Alagoa: Spreading the gospel of community library in Bayelsa

By Nengi Ilagha

EBIEGBERI Joe Alagoa, Emeritus Professor of History, is as brave as the city that bred him, the selfsame Small Brave City-State that turned out to be the subject of his first book. Between that book and his most recent, Professor Alagoa has repeatedly underscored the imperative of expanding the bookshelves.

Books will always be books and they will need bookshelves and catalogues to keep them safe and homely in libraries. He has been working with this realisation from a long way back in time. By his own confession, he learnt to appreciate the importance of libraries from an early age.

He recalls that, when he enrolled at St. Luke’s Primary School, Nembe, in 1943, the Reading Room along the main street was a well known location in town. But it was when he proceeded to Government College, Umuahia, in 1948, that he came to a full understanding of what a library meant.

“We had time devoted to literary reading outside our curriculum of study,” he says. Alagoa believes that the “library period” at Government College, Umuahia, was one strong reason why that school produced more literary stars, and more Nigerian National Merit Award winners, than any other secondary school in the country. He may be right.

This view may jolly well stem from a genuine expression of pride in his alma mater, but it resulted in his mission to build community libraries in Bayelsa State. Alagoa believes that, if this mission turned out to be a success, it could lead to a national movement to revive Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s Bring Back The Book project that was abandoned for no good reason.

As the professor put it at length: “My idea of community library is an institution set up with whatever level of financial resources available from community resources. If resources have to come in from outside to begin with, deliberate efforts should be made to bring the community into the process. The focus would remain the provision of education and enlightenment to the masses in all rural communities, from kids to school children at all levels, and the literate adult population, visiting or resident.”

From the few libraries that have come into operation, Alagoa believes that different levels of community participation and ownership have been achieved. In like manner, the standard of library activity may have varied from community to community, but remains encouraging. His own mission began in the late 1990s. It was a mission to remember three intellectuals of the Niger Delta who died as volunteers fighting to keep Nigeria one, while pursuing a specific resolve to liberate their own brand new Rivers State.

Alagoa came to the conclusion that building libraries in the home towns of these heroes, acting in the interest of the people for whom they gave their lives, could be a memorial they themselves would appreciate. He therefore decided on a Major Boardman Esinkuma Nyananyo Library at Nembe, a Captain George Amangala Library at Ogbia Town, and a Major Isaac Adaka Boro Library in Kaiama.

Bina Nengi Ilagha (left); Prof. E.J. Alagoa and Nengi Ilagha

All three locations became part of the new Bayelsa State in 1996, created out of the Rivers State they fought to liberate. Alagoa began with the Major Boardman Esinkuma Nyananyo Library at the old historic city-state of Nembe. The first step was to set up a representative committee of enlightened members of the community, including elders, professionals, and opinion leaders.

“For space,” the professor recalls, “the family of Major Nyananyo provided the entire top floor of his late father’s family house. Two professional librarians, Jigekuma Ombu and George Otuturu, provided free consultancy services. For books to stock the library, we had the base of Major Nyananyo’s own library.” The late Major was a Masters degree holder in Mathematics from St Andrews, Scotland, and a teacher at the Federal Government College, Warri, when the civil war broke out. Alagoa provided books from his own personal library, in addition to donations from his colleagues at the University of Port Harcourt and, most significantly, from the Amanyanabo of Nembe at that time, King Ambrose Allagoa, Mingi XI.

Several chiefs and members of the community also gave out books of their own, including fresh university graduates who made copies of their projects available. For books in the school curriculum, parents supplied complete sets of books used by their own children who had graduated. With the combined support of family and friends of late Major Nyananyo, and the community at large, the Major Boardman Esinkuma Nyananyo Library soon got going. In recent times, the community has been obliged to use funds from the Shell community development programme to build a new structure fitted with modern facilities.

New challenges are bound to arise over time, and the prospects for community libraries in Bayelsa State may face one new test after another. But always, as far as the professor can see, there will be new opportunities for development. The second community library project Alagoa embarked upon was the Captain George Amangala Library. It was initially proposed for Ogbia Town, the new town built by Governor Melford Okilo of the old Rivers State as the capital of the Ogbia people.

At the time of the project, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the rising leader of the Ogbia nation was serving, first as Deputy Governor, and later as Governor of Bayelsa State. In both capacities, he gave his blessings to the project. Jonathan took Alagoa’s proposal to heart, and instructed the local government chairman to back it. The professor was overjoyed to receive the enthusiastic support of the Ogbia Study Group composed of young university graduates.

The local government chairman soon located an abandoned bank building, and readily allocated it for the project. The relevant professional graduates of Ogbia Study Group began actively planning the renovation of the building, working with volunteer librarians from the Niger Delta University, Amassoma. The project was moving forward with great promise, and then came an unexpected setback.

The President of the Ogbia Brotherhood, the socio-political organisation in practical control of the community, ruled that they were the proper authority to run the library project. That declaration brought matters to a halt at Ogbia Town from the time of its utterance right up to the present. But Alagoa would not give up.

Thankfully, he found support for the Captain George Amangala Library from family members, chiefs and people of his home town, Oloibiri. That is where, in a renovated classroom of the Government Secondary School, Alagoa set up his bookshelves and catalogues, and formally launched the project on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. Many practical problems remain, but the project is ongoing.

The Major Adaka Boro Library at Kaiama was a priority and was accepted by the leaders of the community right from Alagoa’s first visit. Captain Samuel Owonaro, the second in command to Major Isaac Adaka Boro in his 1967 attempt to establish an independent Niger Delta Republic, had become a local chief and he was in full support of the idea. The traditional ruler of the community, a retired civil servant, was equally enthusiastic. They only asked for time to locate a suitable structure for the project.

Alagoa visited Kaiama again in the company of the new Chairman of the Bayelsa State Library Board. “All the cards are in place for the best of the community libraries of my dream,” said the soft-spoken professor. “We now have a building previously donated by Professor Turner Isoun, former Minister of Science and Technology.” Even so, the abiding efforts of the emeritus professor of history did not go unnoticed.

While he was doing his best to set up libraries in the name of the young Niger Delta heroes of the 12-Day Revolution fame, his own name had moved someone else into action. In 2012, as part of his Bring Back the Book campaign in Bayelsa State, Oronto Douglas, Special Adviser on Research & Documentation to President Goodluck Jonathan, initiated the Professor Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa Library in Yenagoa.

Henry Seriake Dickson, in his capacity as Governor of Bayelsa State at the time, formally commissioned the project and threw the doors of the library open to the public. It was a fully equipped E-library, and remains the first of its kind in the state capital. A few years later, Professor Steve Azaiki, former Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, opened the second state of the art E-library in Yenagoa, namely the Azaiki Public Library & Museum.

The new Chairman of the State Library Board, a progressive academic from the University of Port Harcourt, Seiyefa Koroye, has received marching orders from Governor Seriake Dickson to oversee the completion of the huge state library named after Dr. Gabriel Okara, which was begun by the government of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. For Alagoa, these developments give hope to the growth of community libraries in Bayelsa State.

The state library chairman also had cause to visit the Goodluck Jonathan Library at Okoroba, a community library project undertaken by Oronto Douglas of blessed memory, now completed by his wife and partners. It qualifies as the perfect prototype community library with computer training facilities to go with it. The Oronto Douglas group also supplied books and equipment to Opume community to fortify the Obigbo Miki Miki Library. King A. J. Turner, whose traditional title decorates the library, has supplied solar facilities which provide constant power to enable computer education thrive.

Professor Alagoa is glad to be associated with the community library project which he started in his birth place. The Okpoama community found good reason to endow honours on Alagoa and two other scholars, Professor Youpele Beredugo and Professor Ayebaemi Spiff, arguably Nigeria’s first female professor of Chemistry. The trio decided to say thank you in a unique way. They set out to renovate the building already constructed by the Okpoama Development Union, installed standard library furniture, and stocked the shelves with books.

Today, the Okpoama Community Library has turned out to be the first community run library in Bayelsa State. Alagoa has a feeling that all the different strands in the movement for library development in the state are likely to work in concert with the Okpoama example.

To that end, he was able to get the new chairman of the State Library Board, the local government chairman, as well as the head of the Oronto Douglas library team to visit the chiefs of Okpoama. Professor Alagoa’s belief is well founded, that it is possible to get all stakeholders to cooperate in the task of providing grassroot library facilities to the people at the community level now and in the days to come.

My wife and I popped in to see Professor Alagoa recently at his country home in Nembe where he is enjoying a well deserved retirement. He said he wants to read my latest book, Son of the Tiger Killer, the story of the Alamieyeseigha government. I have since sent his copy across to him with express despatch.