The National Assembly is set to make Nigerian laws easier for citizens to understand by translating legislative documents into major indigenous languages, including Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba.
The Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, Henry Nwawuba, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while opening the 2026 National Assembly Library Week.
The three-day event, themed “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People,” focuses on improving access to legislative information, parliamentary research and the use of the National Assembly Library’s resources.
Nwawuba said the library was not simply a place for storing books and documents but served as an important knowledge centre for the legislature.
He explained that efforts were being made to ensure lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and other users could easily access official parliamentary records, including Order Papers, Votes and Proceedings, committee reports and Acts passed by the National Assembly.
According to him, the library is also investing in electronic repositories and upgrading its E-Library to make legislative information easier to access.
A National Assembly Library mobile application is also being developed to provide lawmakers, staff, researchers and members of the public with easier access to parliamentary materials.
Another planned innovation is a Bills Tracker, which will allow users to follow proposed legislation and see how bills progress through the various stages of the legislative process.
The library also plans to produce infographics, audiovisual content and video explainers to make Bills, Acts and legislative procedures easier for ordinary Nigerians to understand.
Nwawuba said the translation of laws into local languages would further improve public understanding of legislation.
He said the initiative would help more Nigerians understand laws that directly affect their everyday lives, while also making legislative information more accessible to people who may not be comfortable reading complex legal documents in English.
The library also plans to organise public policy discussions aimed at encouraging greater participation in public hearings and creating more interaction between lawmakers, citizens, researchers and other stakeholders.
Nwawuba said the initiatives would also help tackle inconsistencies in official parliamentary records and reduce the circulation of fake or unauthorised copies of National Assembly documents.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio urged lawmakers to make greater use of the library, particularly as misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence continue to change the way information is produced and circulated.
Represented at the event by Senator Osita Ngwu, Akpabio described the library as an important connection between evidence, knowledge and legislative decision-making.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, represented by the House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, also stressed the importance of preserving parliamentary records.
Tajudeen said the effectiveness of a legislature should not be judged only by the laws it passes, but also by how well it documents its activities, preserves institutional knowledge and makes those records available to future generations.
He acknowledged that technology and AI could improve legislative research and access to information but said their use must be guided by accuracy, security and professional judgment.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, said the legislature could not be truly independent without the ability to properly create, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its institutional records.
He described the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as important parts of Nigeria’s democratic memory.
Ogunlana explained that the Order Paper provides the agenda for legislative business, while other records help preserve the history and decisions of Parliament.
He warned against the circulation of incomplete, outdated, altered or unauthorised legislative documents, noting that digital technology has made it easier for documents to be manipulated and circulated.
According to him, the authenticity of an Act depends not only on having a copy of the document but also on being able to establish which version is authoritative and the legal process through which it was produced.
He also highlighted the continued use of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, noting that the compilation reflects legislation covered by that particular revision exercise and is not automatically updated whenever a new Act is passed.
Ogunlana said the National Assembly would need to strengthen cybersecurity, digital preservation, authentication systems, access controls, backups and staff training as more parliamentary records move online.
He cautioned that although digitisation would make legislative information easier to find and share, it could also expose records to cyberattacks, manipulation and impersonation of official sources.
“Parliament could not be fully transparent if its records could not be found, understood and trusted,” Ogunlana said.
He stressed that digital platforms must therefore remain both accessible and secure, while electronic records must be authentic, traceable and readily available to authorised users.
The Clerk said the National Assembly Library should move beyond simply storing documents and become an institution where parliamentary knowledge is preserved, authenticated and made accessible to lawmakers, researchers, journalists, civil society groups, students and the wider public.
The President of the Nigerian Library Association, Lawal Umar, called for sustained investment in libraries and modern information technology to improve access to legislative information.
He also encouraged stronger cooperation between the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Speakers of African Legislatures, Debo Oyewale, said African parliaments could learn from one another in developing stronger systems for preserving legislative records and institutional memory.
Source: NAN.
