Abuja: The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has announced that it has successfully trained over 300 young legal practitioners in legislative drafting through its specialised internship programme. This development comes as a response to the current shortage of skilled legislative drafters both in Nigeria and across the African continent, as disclosed by the institute’s Director-General, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, during a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Personality Interview Series in Abuja.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Prof. Sulaiman emphasized the need for such an initiative, noting the increasing demand for legislative drafters from other African countries seeking assistance. He described the program as open to young graduates and law students with a second class upper or first-class degree, offering them a three-month internship in legislative drafting at no cost. Through this scheme, NILDS has been able to produce approximately 300 young drafters, significantly contrib
uting to the nation’s pool of legislative professionals.
Furthermore, Prof. Sulaiman highlighted the institute’s efforts over the past seven years to reform human capital policies, which have created job opportunities and fostered career advancement for young Nigerians. One notable change under his leadership has been the substantial increase in the annual intake of National Youth Corps members, which has risen from just four to more than 60. This expansion aims to nurture the next generation of skilled professionals by providing them with essential training opportunities at NILDS.
“Before I took over, it was a policy that the institute shouldn’t take more than four National Youth Corps members in a year,” Sulaiman explained. “I saw it as an aberration as a training institute; if you don’t train the younger ones, then who do we train? Allow them to come in. So, I made it open. Today, we have almost 60 to 70 youth corps members here that we are training every year,” he added.