RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN NIGERIAN ACADEMIC-LIBRARIES - THE EFFECTS OF ACCREDITATION ON UNIVERSITY-LIBRARY BOOKSTOCK

The history of university libraries in Nigeria dates back to 1948 when the university college, Ibadan was established under special relation ship with the University of London. At that time university education in Nigeria was in the exclusive legislative list. This means that only the Federal Government of Nigeria could establish universities. But b y 1960 the situation changed and university education was transferred to the concurrent legislative list. The implication of this was that f ederal and regional/state governments, companies incorporated in Niger ia, and individuals or groups of individuals could establish universit ies. Thus, between 1960 and 1972 five new universities came into exist ence. It was even entrenched in the 1979 Nigerian Constitution that un iversity education was in the concurrent list. Both state governments and individuals took advantage of this. Thus, between 1975 and 1982 th ere emerged another set of fourteen federal, eight state and twenty-si x private universities. When the legality of the private universities was challenged in court, the supreme court of Nigeria ruled in favour of the private universities but also added that the National Assembly could legislate on the quality of programmes offered in such instituti ons. Inspite of this court ruling, the Federal Military Government of Nigeria by Decree No 19 of 1984 abolished private universities. Betwee n 1984 and 1992 six additional federal and four state universities wer e established. In between, there were some political developments that resulted in the take-over of a few regional/state universities by the federal government. Currently there are eleven state and twenty-six f ederal universities. A complete list of these universities is in Appen dix I of this paper.