Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), has described the legislature as a critical institution to the growth of Nigeria’s democracy.

He stated this at the end of a three-day Capacity Building Workshop for Legislative Aides in the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday.

The workshop was organised by NILDS, aimed at providing participants with a deeper understanding of the lawmaking process and better skills for bill analysis.

Sulaiman said that without a vibrant legislature, the country would not have a vibrant democracy.

He said, “Since 1999, we have had uninterrupted democracy and we cannot get it right if we don’t have a vibrant legislature.

“Key to the legislature are the parliamentary staff and a major group of these parliamentary staff are the legislative aides.

“If they are not well taken care of, it impacts on the workings of the legislators.”

Sulaiman further said that the parliament was a crucial arm of government and that for it to function optimally, there was need for training and re-training of all categories of staff in specific areas of need.

“The 1999 Constitution provides for legislative aides to assist members of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly in the discharge of their duties,” the NIDLS boss added.

He said that each federal legislator was entitled to a minimum of five aides; Senior Legislative Aide, Legislative Aide, Personal Assistant and Office Secretary.

The NIDLS director-general further said that such training and retraining was necessary to expose the aides to the best international practices as to how things were done.

“In addition to core legislative duties, legislative aides perform a wide range of communication and public relations duties with constituents, media representatives and individuals and organisations involved in the legislative process.

“In light of these important responsibilities of legislative aides, there is a critical need for thorough training for both new and returning aides.

“This is even more vital, given the high turnover of legislators which in turn means that a substantial number of legislative aides will be new and thus inexperienced in many aspects of legislative practice and procedure,” he further stated.

While calling on the aides to remain calm with regards to agitations on emoluments, Sulaiman noted that there were public misconceptions on salaries of federal lawmakers.

“There are misconceptions and misinformation on entitlements of legislators.

“Hardly does the public realise that when you talk of N17 trillion as Nigeria’s annual budget, less than N300 billion goes to the National Assembly.

“Of this N300 billion, however minute it is, the over 3,000 legislative aides are being captured among those that should benefit from the money,” he explained.

He said, however, that the governing council was poised to resolving issues of salaries of the aides.

A participant, Mr Frank Stephen, who commended NILDS for the training, called on other institutions of government to embark on such workshops to better the lot of the workforce.

Another participant, Mrs Joy Adeleke lamented the non-payment of legislative aides’ salary arrears and non-payment of Duty Travel Allowances (DTAs).

She appealed to the NILDS management to “drive home” their demands for improved performance on the part of the staff.(NAN)