NILDS DG bags award of excellence

Prof. Abubakar Suleiman, the Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has been conferred with an honourary fellowship award by the Michael Imodu National Institute for Labour Studies.

Presenting the award, Dr Issa Aremu, the Director-General of Michael Imodu National Institute for Labour Studies, said that it was in recognition of his efforts toward enhancing the welfare of workers in Nigeria.

Receiving the award, Suleiman expressed gratitude for the award, saying it was not only for the institute but for the National Assembly as a whole.

He said that the fellowship conferred on him was not based on patronage but performance, input and impact in ensuring labour and industrial harmony.

He said that as at the time he took over as director-general, he met an institute, characterised by restiveness, industrial disharmony between union and the then management.

Suleiman said that he met an institute where staff were on the same cadre for seven to eight years, some were on contracts for up to eight years without being confirmed.

He said that NILDS staff at the time facilitated training for parliamentarians and support staff without being trained themselves.

“But with our ability and the support of the management, we put all these to rest by ensuring that staff welfare became the cardinal principle in my administration.

“Staff on contracts were confirmed, staff that were stagnated were promoted and within 100 days of my administration, 60 per cent of staff went on international training.

“As of today, there is no staff I met on ground that has not gone on international training, there is no driver in this institute that has not gone for a national training; as of December last year, members of staff got additional 50 per cent of their salary.

“At the top level, there is no director that is not mobile, they all have official cars and we will not stop there, there was no maternity leave before but we now have, before I came on board, they use to close at 6 p.m but they close at 4 p.m, there was no woman director but now we have two of them as directors,” he said.