Nigerian Senate Seeks Completion Of 11years Abandoned National Library

that the National Library of Nigeria which has been abandoned for 11 years should be completed immediately.

It was gathered that the National Library building project has gulped N8.590 billion and was conceptualised in 2002 but awarded in 2006 to Messrs Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) with a timeline of 22 months.

Also, it was learnt that while the company commenced work on the project in April 2006, it could not proceed due to the failure of government to release sufficient funds for the completion of the project, leading to its contract value being revised three times over the period.

Furthermore, after a series of alleged false starts and the initial suspension of work on the project, sometime in 2009, the project scope was reduced from the initial 8 floor plan to 5 floors and the contract sum of the reduced scope was reviewed upward to N17 billion from the original sum of N8.590 billion.

The discovery by the Senate followed a motion by Senator Olugbenga Ashafa (Lagos East), on preventable economic loss and national embarrassment arising from the failure of the federal government to complete the National Library.

Leading the debate, Ashafa observed that despite the importance of the National Library, the project has been poorly funded since its inception.

While saying the continuous failure to properly fund the project within the specified period would cause the government losses modestly estimated to be in the range of N40 to N50 billion, he stated that if the failure expeditiously continues, it might cost the government even more in the long run.

He further noted that the failure of prioritization of the project by successive governments, is a direct reflection and metaphor for the almost inexistent premium placed on knowledge and intellectual capital in the country.