The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman has given Nigerians assurance that the National Library would be completed in 21 months.
Mamman made the revelation in Abuja on Tuesday during a tour with some Heads of Agencies in the sector to ascertain the project level.
He said that the contractor in charge of the project would return to site in earnest to deliver the national edifice for the good of the citizenry.
“This project is too important for Nigerians and we have had this project uncompleted for close to 20 years. We know the importance of a library not to talk about a national library.
“So, the decision is that we have a president who does not tolerate uncompleted projects anywhere. He is determined to deliver on what will bring progress and development and the national library is one of the major edifices anywhere in the world.
The Minister, when asked about the cost required to complete the project, refused to comment on it, saying though there were issues surrounding the project but that is being worked out as everyone involved would come together to review the cost.
“There are some issues here and there but the project will be completed in about 21 months.
”But we are urging them (Construction company) to deliver the project earlier because we’ve dragged it for too long and the project is too important for it to be dragged any further.
”So whatever obstacles in the project, we are determined to go over it and attend to it so it doesn’t become an obstacle,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the National Library, Prof. Chinwe Anunobi faulted the issues of bureaucratic bottleneck to have hindered the completion of the project since it was awarded in 2006.
She also assured that work would commence immediately saying that the monitoring would be followed by meetings of stakeholders involved in the project.
According to a NAN report, the initial contract sum of the national library as at March 11, 2006 when it was first awarded was N8,590,226,393.00 when exchange rate was N130.29.
