Sulaiman Abubakar
Professor Sulaiman Olanrewaju Abubakar is a former Minister of National Planning and currently the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS). He talks to THISDAY about his reform initiatives in the NILDS and security/economic issues in Nigeria
What are your achievements since you assumed duties as the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS)?
Itook over three years ago, precisely on June 3 2019. We have done a major reform in the area of staff welfare and motivation. When I came on board, I met staff with a lot of grievances, grudges and complaints. These are complaints that border on productivity and output, which had caused a lot of friction within the institute. In response to this, I set up a committee to look into those grievances, including grievances that centre on wrong placement and elevation. In addition, a good number of staff were on contract for years without being confirmed. Within a few years of my assumption of office, we were able to address all these issues.
One major landmark in the area of enhancing staff productivity that I achieved was in the area of promotion, incentive, motivation, salary, and allowances of staff, which were major issues before I came on board. Prior to my assumption, non-academic staff did not have any allowance outside of their basic salary. In order to ameliorate their plight, I was able to convince the Governing Council to approve a hardship allowance for non-academic staff. This is in addition to securing the Council’s approval for an upward review of the research allowances for academic staff so that today, one of the most motivated staff we have in this country, is that of the institute. That has positively enhanced their productivity as they are more committed to their responsibilities. In the area of career progression, many staff were stagnant on the same grade level for as long as six years. Having reviewed their cases, they have all been promoted and are currently on their appropriate levels.
One cannot talk about restructuring and grievances of staff without looking at the Condition of Service and Administrative Manual that was put in place. Before I came in, most of the above-mentioned grievances of staff had to do with the condition of service that was in use as there were no clear-cut policies on important issues like promotion. The first thing I had to do was to set up a committee with the support of the Governing Council and we reviewed the Conditions of service and the Administrative Manual of the Institute. We ensured that members of staff made inputs in these documents. Today, we have a new condition of service and Admin Manual for the Institute.
Another area worthy of mention is discipline or quality control. We observed that for us to strengthen and put systems in place, we should ensure quality control. NILDS is an academic and research institution, hence, it is important to ensure that staff possess the necessary qualifications to carry out their Job schedule. So, one of the first things I did when I came on board was to set up a committee saddled with auditing staff records, staff profiles or academic credentials. In that process, a few staff were found not to have acquired the requisite results and credentials and they have since been eased out of the system. The staff we have on the ground are those that we can boast of anywhere in the world. We have also tried to instill quality control and discipline. I want to believe that it is something that institutions of higher learning, including universities, should borrow a leaf from. It is not everybody that claims to be a professor or claims to have certain qualifications really has them.
We were able to do this without any hiccup because people that were found wanting to know they were at fault and that they had done some infractions. Without any alarm, we were able to get them out of the system. That was part of the internal reform I was able to make. This would not have been possible without the support of the Governing Council under the leadership of the President of the Senate, Lawan Ahmad and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajamiabiala.
Bye and large, we set the pace. We put a sustainable foundation for us to leverage on and from there, the mandates of the institute have been accomplished in the last two years. The mandate of providing technical assistance to legislatures through bill-drafting, bill scrutiny, motion drafting, research, serialising dialogue and lectures, has been successfully implemented. In addition, we have been active in the area of advocacy, speaking for the Nigerian legislature, on topical issues such as the autonomy for the Nigerian legislature, autonomy of the local governments and appropriation.
Another fundamental thing is that the institute is not just for the legislature; with the amendment to the Act that set it up in 2018, we are mandated to perform the function of deepening democracy. We are mandated to perform the function of democratic studies, and the role of ensuring that Nigerian stakeholders abide by the ethics of democracy. In other words, it is the only statutory organisation or institution in Nigeria vested by an Act of parliament to deepen the democratic practices and procedures in Nigeria. By so doing, we have a department of Democracy and Governance.
You cannot talk of democracy or democratic studies without giving a medium through which you can reach the Nigerian people. We should not wait for elections to come before we start talking about people’s civil obligations, who to vote for and how to vote. One of such mediums is the establishment of Democracy Radio. A board for Democracy Radio was approved by the Governing Council and currently, the license for its operation is before Mr. President for approval. It is hoped that before the year runs out, we shall go on air.
We also instituted the Distinguished Parliamentarians lecture series because of the belief that the parliament is being misunderstood and misrepresented. People do not know much about what the parliament does, hence, there is a wrong perception about the parliament. People perceive them as the most corrupt organ of the government. Accordingly, the Distinguished Parliamentarian lecture series was launched last year. The maiden lecture presentation was done by the President of the Senate. The second lecture is coming up in August and will be delivered by the Right Honourable Speaker. I must mention that participation is not limited to the current legislation but past presiding officers, and legislators from West Africa and the African continent, will be part of the speakers.
We also observed again as part of our mandate, that legal and legislative draftings, motion drafting and bill drafting, are critical components in legislative procedure and practices. But unfortunately for us in Africa, we have a dearth of drafters. Not many of our jurists, lawyers, and students that graduated from the universities are trained in the area of legislative drafting. We have received in my institute people from other West African countries coming to ask for drafters from Nigeria. But Nigeria itself does not have enough drafters.
Why the price of crude oil is rising as a result of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Nigeria is not benefiting while other countries are benefiting. What is the way out?
When you export oil unrefined, it is economically unsound. The other country bought the crude and you purchase the refined product at a very exorbitant rate, it does not make any sense. As long as we do not refine oil within the country, we will not benefit from the rise in crude oil prices on the international market. People that do not even have the oil are better off than us. The simple truth is that some syndicates, some cartels, and some people in this country would not want our refineries to be fixed. They are reaping from it, they are benefiting from it, and they are maximizing profit out of it. Until we are able to break that cartel and address those syndicates with determination beyond just legal framework or policy framework but with political will-power and determination, we cannot as a country reap the benefits of the endowed resources.
When you do not refine, you are at the mercy of those countries that refine those products. And you keep on buying from them. So what stops us from getting our refineries fixed in the first instance. Are you saying we do not have the money to do it or we cannot get the money to do it? Today the country is indebted to the tune of $40 trillion. Where and how do you get out of here? So we are sitting on the keg of gunpowder and if care is not taken, and we allow it to explode, I would not know what will happen! That is why I take it to the ruling class, including myself. If we fail to address this issue, our children will not forgive us. The political economy of oil subsidy is known to even a pupil in primary school and why it is being prolonged is known to all of us. And why we have failed to address it is known to us and the implication is known to all of us. It is either we are able to take advantage of the resilience of the younger ones now by addressing it or we wait for the explosion any moment from now.
Insecurity is a major challenge to business and economic growth in the country. Are you not worried over the debilitating effect of this on our nation’s economy as well as on the business concerns of multinationals, corporations, companies and SMEs? What is the way out?
Mr. President is worried. The National Assembly is worried. The state assemblies are worried. The governors are worried. The political class is worried. Business people are worried. Everybody is worried. Mr. President has said it on several occasions that insecurity has defied all solutions. That is why perhaps, I want to subscribe to people who said that before God’s intervention, we need human help. Within the confines of international relations, let other countries come to our aid and assist us. Our security sector keeps saying that they can locate where the bandits and kidnappers are and then they are helpless. People had to pay ransom, people had to pay from their sweat to get their abductees released- where are we heading to? There is no doubt about it that our security agencies are overwhelmed. There is no doubt about it that the government has done the best it can do. We have gotten to the zenith of our capacity. I think, within the context of international relations, international cooperation and international politics, we lose nothing if we extend our hands of fellowship or we call for hands of the fellowship of other countries, those other countries that are more powerful than us, those countries that are ahead of us in technology, in the area of military capability to assist us. Enough is enough.
But do you think that if actually there is political will and sincerity of purpose, our military can handle it?
I am not questioning the capacity of the Nigerian military but I am saying they are overwhelmed. How many times have soldiers been recruited? How many times have we procured more weapons? How many times have they gone for training? I think they are overwhelmed and if we do not see that political will coming, then we should go outside there and seek assistance.
