By Tunde Olusunle
You catch a glimpse of a golden mace hoisted high in the distant sky to the right, on the expansive Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Way, as you drive past the “City Gate” in Abuja toward the airport. It reminds you of a larger, more dominant version that sits regally at the central approach to the nation’s parliament, in the “Three Arms Zone” at the heart of the nation’s power nexus. You are never quite sure if the insignia you fleetingly see en route to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, is an annex of the National Assembly Complex. Curiosity compels you to navigate Abubakar Olanrewaju Suleiman Avenue in the Piwoyi District, and you behold a stately edifice adjacent to the fast-developing permanent site of the National Defence College (NDC). The institution took off from a temporary accommodation in the Central Business District of the capital city.
The edifice that confronts you, the general ambience, and the serenity momentarily transport you abroad. This could well be a section of The Pentagon or the Department of State in the United States of America (USA). Boldly emblazoned on the concrete façade of the main structure, however, is the description: National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Permanent Site. This, therefore, is right here in Nigeria, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. If the exterior is impressive, the interior is equally eye-pleasing. The air is clean, the atmosphere calm, as you step onto the marble floor of a cavernous complex that sprawls to your left and right once you cross the security screening desk.
It is Thursday, July 16, 2026, and NILDS is commemorating the seventh anniversary of the stewardship of Abubakar Olanrewaju Suleiman, a Professor of Political Science and International Relations, as helmsman of the institution. Suleiman was first appointed Director-General of NILDS in 2019 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. He succeeded Prof. Ladi Hamalai, the pioneer Chief Executive, who served two terms of four years each between 2011 and 2019 under former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, and Buhari, respectively.
The present-day NILDS evolved out of the Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP), established in 2003 with fiscal support from the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), to enhance the capacity of the National Assembly to effectively discharge its constitutional responsibilities. These include the drafting of bills, enactment of statutes, exercise of oversight over other arms of government, and strengthening of constituency relations. It transmuted into the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) in 2011 to address the capacity needs of legislatures at the three tiers of government: federal, state, and local. Its aim is to enhance the skills and competencies of relevant stakeholders for efficient legislative service delivery.
Following the endorsement of the NILS Amendment Act by President Buhari in 2017, there was a transformative shift in the mandate of the Institute. To be sure, the amended Act broadened the scope of NILS beyond legislative studies to incorporate support and capacity-building for democratic institutions across Nigeria. This birthed the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), the epicentre for the solidification of the nation’s democratic architecture, popular governance, and institutional development. It continued to operate from its constrained take-off address in the largely residential Maitama District of the capital, even as its future permanent domicile, initiated under the Jonathan administration in 2013, grew slowly and steadily.
Weeks after his reappointment in April 2023, Prof. Suleiman led the entire faculty and administrative apparatchik of NILDS to the ultra-modern permanent complex on May 25, 2023, completed by President Buhari. Modelled after the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the USA, the NILDS permanent site stands as a befitting testament to the gradual evolution of the nation’s lawmaking processes and its democratic flowering. It was one of the signature projects completed by the Buhari administration and personally commissioned by him in the final days of his tenure. That movement signified institutional stability, growth, identity, and a long-term vision for the future of the institute, and by extension, for participatory democracy. The NILDS headquarters is a world-class, purpose-built facility that every Nigerian can be proud of, complete with an administrative block, lecture theatres, a convention centre, a library, council chambers, and other contemporary facilities for research and learning.
Prof. Suleiman has striven to actualise the mandate of developing the institute into the nation’s premier parliamentary academic and research institution, focused on supporting the sustenance of dynamic and effective multi-level legislatures in Nigeria, and indeed in the West African sub-region. Three years into his second term in office and seven years at the helm, Suleiman has prioritised strengthening the vision of the institute, empowering its workforce, and extending the relevance of NILDS beyond the borders of Nigeria. From its initial five operational departments crammed into makeshift residential buildings in Maitama, NILDS under Suleiman has blossomed into 14 professionalised departments, each of which strategically contributes to the core vision of the institute and its continuing relevance. These have improved efficiency, specialisation, and service delivery.
Suleiman’s focused leadership and purposeful reforms have manifested in the intensification of programmes for legislators, parliamentary staff, and democratic institutions; expansion of research output; an upsurge in policy briefs; and improved professionalism in legislative drafting and bills analysis. Additional programmes have been developed at the master’s and doctorate levels, while the pre-existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Benin has been renewed, and new partnerships forged with the Federal University Lokoja (FUL) and Yakubu Gowon University (YGU), formerly the University of Abuja, toward the promotion of academic collaboration, research development, and institutional advancement. These, and the establishment of three new institutions under Suleiman’s watch, have culminated in increased student enrolment. The new creations are: the Legislative Centre for Security Analysis; the Centre for Advanced Executive Education Programme; and Democracy Radio (a broadcast facility to enhance the dissemination of information about legislative processes).
NILDS has also become an international hub under Prof. Suleiman, courtesy of heightened foreign collaborations, specifically in the exportation of democratic expertise to sister African countries through the training of parliamentary staff and legislators. Benin Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Somalia, South Africa, and Uganda have partnered with NILDS in the pursuit of stronger democratic institutions and the development of more robust legislative capacity. Other countries have begun preliminary engagements with the institute toward signing up for collaboration and mentorship programmes. Such has been the phenomenal ascendancy of NILDS under the visionary superintendence of Abubakar Olanrewaju Suleiman, who served as Minister for National Planning between July 2014 and May 2015, over these past seven years.
The presentation of Prof. Suleiman’s seven-year scorecard, titled “Seven Years, One Vision, Enduring Impact,” was witnessed by dignitaries from the judiciary, academia, parliament, and the media, among other sections of society. Senator Shehu Sani, CON, delivered the keynote address titled “Strengthening the Legislature Through Capacity Building: A Decadal Assessment of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).” Goodwill messages were delivered by Justice Babatunde Adejumo, OFR, Administrator of the National Judicial Institute (NJI); Prof. Edoba Omoregie, SAN, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin; Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja; and Dr. Mohammed Wakil, former Minister of State for Power. Also present were Prof. Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Cornelius Oluwasegun Adebayo, Executive Secretary of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA); and Sanya Ajakaiye, former Secretary of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), among others. It was indeed a befitting outing for a consummate public servant who has straddled academia and public service in the past three decades.
– Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
