The 14th Asagba of Asaba, His Royal Majesty, Asagba Prof Epiphany Azinge, SAN, OON, has described the library as an indispensable component of educational pursuit and attainment.
The Asagba made the remark while playing host to the Board Chairman, members and management staff of the Delta State Library Board who paid him a courtesy visit in his Palace on Wednesday.
He expressed delight that functional libraries were in place in Asaba and other parts of the state for people searching for knowledge guided by the truth and driven by excellence to read a wide-range of books and carry out research.
The Professor of Law and two-term Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, debunked the notion that the Internet and social media had relegated the library to the background, insisting that students at different levels of education needed the library to broaden their knowledge of different subjects areas and courses.
Asagba Prof Azinge, while thanking his guests for the visit, assured them that the Asaba community would intervene in some of the challenges of the Board in order to reposition it to serve the reading public better and be more relevant to the community and the state.
He said he was particularly happy to note that the library on Nnebisi road was always filled up, even under its present condition, which clearly demonstrated that people still yearned and craved for knowledge, and announced that a team would be raised to visit the library and take inventory of the areas of need that the community could assist in addressing.
The Asagba, however, called for a more robust relationship between the public, especially students, and the library, which could be achieved through sensitization, so that it could effectively keep them busy reading after school and reduce their involvement in crime and social vices.
Earlier in an address, the Chairman of the Board, Barr Ogboru Innocent, congratulated Asagba Prof Azinge on his emergence as the 14th Asagba of Asaba and expressed confidence that Asaba would flourish more as a centre of peace, unity, progress under his watch.
Barr Ogboru stated that the visit was informed by the realization that knowledge and culture remained pillars that sustained civilization and society, adding that the library, as a repository of history, literature and civic memory, played a pivotal role in preserving the values and culture that shaped the society.
He enumerated the challenges facing the State Library Board and its branch libraries across the state and urged the foremost traditional ruler to intervene in finding solutions to the poor state of the headquarters and branch library in Asaba.
Ned Nwoko Is The Be All, End All in Delta North...