Founder and Chief Executive of Havilah Merchants Nigeria Limited Mr. Olanrewaju Adesuyi owns the foremost Information & Records Management and Archive/Library Development Company in Nigeria. He established the Havilah Group in 2001 after serving meritoriously for 22 years at the Oxford University Press (now University Press Plc), which he left as the National Field Sales Controller. He speaks on the stateof records management, the need for adequate legislation and challenges confronting records and archives practitioners, Assistant Editor Arts OZOLUA UHAKHEME reports.
Why is records management not well appreciated in Nigeria?
The absence of holistic planning is largely to blame. This is typical of Nigerians not caring about so many things and not planning for most things. And this cuts across public and private sectors. In the private sector, only a few organisations in oil and gas and in the financial services sector embrace records management. Sad to say, too, records in most organisations in the public sector are embarrassingly in tatters. Officially, records are kept in open or confidential registries, but these records are generally not secure and are usually not safe from the elements. Put simply, the records are in bad shape. Worse is that a lot of individuals really do not care about managing their records. In the end, they often pay avoidable heavy price for such carelessness, particularly when they have official transactions or when they retire from work.
In the arts and culture sector, the story is the same. Much of the records of Nigeria’s films and entertainment sector have been lost. Or do you know where we can get the original footage of productions like The Village Headmaster, Mind bending or even Checkmate? It is sad that foreign institutions represent about the best quality access that we have to our nation’s history. Don’t forget that many of our artefacts have been stolen and are now housed in foreign museums.
If it is that important, why is there no legislation on record management?
There is only one Act that establishes the National Archives. But, none that compels Nigerians to keep records, so if any is lost, the issue would either be resolved through litigation or alternative dispute resolution or mere ‘sorry,’ if it will suffice. Then one could always swear to affidavits, which is the reason for a rash of court cases when politicians are asked to produce their certificates and they submit sworn affidavits basically to cover malfeasance.
Perhaps, the biggest problem is the absence of legislation to compel people to keep records. That is why you will be shocked to see the rather shoddy, careless and embarrassing manner in which records are kept; from the least government department to the highest office in the bureaucracy. That is why it is so easy for civil servants to wilfully alter their records of service.
Why is this so?
It is because people are just not aware of the importance of keeping their records. If they were, they would not treat them in such cavalier manner. Let us be more specific so people can better understand the enormity of the problem at hand. One major reason Nigeria has challenges with managing population census and budgeting, for example, is because existing records are so badly kept. On paper, we have something they call the National Archives at the national level. The National Archives is supposed to be a repository of important information on national development, but people really are not aware of it or what it does. I am not talking of the building because everyone knows that there is, for example, the National Archive sited at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan. But, not many people, apart from people in the academia, know what it does or how to utilise its services. So, in the truest sense of it, we do not have a functional National Archive.
What solutions would you proffer?
Government must legislate on records management to compel individuals and organisations to better manage their records and improve record keeping for planning purposes. There also must be awareness programmes and good budgets to make these workable. Having proper records management will also help the political process, especially in terms of reducing needless litigation over the inability of politicians to produce proper records of their qualification for public office.
With proper legislation, the office of the National Archivist would be able to function with the same level of recognition and empowerment as the office of the Accountant- General of the Federation or the Auditor- General of the Federation, with clear powers to ensure compliance with extant rules on the keeping and safety of public records.
One way to achieve this goal is for individuals and groups or associations to lobby the National Assembly to pass enabling Acts to bring sanity to records management in public sector organisations. An example of such associations is the Records and Archives Practitioners of Nigeria (RAPAN) to which I belong. It is new and so not quite strong. Again, it has not been very effective because practitioners have not been forthcoming in their participation in the activities of the association. The Society of Records Practitioners in Nigeria, which is backed by government, is not effective because it is largely administered by civil servants.
As a leading practitioner, how have you ensured that things are done properly?
My organisation, Havilah Merchants Nigeria Ltd, has been creating awareness through workshops across Nigeria. We have also seized the opportunity of various bookfairs to showcase the need for proper record keeping because we recognise that for people to appreciate the need for good record keeping, they have to be aware of the inherent danger of not keeping records. We have also done several advocacy programmes to reinforce the awareness campaign. The response has been tremendous but we still keep it because there is always room for improvement, more so as there is still a long way to go before government and individuals can properly key in to the idea of good records management. We have worked with the Central Bank as well as First Bank, which is probably the only bank you can honestly say have a proper records management policy in the country. We have also built relationships with other banks that are considering improving on their records management capability.
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