NILDS moves to renew pact with Johns Hopkins University ― Prof Sulaiman

Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman has unveiled plans to renew partnership with Johns Hopkins University in the United States of America.

Sulaiman who disclosed this at Abuja, during the commemoration of his 100 days in office as Director-General, reiterated commitment towards improved staff welfare and repositioning of the Institute for better productivity.

He observed that the activities of NILDS reverberate across the continent and have implications far beyond Nigeria.

“To attain greater heights of excellence, NILDS cannot operate in isolation.

“I will proceed on the premise that to be more effective and to better discharge our functions, establishing relationships with similar institutions across the globe will be immensely beneficial to both the institute and the National Assembly.

“It is therefore my desire to aggressively explore establishing relationships with other capacity building and research institutes.

“NILDS has a memorandum of understanding with Johns Hopkins University that is set to expire in January 2020.

“For strange and inexplicable reasons, NILDS failed to cultivate and develop any relationship with Johns Hopkins University or indeed other institutions that will enhance NILDS viability and visibility.

“I will work tirelessly to revive it and ensure that we derive maximum benefits from collaborating with such a first-rate university,” he assured.

In his stewardship account for the past 100 days, Dr. Sulaiman disclosed that Institute the parliaments of Uganda and The Gambia have benefitted from benchmarking workshops in NILDS.

According to him, “these programmes were designed to strengthen capacity of legislators and staff in working towards the advancement of democratic governance in Africa.

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“Leaning on the successes of these workshops, the Institute will continue to ensure that it is better positioned to serve as a knowledge hub for parliaments within and outside the ECOWAS sub-region to benefit from.”

While speaking on the new initiatives designed by the Institute, Dr Sulaiman explained that “concerted efforts have been made towards developing strategic partnerships that will add value and distribute skills and knowledge.

“On this premise, I reached out to the country director of the UNDP and following useful deliberation, a technical committee has been set up to work out modalities and interventions which will be targeted at relevant stakeholders in helping them better understand the need to work towards the consolidation of Nigeria’s democracy.

“As part of our efforts to foster mutually beneficial partnerships with parliaments around the world, NILDS has in the past 100 days met with the High Commissioner of Malaysia to Nigeria as well as the Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, to explore ways of promoting the acquisition of tacit knowledge embedded in practice.

“Consequently, the Parliament of Malaysia has agreed to facilitate an Exchange of Experience visit for staff of National Assembly and NILDS to its parliament in the fourth quarter of 2019,” he promised.

According to him, the Institute also provided support to legislative committees and legislators on the bill process cycle through Bill Drafting, Bill Analysis, Bill Scrutiny, Brief of argument/lead debates and Bill Tracking.

“It is gratifying to note that the Institute has made significant progress in its performance as in the past 100 days, the Institute has drafted 15 Bills and analysed over 70 Bills, in addition to 34 drafted motions, 10 legal issue briefs, 5 briefs of argument as well as building a robust databank,” the NILDS chieftain noted.