By Mercy Aikoye
The National Assembly has unveiled plans to strengthen the authentication and digitisation of parliamentary records as part of measures to curb the circulation of fake, altered and outdated legislative documents.
The initiative will also include the translation of Nigerian laws into Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other local languages to make legislation more accessible and understandable to citizens.
The Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library Trust Fund, Henry Nwawuba, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while declaring open the 2026 National Assembly Library Week, themed, “Parliamentary Memory: Connecting Records, Legislation and the People.”
Nwawuba said the library was working to expand electronic repositories and upgrade its E-Library, while developing a National Assembly Library mobile application to provide lawmakers, legislative aides, researchers and members of the public with easier access to authoritative parliamentary information.
He also announced plans for a Bills Tracker through which users would be able to monitor bills and follow their progress through the legislative process.
According to him, the library would produce infographics, audiovisual materials and video explainers to simplify Bills, Acts and legislative procedures, while translating laws into major Nigerian languages to broaden public understanding of legislation.
Nwawuba said the library would also organise public policy dialogues to encourage citizens’ participation in public hearings and promote interaction between legislators, researchers and members of the public.
He said the measures were particularly important in addressing inconsistencies in official parliamentary documents and the growing circulation of unauthorised copies of National Assembly records.
Representing the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, Senator Osita Ngwu urged lawmakers to make greater use of the National Assembly Library, particularly amid the spread of misinformation and disinformation and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
Ngwu described the library as a critical link between evidence, knowledge and legislative decision-making, stressing the need for continued investment in its development.
Similarly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, represented by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, said legislative records were critical to preserving Nigeria’s legislative history and strengthening democratic governance.
Abbas said technology and artificial intelligence could improve legislative research, records preservation and public access, but their adoption 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 capacity to generate, preserve, retrieve and authenticate its institutional knowledge and records.
Ogunlana identified the Order Paper, Votes and Proceedings and Hansard as essential components of Nigeria’s democratic memory, explaining that they provide records of legislative business, decisions, debates and lawmakers’ contributions.
He warned that the circulation of incomplete, outdated or altered Bills, Acts and other parliamentary documents could undermine public understanding of the law, particularly as digital technology allows manipulated documents to reach large audiences within minutes.
According to him, the integrity of an Act depends not only on the existence of a document but also on the ability to determine its authentic and authoritative version and the legal process through which it emerged.
Ogunlana called for stronger collaboration among the National Assembly, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Nigerian Law Reform Commission and the Federal Government Press to ensure that Nigerians can easily access current and authoritative versions of federal laws.
He also raised concerns over the continued reliance on the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, LFN 2004, noting that the compilation was not automatically updated whenever a new Act was enacted.
The Clerk said the National Assembly must strengthen cybersecurity, digital preservation, authentication systems, access controls, backup mechanisms and staff training as parliamentary records become increasingly digitised.
He said the National Assembly Library must evolve from merely storing documents to becoming an institution where parliamentary knowledge is preserved, authenticated and made accessible to lawmakers, researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, students and the wider public.
The President of the Nigerian Library Association, Dr Lawal Umar, called for sustained investment in libraries and modern information technology, while urging stronger collaboration between the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The Secretary-General of the Conference of Speakers of African Legislatures, Ambassador Debo Oyewale, said African legislatures could learn from one another in preserving legislative memory, improving access to information and strengthening democratic institutions.
