Worried by the state of the nation’s libraries, the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) has called on the federal and state governments to tackle the current rot confronting libraries.
Chairman/Deputy President of NASU, Mr. Michael Adegoke, made the appeal recently at the meeting of West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Libraries and other trade group council held in Lagos and hosted by NASU WAEC Ikeja branch.
Adegoke disclosed that libraries in Nigeria are now in shambles and have been left to rot away due to corruption, poor funding, understaffing, decaying infrastructure, obsolete books and equipment.
“In fact, most of the libraries are situated in non-conducive environments and staff welfare and morale are at the lowest level due to lack of motivation.”
According to him, the exclusion of national and state libraries from the act establishing TEFUND contributed to the despicable condition of libraries noting that there are no interventions and federal and state governments have refused to invest fund to revive them.
Adegoke appealed to the federal and state governments to extend fund to national and state libraries to guarantee their efficiency and effectiveness. He acknowledged that libraries help to promote literacy and culture of reading as students, parents, people go there to seek information and gather knowledge.
In his address, chairman of NASU WAEC Ikeja branch, Mr. Frank Adeleye, said government over the years has paid lip service to the advancement of education in the country, particularly through poor budgetary allocation to the sector.
Adeleye said despite the clamour for an improved allocation to education, the N605.8b which represents 7.04 per cent of the 2018 budget proposal is less than 26 per cent benchmark of UNESCO.
“This act of our government clearly shows that there is really no encouraging signs that government wants growth for a sector that has been neglected over the years. Ghana has 23.1 per cent budgetary allocation for education and ranks 2nd after Cote-d’Ivoire,” he stated.