Why I have a desire to understand Nigeria – Suzanne Miller

You have an incredible library here. Why do you think it is important that Nigerians have access to the library? Well, our goal with the library is to make sure people have access to top quality and accurate information about the United States and its history, its culture. We want people to get good information […]

You have an incredible library here. Why do you think it is important that Nigerians have access to the library?

Well, our goal with the library is to make sure people have access to top quality and accurate information about the United States and its history, its culture. We want people to get good information because it’s so easy for people to end up with the myths instead of the realities. So, it’s our goal that people have a real understanding of the United States.

And how many Nigerians would you say have benefited from these facilities?

Well, I couldn’t even begin to guess the number. What we have is a downgraded version of the USIS (United States Information Services) libraries that were in several places in Nigeria which were closed in the early ’90s and I still talk to people who say they’ve benefited from them. I run into them constantly. So the number of people who have benefited from the USIS libraries, now the IRC (Information and Resource Centres) is amazing. Now we can leverage the kind of information we provide so that people don’t even have to come to the library, we provide it digitally. All they have to do is let us know what their interests are. Are they interested in mining, are they interested in rule of law, are they interested in traffic in persons and what we do is monitor information and send it out to them.

So far, what sort of information have people been interested in generally?

When we are working with government officials, I think they are interested in the US Government, how it works, what are the procedures that are followed by the United States so that they can think of whether or not they want to implement these policies or adapt the procedure. For instance, last spring, when the Freedom of Information Act was pending, we got a request asking us how do agencies in the United States accept requests and deal with them. That kind of information is not easy to find and we have the ability to identify quickly information that can be helpful and provide information on how the procedures can be adapted. I think that has a really great benefit here in Abuja. And remember we also have an information centre down in Lagos and they also do a lot of work like that only they work more with business and trade and growing a business, entrepreneurship and a lot of training on how to use the internet, which we are actually just starting to do here.

What exactly is the idea behind these American Corners you have all everywhere?

Ah! We have 10 American Corners and they are in the farthest reaches of Nigeria. The idea is to have a presence in a community so that it’s not so far to get information whether it be information on how do I get a visa or again information on our culture, our history, our literature. Not everybody can come to Abuja or Lagos so we want to have places closer to people. Myself I’d love to see at least one American corner in every state because they are a kind of mini library. Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to do that.

Apart from the Corners, you have been trying to reach out. You were at a book fair last year. Do you normally participate in such activities?

Definitely! I try to make sure that we are connecting because one of the goals of the mission is to participate and invest in people – investing in people meaning investing in their education and their general well being. For me as a librarian, that means investing in their literacy and a book fair is one way of expanding people’s knowledge of what is available, understanding what’s there and encouraging children to read. I do participate because that is one of my priority. It may or may not be the priority of the person coming into my position after me but literacy is extremely important and starts when kids are young. So, you start with them when they are three, four, doing certain things, manipulating shapes and reading to them in order to make sure they improve and become literate as they become older. I think education will be the saving grace of every organisation, every country, even our own (the US) if the population loses its edge educationally, it will falter. So, I think it’s important that I support that. So, I do that. I’ve participated in book clubs at the local public library, we supported the book fair in Akwa Ibom in December. Actually, the [Goodluck] Jonathan idea of Bring Back the Book is a good idea.

An idea. Is it not hanging a bit too far from the population? The books are not actually trickling down.

That’s the point of a book fair, that’s the idea of a library and we try to encourage that. We, and the American Corners, we do a lot of work with people and we purchase materials that are targeted at young people so that it’s not just books that are for adults.

And how easy is it for one to access the libraries?

The American Corners are all open. There is no fee to use the corners, to have programmes in the corners. We want people to use them. The more people who use them the better. I really want people to hold programmes at the corner. I really want people to go to the corners and we hope they find value in them. I think people appreciate the kind of programming we offer and the quality. And it’s simple to go into American Corners. We have some challenges in places like Maiduguri and those are because of security challenges. When they are open, they are open. For the IRCs, of course there is one here and there is one in Lagos at the Consulate, we actually have a membership and people get library cards and identification cards so that it will make it easy for them to enter.

Which books have been most appealing?

What people are interested in the most after the educational materials, a lot of people come here to find out how to go to the United States to study and what kind of tests they should take, I would say that is top priority. However, after that, I would say business and entrepreneurship takes a front seat so we purchase a lot of materials in that particular area. After that, just talking about the IRC a lot of things are about the rule of law and governance and that’s natural because we are dealing with the different ministries.

We also help people research whatever they are researching so we have a lot of Ph.D students coming in to research on things from agriculture to history and so on.

When was this idea conceived to have a library everywhere there is a US embassy?

The US Information Service was conceived during the ’60s because the idea was that helping people to be educated and giving them access to quality information helps to build those core skills set that will help people to develop and the best way we could do that was through library services. That’s the purpose and the reason they are there. We want people to know the truth as opposed to the myths of the United States, the myth that it’s all easy when you walk into the US. There are things that are really, really easy and there are things that are very difficult. So you have to be realistic.

You have been attending literary events here and you have read a number of books about Nigeria, what is your general impression?

I have found Nigerian writers to be generally interesting and they have got to certainly present the perspectives of Nigerians, of the Nigerian culture. So, for me, living here, it’s not just about Nigerians understanding America, I want to understand Nigeria as well and reading literature is an extremely good way to understand how the system works.

So, having interacted with Nigerians and read Nigerian books, how many myths about Nigeria have you discarded so far?

Did I come with myths? I did my masters on African studies and there were a number of myths that I might have had but not as many as most people. I would say that these are the things that most struck me and are still striking me; the driving. Everyday I go, What’s wrong with you, why can’t you turn left coming out of the left lane. I think the power situation which I know is very frustrating to everyone is equally frustrating to me. I don’t know if any of these are necessarily myths but I definitely feel that those things have been foremost among the things that have struck me.