The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, Wednesday expressed disappointment over the poor state of the National Assembly library and the absence of Museum and Archives.
The Senate, therefore, passed a motion seeking the establishment of National Assembly Museum and Archives.
Lawan said it was sad to come to reality with the fact that an institution such as National Assembly library was bereft of rich reference materials where students, journalists and members of the public can visit for research purposes.
This development came to the fore as lawmakers consider the report of the Special Joint Committee on Establishment of National Assembly legislative Museum and Archives over an adopted motion chaired by Senator Fatimat Raji-Rasak from Ekiti state.
In his words, “Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I want to say it is high time the National Assembly stopped operating without legislative Museum, Archives and even a befitting library.
“In the National Assembly Library, there is no books, no materials for reference and research purposes.
“We are not going to be like USA but to have a library where students can come to educate themselves including the journalists on the proceedings of the parliament.
“National Assembly must try to have a befitting National Assembly library.”
In his contribution, Senator Shehu Sani said the importance of a museum and archives cannot be overemphasised in the parliament.
He said, “It has become a tradition by all parliaments across the world to have a museum that showcases what they do.
“To raise a museum is very important. This will enable us have reliable records of what we have done.
“Up till now we don’t have record of proceedings of the first and second National Assembly.
“It will help us preserve not only the national monuments and artefact but keep details of what had happened so that there might be no repetition.”
The Senate President, while hitting the gavel in approval of the report, affirmed that the availability of the museum, archives and library would surely strengthen the nation’s democratic structure.
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