The Management of Nigeria’s Archival Heritage: Challenges and Professional Strategies

This study examines the professional challenges of managing Nigeria's documentary archival heritage across the network of national and state archives, with particular focus on the National Archives in Ibadan (South West) and Enugu (South East) and selected state archives in the North Central zone. Nigeria's archival holdings constitute an irreplaceable historical resource for understanding colonial and post-colonial governance, yet the professional management of this heritage faces severe challenges related to deteriorating physical infrastructure, inadequate digitisation, staff capacity deficits, and limited funding. Using a professional case study design, the study collected data from 85 archival professionals, historians, and policy officers in three archive locations, supplemented by documentary reviews of National Archives of Nigeria management reports from 2020 to 2024. The Archival Science Theory and the Information Heritage Management Framework provide the analytical lenses. Findings reveal that a significant proportion of colonial-era documents at the Ibadan and Enugu archives are at advanced stages of physical deterioration due to humidity, pest infestation, and inadequate climate control, with losses estimated at 15 to 20 percent of the pre-1940 documentary collection. Recommendations include emergency conservation interventions, phased digitisation of the most at-risk collections, and the development of an accredited professional archival training programme within Nigerian universities. Keywords: archival management, Nigeria, documentary heritage, digitisation, professional archiving.