Only if it adheres to these freedoms can it become truly great.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, November 23, 1963.

“…to impart knowledge and learning…… enquiry and research.” Is that what the university offers? Is this why people aspire for university education? According to one of Nigeria’s luminary giant, “University life is a sacred privilege.” Nnamdi Azikiwe, April 2, 1954. How do students utilize this “sacred privilege”? Is this “sacred privilege” responsible for the constant urging for students to make the most of university education? So, what do students understand from the constant matriculation advice – “You must not only pass through the university, but you must also allow the university to pass through you?” It is absolutely true that the corner stone for any meaningful development – particularly the national development rests in the produce and products of the universities. So, what is so unique in a university education? Of course not the certificate – which even the universities had begun to doubt the force behind it, in today’s “Toronto” certificates; certainly not the credit hours – the core and elective courses the student undertake in his area of specialization. Again the question re-occurs: what is so unique in a university education? What is the actual difference between those who did only pass through the university and those who did allow the university to pass through them? In other words, what differentiates the real university graduates and “I be graduate!”? The answer to the foregoing questions is as simple as provided by Nigeria’s musical legend – Baba Fela. The truth is that the real graduate was provided with a university soul while the other was not, and became a “zombie graduate”. Those who passed through the university and allowed the university pass through them, do not only acquire certificates but indeed also acquire the university soul - those are the true graduates. Those “…whose personality is fully developed...who does his work with efficiency and probity… He is what he is because the three main constituents of his entity – his body, brain and mind – are fully developed”. Obafemi Awolowo, 1947 Those are the graduate that the Late Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello described as permanent members of a university during the commissioning of ABU on November 23, 1963, when he stated that “The reputation of a university is the reputation of its graduates. This is especially true of its reputation within its own country. A university is a community of scholars, and though you may be leaving the classrooms and the laboratories, you cannot leave the university. In our statutes, the graduates are specifically mentioned as members of the university. Members you now are and members you will remain the rest of your life. It is your duty to protect the good name of the university and, by your conduct and example, to enhance its name”. If not through the departmental courses that earn one a certificate, where then does one acquire the university soul? I do remember, while in a boarding secondary school, we were told that the engine room of a boarding school was the Dining Hall; without any iota of doubt, the engine room of any university, which is the soul of the university, is the UNIVERSITY LIBRARY! A place that “….evokes passion, reaction, activation, and mental agility” said Prof. Eyo Ndem.

The Prof added that a Library “offers….ample opportunity for analytical minds; antimonies are unearthed, dialectical disputations find their life blood and reconciliation of ideas are found…. The library is the illumination and the embodiment of its hopes – the laboratories of experiments.” Any student, no matter how bookworm he is, no matter his GPA, if he does not acquire as much as he can from the University Soul, then a great deal of his university education is missing. Unfortunately, many a student graduate without digging from this gold mine. How will his education then be of quality, when he could not lay his hand on some useful references but only depended solely on his core and elective courses? Such a student certainly graduated with a vacuum in him. Yes, he may as well end up graduating as a “Zombi graduate”. Worst still as an educated illiterate, “A man may be educated without being literate and a literate person may be very ignorant indeed. Education therefore is something quite different from literacy. Indeed, literacy is the foundation on which an edifice of sound education may be securely built. But, on the other hand, this same literacy may be firm basis on which a huge superstructure of abysmal ignorance may be erected.” Obafemi Awolowo, 1947. The difference my friend, lies in the students’ maximum use of the university library - scholarly acquisition. Research was what Chief Awolowo(30th June, 1967) regarded “…as the cardinal attributes of scholarship. They are attributes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Copernicus, Darwin, Freud, to mention only a few of those, in the long line of man’s intellectual and spiritual ancestry, who have had the patience, endurance, diligently to search for truth, the insight to discover it, the courage to proclaim it to a hostile audience, and the tolerance not only to be charitable to those who disagree violently with them, but also to acknowledge the truth in whatever quarters it may be found.” Like it or not, the falling standard of education and the brain drain in Nigeria, as well as the vices and chaotic society are pointers to nothing but the dearth of university research associated with its virtues.

Let me revisit the Sardauna’s words of wisdom, “Only through the freedom of enquiry and research can a university be drawn into the full ferment of thought from which new knowledge comes. Only if it adheres to these freedoms can it become truly great.” And where does this enquiry and research take place, but in a library? The university soul is acquired in and through the university’s seat of knowledge. AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY’S seat of Knowledge is KASHIM IBRAHIM LIBRARY (KIL)! The magnificent edifice, our leaders of thought constructed about five decades ago. It remained the largest structure that house a university library in sub-Sahara Africa. It is on a two storey building, but indeed rooming substantial acres of land that is enough to house some universities. Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) is the main University Library.

It was formally opened in December, 1976. The building has a capacity for about a million (1000 000) volumes of books and 2,000 readers. The circulation hall, which has accommodated so many university exhibitions, is as wide as international trade-fair grounds in Nigeria. The information unit, very close to the library entrance, should be the first point of call to a new entrant to the library, then the circulation counter directly facing the library entrance for guidance and registration. The constantly up-dated subject and author catalogues are within reach of the circulation counter. Within reach also is a photocopying facility, very handy for researchers. The public conveniences are also within the ground floor. Still on the ground floor, in addition to the circulation staff, the office of Head of Reader services is stationed here, in case a researcher, most often external researchers and postgraduate students, meets a blank wall in their pursuits, the Head of Reader services is their “lifeguard”, who saves these drowning researchers. The university library facility was designed to serve one of the largest pools of members of the university – the present and graduates of the university and of course other scholars all over the world. The facility includes Open Shelf Study Areas; this occupies the first floor and part of the second floor. The Arts and Social Sciences readership – A-H and J-P is in the first floor and the Medical, Techno-Engineering and Physical Sciences – Q-Z on the second floor. Of course researchers are fully aware of the intermarriages in education, as such one may find inter disciplinarian material in different sections of the library. With a few exceptions, the book stock is arranged on open shelves, books for lending/borrowing stock. Ample seating space for studying is provided in each of the three rooms. KASHIM IBRAHIM LIBRARY (KIL), also has specialize sections, these are; Serial, Reference Section, CD-ROM Access Room, The Media Division, Reserve Books Unit, Africana, the Document Section, Casual Reading Parlour and New Books on Display and hopefully the Internet Access will soon take off for students and researchers. Like any other organization, the daily smooth running of its organs is normally carried by efficient, always behind the scene departmental staff. In KIL, the efficiency and the effective use of the library lies on competent academic and administrative staff, headed by the able University Librarian. They are responsible for monitoring the latest publications the world over and determining what is or should be consumable to the university’s reading community. There are also the Cataloguing Units, Shelf Monitoring Staff, the Bindery Section and others for the administrative running of offices. All these staff are significant in the convenience, efficiency and effective use of the library by the researcher, if he is aware of them or not and seldom is he. Certainly, KIL, either saves or kills the soul of ABUSITES. KIL is the provider of the university soul as well as the provider of what nourishes and sustains that soul. KIL is ABU’s priceless gold mine, the university’s brain bank, the reservoir, the fountain from which intelligence and illumination radiate in the university community through her teaming students – past and present. The maximum use of KIL positively is what determines your class of graduate. You can either use it wisely or “wisely” avoid it, it’s up to you, that is your choice! What the university owe you is to ensure that the seat of knowledge is constantly up-to-date with the state of the art stocked learning and research materials. The “University students should not expect to have knowledge poured into them and must not be lacking in ability and the will to study for themselves. The universities’ unique function is to stimulate the clash in thinking between orthodox and dissentient views.” Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Afterall, university education is organised not for the teacher to teach but for students to learn. Let me digress a little, have you ever been to Depot Nigerian Army or the Nigerian Defence Academy while recruits and cadets are in training session? What do you make of the dehumanized and brutality meted on the potential soldiers of the Armed Forces? You might have been possibly surprised that instructors and other officers do turn a blind eye to such brutal treatment meted on the recruits and cadets, and that’s just the truth; everybody knows about it but everybody pretends not to see or know. It is all part of the training; the silent consent is to encourage such practices. The authorities are aware that, the more intensive the training, the faster the realization of one of the most significant objectives in military training – the ability to obey the superior’s last order: a cardinal factor in achieving the institution’s singular goal of protecting the sovereignty of the nation. It is unwritten and off the record but such treatment or maltreatment is aimed at shedding off the “bloody civilian’s” sense of individuality, importance and independent thought and remoulding him into a combatant, rugged and disciplined soldier or officer who recognizes and respects directives from the immediate superior as a collective decision in the interest of the nation. This is in cognizance with the fact that the success of a soldier or his officer counterpart is the ability to carry to the logical conclusion, deliberated directives or order to a point of “Zombi”; to be able to defend the lives, properties and the sovereignty of a nation, the soldier must be able to obey to the last minute details of directives, even in today’s age, where they now ask their superior officer for reasons behind some orders – even so, obeying the order is the only difference between a soldier and a rebel. It is the aim of the institution to train her professionals – soldiers and officers into dedicated, loyal and disciplined men and women who carry the last order even at the point of death, to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation – which is the ultimate goal of a soldier. A goal inculcated and imprinted in the minds of the trainees from day one. What about a university? What is the ultimate goal of a university? Of course there are two cardinal goals of a university – to produce the elite manpower for the country and to produce well tested researches in answering the multifarious problems of the larger society. According to the Sardauna of Sokoto “The first duty of every university is the search for and the spread of knowledge and the establishment of truths… But it must also serve the needs of the nation in terms of man-power production ….. A university which fails to aspire to these two objectives has lost its purpose and will lose recognition and respect.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, November 23, 1963 The discipline, endurance and perhaps the perseverance and the degree of honesty needed by this crop of professionals by and large ought to be greater than the combatant soldiers who are only called (in normal circumstances) to duty during external aggression or during intense national emergencies. But the university products are on call to duty every hour of the day, every day of the week and every week of the year. Yes, the products of the university determine the pulse of the nation. It is really pathetic, so pathetic that despite the importance of the university’s seat of knowledge, students are not given specialized orientation on the use of library. It is sad, so sad when one see how students grope, searching for materials in the library. The authority need to borrow a leaf from their military counterpart, in shedding the relaxed mentality of those bloody “Journey Just Come”. Without such rugged library grooming, what really differentiate the “bloody Jambites” with our fresh university “Journey Just Come”? This JJC’s need to be adequately groomed in the use of library, in order to appreciate the task ahead, what is expected of them from their departments and what the larger society expect from them after living the four walls of the university, just like the mentality inculcated and imprinted in the recruit or cadet undertaking military training from day one. Something just had to be done. I recall while as under-graduate in early nineties, there was a mocking “none graded” one credit hour Use of Library Course for beginner students. This was sooner than it began wiped out of the relevant university courses, as the saying goes, it went with the wind that swept SGRS. To acquire the “University Soul” what an undergraduate needs is much, more than one credit hour Use of Library. He needs a lot more of a reasonable and responsible Core Credit Hour Course in the adequate Use of Library. If a student is to make adequate use of this vital organ of the university to supplement the knowledge he directly receive through instructions in his core and elective course, as well as to inculcate in him the resourcefulness in the use of books and other research materials, a special programme that embraces teaching, guidance and advisory services is indispensable. The students should be encouraged to form indelible habit of personal investigation and research. “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” Anatole France. The authorities know the significant place of the University Library. The University Librarian is the fourth in the chair of university command, and the library Senior Staff are Academic Staff of the university. And all university library staff ought to produce Research Published Works before they are considered for promotion. Should this be strictly adhered too, this article would possibly not have been written. The necessity of this article lies in the fact that while the university authority, the Alumni, the students and even philanthropic individuals and corporate organizations can be forgiven for not really attaching great importance to the University Library, the Library staff cannot be forgiven for committing such a sacrilege for not according the university library her due status as the soul of the university.

KIL: Kashim Ibrahim Library, as the seat of power or if you like, the engine room of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU)’s chain of libraries ought to re-visit her S.W.O.T.S. – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and Suggestions.

In giving KIL her due credit, the University Library had produced credible research work that were not only significant in national development but was well-recognized in the international scholarly circles in particular and in the international community in general. For those of us who saw and significantly benefited from KIL years back, had a lot to cry foul in the state of things at present. This is not a fault finding mission, indeed, it is a collective responsibility, from the library administration to the university authority, the library staff to the library users, the Alumni to the philanthropic individuals and corporate organizations as in the olden days. Of course, the university library administrators cannot be completely absolved or exonerated of all blames. So let me start from here, in those days, the cordial reception you get from KIL’s entrance, the information unit, to the circulation counter and the motivation from almost all the staff irrespective of the sections they work was a great inspiration for any would-be researcher. Those staff then go to any length to make things easier for the researchers, possibly because they were fully aware of the difficulties and pain the researcher encounters in his work. In fact, those elements which differentiates the true graduate and the “Zombi graduates” are acquired there - the qualities of endurance, patience and if you like, add the two and get perseverance.

Other positive character traits include, respect for other people’s dent of hard work, which is priceless in the present Nigeria’s “get it quick syndrome”, the value of time, attaching respect to problems and acquiring their solution, the moral traits of believing in your abilities and respecting the other fellow. This is where the student’s “pursuit and his absorption was to read, study, collate and analyze.” Frederick Forsyth.

These are indispensable character traits in cultivating patriotic citizens who are churned into the larger society to occupy our elite positions, from top civil servants to the legislators to the executives in both the private and public sectors of the society.

My point of argument remains that had the university succeeded in inculcating these positive traits to our pool of “graduates’, our elites, Nigeria would not have been in this present quagmire – of her citizens lack of patriotic shame and the sense of national pride which produced corruption, nepotism, religious bigotry, tribal and sectional sentiments that lead to ethno-religious crisis and the national question of Nigerian state. “ No doubt, corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigerian society, so much so, that I believe it is at present one of the greatest obstacles to national development. It will not be an easy task….to give a comprehensive package of solutions to the corruption canker-worm in Nigeria today. It is my view however, that a start must be made somewhere, and that somewhere must be the universities. It is our primary function in the universities not only to teach the truth but also to discover new frontiers for the truths through research. What I am saying essentially is that it is in the universities that the high level manpower for the effective and efficient running of the nation is produced. If this product is moulded and fashioned on the basis of truth, then half the battle could have been won against corruption and corrupt practices in Nigeria. If however, for whatever reasons, we, who are responsible for teaching our students the truth, based on researched truth, fail in this sacred duty, then we must see ourselves as the major contributors to the malaise of corruption in the country” .Professor Ango Abdullahi, former Vice-Chancellor of ABU. Back to KIL: to save or destroy the soul of ABUSITES? While strongly believing in the reliable administration of the University Librarian and her credible no-nonsense stand on principle, the following observations are put in place for a better usability of the Library. The motivation KIL offered her past generation of scholars had ebbed a lot and is dangerously leading researchers to an abyss that it will be difficult to re-emerge. What went wrong? There was such a strong belief that for you to have approach KIL’s entrance, you must be a university staff or student, the most welcomed guest. The atmosphere at KIL then was so inviting that any blind man without the knowledge of the brail can read, “Please come in.” There were safety lockers with the keys for placing your non-entry items into safety, at least for a reasonable number of students. Once you were noticed to have over stayed at the catalogue centre, a staff would materialize from no where “can I help you please,” “do you need any assistance please’? Those courtesies are gone and it seems for good and sadly its reflecting in Nigeria’s larger society. Could it have been possible that in those days painstaking efforts were made to post the most humane of the library staff to the specialized sections? In those good old days, any researcher would tell you that, you are likely to be spoilt a little, if you are in those specialized sections. The atmosphere then was, “How much ground do you think you can cover, just ask”. In fact, the only thing that was not there was the sign “Forget not! The library staff are here for you, make use of them.” So, why was the drastic change from those staff that were a great motivational research force? How can I tell the force behind the human element? – Edward Coke was right here when he stated that ‘Even the devil knows not what goes on in the mind of man’. The fact is, there is a change – a terrible change in the attitudinal behaviour of KIL’s staff, which is terribly affecting research and scholarships. The majority of the staff now see you as a disturbance. In fact, my experience of recent in Africana and the Document Sections was too terrible.

I feel that the behaviour of the older staff if not purely out of humane-respect, then certainly, it was possibly out of fear, for in those days, it was common in such specialized sections to meet your lecturers, Prof this or Prof. That, HOD of this or that department could be your seat mate. That, on its own, was such a great inspiration and challenge for you - the researcher to work harder; that exemplary conduct is gone. The lecturers these days seem to have enough research materials in their homes that none really make use of KIL. This on its own left a void, killed inspirations and dampened motivation for the student researcher and affected the zeal in which the library staff attends to their clients. It is sad, really sad! The efficiency of library staff was not really restricted to those specialized sections, no! To this day, one can still see the empty offices on the open shelf reading rooms, the empty tables and chairs previously occupied by attending floor library staff in all the open shelf sections in the first floor. At anytime a student finds retrieving a book difficult, these staff hastily come to their aid, as if to prevent him from drowning. Apart from the Head of such sections, there were permanent staff, as they run sessions to attend to students till when KIL closes. The University Librarian should be told that these staff aren’t there now or at least they are so much behind the shadows that the student hardly see them.

In this global age, KIL staff must be re-oriented that it is not the difficulties that they pose to a potential researcher that makes the researcher respect them or value his work; that aura of self importance should be minimized to the barest level in such an academic environment. It should also be inculcated in them that, as Academic Staff, no matter the status of a student, be him an undergraduate or post graduate, or in deed a staff he is under their guidance as such, he should be treated as a fragile potential researcher. The importance of the university library staff cannot be overemphasised. They are as important as lifeguards to a drowning man in a shipwreck and as important as a medical doctor to any patient. In both cases the success of the later will depend on the ability of the former. The lifeguard either succeeds in saving the life of the drowning man or the drowning man perishes. That also goes for the doctor; he either saves the patient or the patient dies before his very eyes. Picture that and you can see how vital the university library staff. The success of any researcher, you will agree with me, depends on the library staff’s ability, his patience with his clients, and his inspirational and motivational spirit towards the prospective researcher even if such a researcher is a university lecturer or another staff from another section. All researchers are at the mercy of the library staff. The university as a whole and the university library should not take delight in making scholarly research too cumbersome and discouraging as they seem to be making now.

There should be positive changes in the processes of obtaining research material; it should be made easier and efficient for a potential researcher to use effectively and maximally. The University Librarian ought to be aware that, the cataloguing system in KIL is becoming too obsolete, in all sections of the library. Particularly, the specialized sections, the Document Section is becoming full of over grown weeds – inaccessible because of the absence of a useable modern indexing system. The scrap books are useful as they are in Africana. In a modern setting, they ought to be accompanied with a comprehensive Newspaper/Weekly/Journal indexing topic by topic/title by title index. That reminds me of the unforgivable crime the students of Enugu Campus of UNN committed years back by burning their library during one of their riots. It was possible that they had never heard the marble words of Prof. Eyo Ndem, words that every student ought to have engraved in his heart – “…….

destroy your library you destroy the foundation and the bastion of civilisation and progress. …..the soul of the nation has been destroyed and we are back to Methuselah. The accumulated knowledge throughout the ages would have been irreparably ruined and we would have been left a nation in shambles.” It was there as a Corps Member that I walked into the pile of rubble to make use of their well organized newspaper indexing catalogue (even after the library was burnt) to enable me easier access to specific dailies or weeklies – with their authors/writer and dates, titles and pagination all handy. It was a delight for any researcher concentrating on Newspapers, Weeklies, Journals or periodicals. Please borrow this and bring to it KIL. This will be indispensable in Africana and the Document Section. In fact, the University Librarian ought to make this a priority, under special project by making use of extra hand and consultancy agencies and not relying on her few staff. Having undertaken such a project before, I know what it entails; in fact such a project may not only be too big for the library but the university as a whole. This is where I should start my call to soul-saving Alumni Association, philanthropic individuals and corporate organizations to come to the library’s aid. In so doing I will again recall the words of Sardauna on the day of commissioning this university. “I believe that a university is, or should be, a reservoir of knowledge and special skills, stored in its libraries and research records and in the heads of its staff. We must see to it that this knowledge is made available to those who need it. Often the man in the field has a problem and does not know that an answer exists. The man in the university may have an answer but does not know that the problem exists. We must see to it that these two are brought together so that the country gets to know its university and what it can do, and the university staff get to know the country and what it needs.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, November 23, 1963. Unfortunately, this dream may not be realized in the present retrieval system in KIL. Often the researcher in the library has a problem and does not know that an answer exists in the hidden treasures of the library.

Merely stocking the library is not enough. There must be arrangements that make research materials easily accessible to researchers to enable the maximum utilization of the library materials. I feel in my heart that there might be valuable materials in KIL that have never been use from the day the library was commissioned to date, despite its possible usefulness to the students or even more importantly to the public. Please do something and do it urgently. KIL can justify her existence if she can highlight what else can be learnt and gained in her. With gratitude and giving credit to whom credit is due, the great ABU Alumni and other philanthropic organizations who gave ABU the present one-of-its-kind-state-of the art environmental look its wearing is here acknowledged. That was a wonderful job. With earnest appeal such a wonderful job is needed elsewhere in our university again, please do not be tired, the seat of knowledge needs such overhauling, urgently. This is not meant to mean that we are not appreciating the donated Personal Computers presently in use for the CD-ROM searches and those used for the Internet staff training. But the fact is KIL need to be completely computerised, from the cataloguing, borrowing/lending services, and in all its specialized sections. This is an urgent need, a need more desirable than the environmental look, though with great appreciation. I have now come to the reason behind my visit to the University Librarian a few days ago. No one argues the fact that university autonomy simply means that each university should diversify her source of income.

However, there are areas which morally hinder the university from exploiting her students. Recall my earlier summation that the library is the soul of the university. I see it as an area in which the university would be committing a sacrilege in exploiting her teaming potential scholars and researchers. Let me go straight to the point: from its inception, there had always existed a standard copier in KIL and always a little cheaper than the exploitative market forces outside KIL. (KIL; 1978, (Ninth Edition) Readers Guide to the Library, KIL Handbook No. 1). This was for KIL to kill two or three birds with one stone. Number one, KIL motivates and promotes her potential scholars and researchers to acquire research materials that are essential to their areas of concentration but are fewer or for that matter NON BORROWING ITEMS. Number two, KIL helps in the longevity of her books, journals and other document, and number three, KIL ensures the subsidy of such photocopying as a contribution to enhancing scholarships. Both staff and students are aware of the N2.50k per photocopy throughout the university community, KIL’s photocopier manned by ABUCONS is N4:00k, almost twice the prize outside. I hope you can forgive me when I found myself with 1000 pages to photocopy, which will cost N2,500 if a copy was made at N2.50k but was asked to pay N4,000 within KIL. Again, no matter the status of the student, that is exorbitant. I had to run to the University Librarian to come to my rescue. “Prof,” I stammered “N1,500 additional cost is too much and could help offset my other research works.” The amiable University Librarian smiled, “My son”, she said, “I have been to ABUCONS two times and I have talked to the university authority, but there’s nothing I can do about that.” She concluded.

This alone can be responsible for the dearth of this scholarly aspect of the university. That dream of Sardauna when he laid the foundation stone of ABU, particularly when he was making a case for educational research is today shattered. Prof, here I disagree in principle with you when you went begging ABUCONS. I saw that as KIL’s acceptance of defeat, because I can vividly remember that KIL on her own was generating income despite the subsidy on photocopying. My findings revealed that the project was halted because of the inefficient and corrupt staff that were responsible for manning the copiers, as they were not accounting and maintaining the running cost of such machines. Putting them back on foot might even cost much less than anticipated as they are a laying - heap somewhere in an office. As I stated earlier, forget the reason (s) for ABUCONS insistence in making their copies N4 per copy, which might soon be N5. However, I understand with ABUCONS N4 per copy in so far as the copier is not stationed in KIL. I have made copies with their machine outside KIL without complaining, granted that their copier is much clearer and costs about 30 times more than the second-hand or “Belgium” ones that adorn the University Community. But taking into cognizance the importance of research and particularly the place of a university library in grooming the young leaders of tomorrow, any copier in KIL should be subsidised. ABUCONS is an autonomous company of the university, an organ that should be leading by example in philanthropic gesture to the university before the university looks elsewhere. If this write up did not reawaken ABUCONS and ginger her rethink on this, then nothing else can. Definitely, the specialized sections as highlighted previously all ought to have their separate commercial copiers (subsidized). I am in total agreement that the University Library documents are sacred and should be treated as such. Stationing such copiers in the specialized section will certainly go a long way in preserving such scarce and sacred materials. It should be expected that when one could not trace certain documents in research centres, media outfits or even national libraries, one should find same in university libraries. Please forgive my sentiment, here I should add that any material that one cannot find in university libraries, across the sub-Sahara Africa, one should find same in KIL. In the case of destroying a library, equal in graveness is stealing any University library material, and I consider the mutilation and/or defacing of such materials even a worst crime. This call for the students rethink, acts, from simple anti-social to grave moral is imperative in sustaining the library, in terms of both the materials and the conducive atmosphere of inter-personal relations – respect for the present researcher and the future scholar. There is nothing that agonises a researcher like taking hours in search of materials, only to find same but meet that a perverted student had use a razor to cut off a page or two. What a crime! Let to me, it is a lesser crime if the foolish student had taken the complete material. It all borders on the conscious knowledge of how significant a library is to the student. This is a serious crime, a crime that the University Librarian and in deed all her staff can do nothing about. It is a crime that concerns you and I. The social implication of this lies on our regard for these scarce and sacred materials. It does not only impair the use of such materials to present researchers, but to the future generation of scholars, especially with periodicals or generally serial materials, out-of-print-books, since such publications often cannot be obtained again at any cost. In those good old days, it was common on daily or weekly basis (or as the case may be) to hear of a library donor. Yes, an individual, group or corporate organization, schools, local, state, federal, governmental parastatals, quasy governmental agencies, religious organizations and others may donate just a book, a magazine or any material that was considered rare and useful for study or research was common then. May Allah in His infinite mercy bless the Sardauna, KIL’s first of such donor, who gave three books; today, instead of finding such materials in the library, you will rather come across them with Mai kosai, Mai soya or any other trader that use paper to wrap his wares. Now that people seem to forget immortal acts of donating to the library, others are taking such rare and scarce material for their exclusive use, materials they cannot safeguard even for a short duration not to talk of preserving for their children. Then, why remove it from where its preservation is relatively guaranteed for generations and generations to use? Staff and students should desist from such acts as stealing and mutilating library books, just as a clarion call is extended to all meaning individuals and organizations to come out and donate study and research material to KIL. At the back of your mind always remember that “baya kadan, kuma baya yawa”. In deed it is an immortal cause, funding and stocking KIL is not and should not be a prerogative of the university alone, the community in which her teaming population (present and future generations) benefit and even those that are remotely connected to KIL on humanitarian ground, should please heed this clarion call. Before I leave those staff and students who piss me off with the acts of stealing and mutilating library materials, let me add that antisocial act of students reserving library seat, while they are absent, either at lectures, meals or even in their hostels. This is most common at the open shelf study rooms and particularly the airy seats by the windows. It is common to see such seats for hours without occupants while others students ‘avoiding’ trouble are sweating it out in the central seats of the room. Students should desist from this antisocial behaviour. I think it is morally justifiable, except when a student is on the shelf, for anybody to use an unoccupied seat in KIL, whether notebooks on such seats or not. Again, there were staff whose sole duty (it seems) was to checkmate such seat reservation, they too seem unavoidably absent. Their duty then as I can remember was to clear any desks that have been “reserved” by leaving notebooks and papers, such materials were usually taken to the circulation desk periodically, thereby maintaining social order in KIL. Such staff practices need to resurface! Students should not please disturb the peace of the father of this great university, as he “wish to ensure that in the future this university is famous not only for the learning and academic standard of its students, but for their alert minds, their good manners, and their high standard.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, October 11, 1962. I should add a high standard in everything, particularly socially, morally and spiritually.

I remember my experience recently, specifically on matriculation day this year, in the conducive atmosphere of Africana, in KIL, I approached a staff, “please,” I called, having met him either sleeping or pretending to be asleep to wade off impending researchers from disturbing him. He looked up and said “E hen”. Then I said “please help me with the scrap book on religious issues volume 1; I used it yesterday.” Without saying a word, he pushed the entry form towards me. Before I completed the entry, he had again pretended to lapse back to asleep. I woke him again. I got the same response. When for the third time I woke him and he asked me to repeat my demand, he took fifteen minutes before he informed me that he can only get the material for me if electricity was restored. I was so provoked, “why then did you ask me to fill in the form?” I asked. He retorted that if I want, I can cancel my entry, which I did. From that act two things came to my mind. One - the staff’s approach in the library was out of place. Secondly, it was quite possible that the inner room was too dark - had the situation in KIL gone so bad that recharge lamps and touch lights were no longer affordable? Throughout that fateful day, whoever can remember that matriculation day would remember that there was no light throughout the day, one can only imaging how stupid I felt, being “too busy doing nothing”, simply because KIL cannot afford recharge lamps or any other alternative means to electricity.

That same day at the same section, on the same shift, as if they had not yet done with me, I went to the catalogue to check other likely materials that I might consult; I pulled a chair and sat down. I only spent close to five minutes when a co-staff on duty came to me and said “Please, we do not allow student to seat when checking the catalogue.” I just moved my materials and left, ruminating, IS KIL NOW SAVING OR DESTROYING THE SOUL OF ABUSITES? As a growing lad in a military formation I had the option of pursuing a military career should I so desired, in which case I shouldn’t grumble if I were asked to spend hours standing on the parade ground. Should I be subjected to such military situation in KIL, at a section reserved only for postgraduates? I should stand and check one or two alphabetical racks while standing? If this “bloody civilian” collapse what will the staff on duty do? Was this KIL’s rule? Then I should have known. What amazed me was recalling an incident a long time ago at the general catalogue at the exhibition hall, without a chair within eye sight, I stood for almost an hour searching through racks and from no way, without asking, a kind staff brought a seat for me. How grateful do you think I felt? And from that day, I notice a permanent stool kept there, even though it is still one to this day. But there it still is! There I was, a KIL member for eighteen years getting too old for some uncomfortable seats, being subjected to a sterner ordeal in the name of university research at Africana in my idolized KIL.

Well, cogitating over the situation in KIL gave birth to this piece, hoping that all KIL’s stakeholders, the university library administration, the university authority, Alumni, Students Union Government, students, philanthropists and in deed scholars all over the world will assist in ensuring that KIL does not kill the few inspired scholars and potential researchers in a society that prefers quick money without much sweat. The staff in KIL should accord their clients their due respect. Let them be aware that “All these mighty buildings, all the books, equipment and other amenities are not in themselves a university, nor are all the professors and other members of the academic staff sitting by themselves in these buildings a university. Post-graduates, under-graduates and other students are an essential part in establishing a university. In fact the whole organization is for the benefit of the students.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, November 23, 1963 In a nutshell, this paper proposes:- 1. Programs should be introduced to help students appreciate the indispensability of the library in University Education.

2. Students and prospective researchers should be constantly oriented on what the library can offer new arrivals and any other rarely used materials.

3. The Library Staff should be oriented on human relations – their relation between the server and the served; staff and the client should be focused.

4. A special department should be established to deal with the Library’s external dealings, sourcing of book aids/donations and other philanthropic gestures to the Library.

5. The Library’s cataloguing system should be overhauled; proper indexing of periodicals, magazines and dailies should be introduced.

6. The cataloguing system should be computerised.

7. Internet browsing should be introduced in KIL at a subsidised rate.

8. Materials in microfilms, C.D. ROMS and tapes should also be indexed.

9. Computer central monitoring system should be introduced not only as a vigilant eye for theft and mutilation but as well as a rescuing device to drowning device to drowning researchers.

10. Each specialized sections should have its copier and at a subsidised rate.

11. A CD writer should be available at the CD-ROM section; a fee should be charged for burning such CDs.

12. Theft and mutilation of books should be stopped.

13. Seats should not be reserved for more than thirty minutes.

14. The library should be so up-dated to be inviting to even the lecturers.

In this piece I have tried to highlight grey areas that go beyond KIL, a clarion call was issued, “I have spoken to the staff and the students. There is, however, one vital body which I have not yet mentioned. That is the Council of the university………..entrusted the task of governing and guiding the university …. I am confident that they will justify the trust which is being put in them…. It is the Council, therefore, who will ultimately be responsible for the policies of the university. I am certain that they will demand and obtain a high standard of learning, efficiency and discipline.” Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, October 11, 1962.

That completes the clarion call to all. If KIL doesn’t serve you, she will certainly serve your children and generations of Nigerians after you, just as we have benefited from the fruits of the labour of first generation of the leaders of thought who have gone beyond decades ago, peace, blessing and Allah’s mercies be onto them! As they bequeathed their past for us, it is now our duty to bequeath our present for the next generations. Let us be aware that “It is the neglect of a timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary,” Richard Whitely. Let us heed these wise words! To cap it all – ABUSITES, we all owe KIL a duty and responsibility!

Usman, Sule Machika is undertaking a Masters in International Affairs and Diplomacy (MIAD) degree in Political Science Department, ABU, Zaria.