By Felix Khanoba
The State House library and archives in Abuja will soon be made accessible to students from various schools in the country.
Permanent Secretary of State House, Mr Tijjani Umar, made this known on Saturday in Abuja, during the public presentation/launching of a hand book for Archives and Records Management.
Umar, who lavished praise on the author, Mr Aboi Mathew Simon, for coming up with a book that would enrich and preserve important values in the country, said making the State House library accessible to students would further make young Nigerians appreciate the diversity of the country.
He said : “As our own contribution as an institution, we have in custody documents about the history of Nigeria, which we all need to know to appreciate the great nation we are all part of. What we understand is that not everyone has access to these documents and information.
“So, we are going to have a programme where public and private schools, especially secondary schools, are going to be given the opportunity to tour the State House library and archives. In so doing, they will appreciate that Nigeria diversity is a very huge area of our strength collectively.
“So, from the (Aboi’s) books that we have taken now, the first 10 schools that will come, we will give them one, so that they will go back there and sow the seed of reading, recording and archiving and doing things on behalf of this great nation.”
Also speaking at the event, the author-Aboi, said he was motivated to write the book following the need to boost current efforts to ensure modern archives and record management practices in the country.
Aboi, who said the book would go a long way to ensuring easy access and sorting of records and other historical information, posited that understanding the past was vital in reshaping the future.
“If you don’t acknowledge the past, you can’t talk of the present, not to even talk of the future. We need records to remind us what we have been doing,” he said.
On his part, the chairman of the event, Mainasara Kogo Umar, said the book was coming at a time well-cherished values are being lost in the country, adding that the author has stood tall as a distinguished Nigerian to preserve such values.
“We are launching this book at a time we are losing our values, at a time we abolished History from our curriculum, at a time Nigerians are celebrating people, individuals that are richer than their government, at a time nudity is being created as a celebrated piece of our own customs, costume and tradition, at a time our education institutions at the upper level are all closed down, at a time you can hardly get any establishment in any of the serious location in the country to be recognised as our national archive centre. This gentleman has decided to be the iroko tree,” Mainasara said.
