NILS emerges best in legislative training in Africa

The Governor of Kebbi State, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has described the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) as the best institute for the training of legislators in Africa.

Bagudu stated this at the commencement of a two-day training for members of the Kebbi State House of Assembly in Abuja.

He said the institute had over the years positioned itself as the hub for legislative training in Nigeria and the whole of Africa.

The governor who was a pioneer member of the Board of NILS commended the Director General of the Institute, Dr Ladi Hamalai, for her doggedness in driving the affairs of the institute.

He charged the legislators to take advantage of the two-day training to equip themselves with better processes for lawmaking.

Bagudu said: “Lawmaking is rigorous, if you spell wrongly you may end up passing the wrong law.

“Experience matters a lot in legislation, the longer you stay and the more training you get, the more experience you have. When you listen to experienced senators like David Mark make contributions on any issue, you would see that their experience comes to play.”

He urged the legislators to be humble and also to be courageous at the same time, stressing that it was with courage that the third term bid was squashed in spite of intimidations and harassments.

The former Senator commended members of the State Assembly describing them as the best performing state assembly in Nigeria in the last 20 months.

In his remarks, the Speaker of the Kebbi state House of Assembly, Ismaila Kamba commended NILS for organising the training.

He said that training for lawmakers was very important as the legislature plays a very important role in ensuring good governance in the state.

“The legislative basic function of representation, legislation and oversight are indeed essential to sustain this good governance for the benefit of the citizenry.

“However, the effective and efficient discharge of these constitutionally assigned roles is a function of quality of skills and knowledge at the disposal of a lawmaker.

“Therefore, capacity development for lawmakers ensures and effective and efficient parliament: when a parliament is effective and efficient, good governance is assured,” he said.

He expresses confidence that the resource persons would do justice to the topical issues of the capacity building.

He thanked the governor for his support, adding that such collaboration between the executive and the legislature will also ensure the socio-economic development of the state.

Earlier, the DG NILS, Dr Ladi Hamalai expressed confidence that at the end of the training, the lawmakers would have a better capacity to treat bills base strictly on their merits.

She said the lawmakers would henceforth better appreciate the process of drafting and treating bills.