18-year-old construction work: From N9b in 2006, abandoned national library to cost over N200b

TETFund hinges delays on bureaucracy, ‘due process’

Despite gulping over N20 billion at inception, the National Library Headquarters’ building in Abuja has been abandoned in the last 11 years, with much more hefty bills to complete the critical edifice.

The project, which was valued at less than N9 billion in 2006 when the reconstruction started may now cost at least N200 billion, The Guardian has learnt.

The project, which started under President Olusegun Obasanjo, was stalled in 2013, with about 50 per cent work done. While sources blamed the delay on a lack of political will from successive administrations, The Guardian also learnt that top civil servants have become cogs in the wheel of its misfortune.

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration rigged interests in the project, with the award of N80 billion for the project. Findings, however, showed that the project was not financed.

It will be recalled that the National Library headquarters building, Abuja, is an 11-storey structure comprising two basement floors, a ground floor and eight upper floors. The building provides for a bookstore, locker rooms, bindery, printing press, exhibition hall, auditorium, restaurants, clinic, crèches, and changing rooms.

It also houses a cataloguing session, general reference areas, legal deposits, book stacks, reading areas and the administration block.  The building, when completed, will host an electronic data processing centre, library research and training centre, public convenience as well as perimeter fencing, gates and gatehouses, electrical and mechanical services, internal roads and other external works.

The contractor, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), disclosed that the imposing edifice, which was awarded on March 11, 2006, during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, is 44.6 per cent completed.

Findings showed that the project had a completion period of 22 months under the initial contract sum of N8.59 billion.  However, in March 2010, the Ministry of Education did an upward review of the contract to the tune of N17 billion to span 21 months.

But as years rolled by, coupled with inflation, the cost of completion kept increasing. In 2021, while the Ministry projected the completion cost at N49.64 billion the construction firm estimated it at N120.33 billion.

Yet, with the current exchange rate of N1,534/$1, The Guardian learnt that the current administration may require about N218.44 billion to complete the project as the cost of building materials has spiked.

A highly placed source at the National Library, who confided in our correspondent, accused some top civil servants of frustrating the project for not receiving ‘kickbacks’ from the contractors.

“You know our civil servants and how they operate. If there is no kickback for them, they will do everything to frustrate it. That is exactly what is stalling the project,” the source said.   It was also alleged that reports of appropriations concerning the National Library project ended in mere talks as monies earmarked were not released.

“This explains why the project has remained in the same state for over 11 years,” the source added. After his inauguration last August, Education Minister, Tahir Mamman, alongside the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, visited the project site to ascertain the level of work done and assured that the National Library would be completed in 21 months.

However, some stakeholders have taken the promise with a pinch of salt on the ground that the minister’s predecessor, Adamu Adamu, equally made similar assurances without matching words with actions.

It was the envisaged bureaucratic bottlenecks that compelled Buhari to approve the takeover of the project financing by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in June 2021.

Industry stakeholders stated that the inability of successive governments to complete the project after almost two decades reflects the value Nigeria has placed on education.

Noting that national libraries play a vital role in promoting education, culture and history in a country, they identified political will on the part of the government to give life to the project.

Shockingly, three years after the interventionist agency set aside the first tranche of N15 billion to fast-track the completion of the national edifice, the fund is yet to be released.  Confirming the development, TETFund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono attributed the delay to “due process.”

“There is a due process involved in any release from our organisation and we still require two documents before we can release the money. The funds are available; they are with us, but we are unable to release them until we get evidence of the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) approval for the revised estimated total cost.

“The second document we require is undertaken by the contractors that they will complete the project at the approved cost. Once we do that, I will receive advice from the Ministry of Education and we will go ahead and release the funds.”

With the contractor’s failure to move back to the site, there are concerns that the 21-month completion order given by the minister may not materialise.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria (NLN), Prof. Chinwe Anunobi, attributed the delay to a lack of funds, even as she lamented that the development has become a global embarrassment to the country.      She, therefore, tasked the government to prioritise education as the surest way to speedily complete the project.  She reminded that NLN is a national monument and every country prides itself high on the standard of its national library.

“The greatest challenge I have is that when we meet at our World Conference of Directors of National Libraries, it is always a spotlight. NLN is yet to be completed. Every member of the participating directors would be asking what is holding the project.

“Nigeria is not standing tall as far as national monuments are concerned, you also need to know that the national library represents the value a country places on education. It is not a reading library; it is a preservative library,” Anunobi said.   On the issue of bureaucratic bottlenecks stalling the project, she emphasised that once it is prioritised, all hurdles can be easily surmounted.

The co-founder and DFA Cinfores Limited, Dr Ikechi Nwogu, explained that national libraries are a repository for a country’s cultural heritage and historical records.

The author, educator and public affairs analyst, however, lamented that successive administrations lacked the political will to complete the project despite its immense benefits.

In his intervention, National Mobilisation Officer, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Adaramoye Michael Lenin, said the neglect of the national library further confirmed the fact that the ruling class is not interested in uplifting public education.

“It is baffling that a project of such significance has been left to rot for so long,” Lenin lamented. He added that a national library, completed and well-equipped, would provide a good environment for effective studying for students, especially in a situation where many public schools lack functional libraries.

According to him, the library will also expose students and users to different books and aid the process of learning. Besides, Lenin advocated that the provision of libraries and facilities should be prioritised in schools. As most of them do not have libraries and other facilities to aid effective learning.

He said: “A right-thinking government should begin to reflect on the mass failure recorded by JAMB in the just concluded UTME and ensure that students have an enabling environment and facilities to study.

“Students and education workers must be ready to challenge the chronic irresponsibility of the government towards public education. For education to be repositioned, proper funding by the government must be done and institutions be democratically managed by elected representatives of students and education workers through their unions to prevent corrupt practices,” he added.