Ghana parliament seeks Nigeria’s support to develop legislature

A delegation of the Ghana parliament is on a study tour of Nigeria’s National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and the National Assembly Service Commission.

NILDS is the training arm of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly.

Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, who led the team said the visit is to strengthen Ghana’s legislative institute.

Speaking on Thursday in Abuja, Mr Bagbin said they were in Nigeria to get inputs from the legislative institute to gain effective legislation and governance for Ghana.

He said: “I want to thank the institute for accepting to share their knowledge.

“We have already engaged the staff of the NASC; we have learnt a lot from them.

“There is no way we could go back without drinking deep from the fountain of knowledge; we believe that with your extensive experience, not only in research but also in advocacy and impartation of knowledge, we will benefit a lot to assist us strengthen ours in Ghana.

“We have a training institute in Ghana which is a version of NILDS.

“We have seen there are a lot of gaps, a lot of weaknesses in our institute. We just decided to move out to work closely with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria.”

Director-General NILDS, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, said that the key to the survival of democracy in any clime was the legislature.

He said: “It is my hope that this interaction will be an opportunity for the two countries to strengthen their ties in the area of legislative and democratic development.

“I believe the delegation will have a lot to learn from Nigeria, considering the similarities in the antecedents of Nigeria and Ghana’s history spanning from the colonial period, to independence, to military interventions and now to stable democracies in both countries.

“Everything must be done to protect the sanctity of the legislature. They must be allowed to learn on the job. There is no perfection in any system. We must nurture the institution of the legislature,” Mr Sulaiman said.

(NAN)