The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria in Niger State has urged the state government to save the Malam Abubakar Imam Library from total collapse.
Its State Coordinator, Malam Usman Sani, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Minna.
NAN reports that Malam Abubakar Imam Library, now in bad shape, was inaugurated 25 years ago by the former Military Administrator of the state, retired Colonel Lawal Gwadabe.
Sani said: “It is a shame and intellectual bankruptcy for a state to have such a caricature in the name of a library.
“Dr. Abubakar Imam Library needs urgent attention by the government so that teachers in the state can take advantage of it in delivering quality education to pupils and students alike.
“How can the government portray education as the bedrock of the society and leave such a monument to be in shambles?”
Sani said the library is in a state of total disuse and it is affecting the students and teachers in the state.
“There was nothing there to enhance or boost learning,” he said.
He said that books in the library had become obsolete and outdated, while facilities there were in total disuse as a result of years of neglect.
Sani called on the state government to do a feasibility study on the extent of decline of the library and called for an urgent rehabilitation of the structure.
He said: “This, I think, will go a long way in resuscitating the library through purchase of new books and electronic library system to meet contemporary standard.”
NAN.