By Fortune Eromosele

The Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman has lauded Yiaga Africa for its maiden and distinctive approach towards providing a constituency relations manual that would improve the quality of community relations in Nigeria.

The Manual is designed to improve the quality of legislative representation in Nigeria, strengthen communication between legislators and constituents and importantly, expose legislators, parliamentary staff and legislative aides to the tools and techniques to structure and organise engagement with constituents and conduct outreach activities.

In addition, the Manual equally provides useful guidelines to legislators and their aides on how to set up and manage constituency offices.

In his remarks, Sulaiman said the Manual is in line with the mandate of the Institute in producing a set of guidelines to regulate the practice of constituency relations in Nigeria.

He said: “We are proud of this milestone as well as the partnership we are doing over the years. This is in line with our mandate contained in 2011 establishment Act which empowers the institute to provide an interface between democratic institutions and Civil Society Organisations.

“We recognize that Civil Society Organisations provide an alternative channel to engage constructively with the government to ensure that adequate services are provided and eminent based policies are adopted.

“It is in line with this mandate that the institute collaborating with Yiaga to produce a set of guidelines to regulate the practice of constituency relations in Nigeria.

“As you are all aware the legislature face challenges of fulfilling their core and at times confederate responsibility with government and society. They are expected to provide the voice for the people and represent their constituent interest and views.”

In her welcome address, Director of Programs, Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, explained that “One key aspect we are hoping to improve on is to support the work of the legislative arm of government especially as it relates to their engagement with their constituents, the National Assemblies, the State Assemblies and even the local councils.

“If we have a functional legislature we can boldly say our democracy is working, because that is where lawmaking is done, that is where the representation of the people is done at its purest form and that is where oversight of the executive is conducted, so that arm of government is vital in democracy.

“The Manual serves as a guide for lawmakers to engage their constituents effectively, to bridge that gap between the government and the people. But beyond just bridging the gap, to begin that process of social reorientation and education on the role of legislative arm of government.”