He described the National Library as a strategic national knowledge centre with the potential to support education, research, scholarship and access to information, while preserving Nigeria’s intellectual heritage.
Its completion, he maintained, would give the country a modern national institution capable of serving present and future generations.
The Minister also described the President’s intervention as evidence of the administration’s commitment to completing critical education infrastructure rather than allowing abandoned projects to remain a permanent burden on the nation.
“Abandoned National Library for 18 years, President Bola Tinubu has now been able to mobilise funds, cobbled funds together, for work to go back, to start again at the National Library. We thank you, Mr. President,” he said.
With the FEC approval now secured, attention is expected to shift to the execution of the augmented contract and the delivery of a fully completed and furnished complex.
For millions of Nigerian students, researchers, academics and information seekers, the revival could finally turn the long-abandoned Abuja structure from a monument to stalled development into the national centre of knowledge it was originally conceived to become.
