The President and Chairman of the Council of Nigerian Library Association, Pastor Dominic Omokaro, has decried the non-employment of professional librarians in the last 30 years by various levels of government in Nigeria, with the federal government being the major offender.
This was even as he urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to help restore their hope by intervening in the completion of the National Library building in Abuja.
Omokaro, who stated this during a briefing on Thursday in Abuja on the association’s forthcoming 62nd National Conference and Annual General Meeting in Port Harcourt, said: “Don’t take away our jobs as we have over 14,000 registered librarians who are capable of manning the affairs in the country.
“This troubling trend not only undermines the expertise and professionalism of trained librarians, but also hampers the effective management and development of library services in our nation.
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“It is, however, unfortunate that employers of labour, and in particular government agencies and private organisations, do not respect the laws of the land, hence the gross abuse.”
He lamented that the Federal Capital Territory that should be a model for other states to emulate was suffering same fate with regards to the library and information sector.
He further said, “The City Libraries in Wuse and Gudu districts of Abuja have just one or two professional librarians, and the school library system in the FCT has collapsed as well for failure to employ librarians to man their school libraries.”
He rejected the submission that the use of the library is going into extinction with more people opting for Google and other apps, saying, “Google cannot replace library as it remains the best for studies and serves as the university of the poor man who cannot buy textbooks.”
