• Highlights enlargement of institute’s departments, coaching programmes, worldwide partnerships
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, has challenged leaders the world over to prioritise institution-building, human improvement and measurable outcomes, declaring that the true check of management lies not within the authority people train however within the energy of the establishments they depart behind.
Sulaiman made the decision whereas delivering a keynote tackle titled, ‘Leadership in Practice: Making Decisions, Managing People and Delivering Results,’ on the International Leadership Summit held on the University of Brighton, United Kingdom, on October 14, 2026.
A press release by the establishment on Sunday, defined that Sulaiman addressed a global viewers of leaders, lecturers and improvement practitioners.
The assertion added that the NILDS director-general drew on his expertise in academia and public service to argue that management have to be outlined by the capability to rework establishments, enhance individuals’s lives and set up buildings able to sustaining progress past a person’s tenure.
He mentioned: “Leadership shouldn’t be the privilege of those that occupy excessive workplace; it’s the self-discipline of those that settle for accountability for altering the trajectory of establishments and enhancing the lives of individuals.
“Titles confer authority, but only character, competence and vision confer leadership.”
He recognized sound decision-making, efficient individuals administration and the supply of measurable outcomes because the three important pillars of management, stressing that establishments working in an more and more complicated setting require leaders able to navigating uncertainty, growing human potential and translating concepts into tangible public advantages.
Using NILDS as a case examine, Sulaiman outlined institutional modifications recorded beneath his management, together with the enlargement of its operational departments from 4 to 13, the institution of recent institutional centres and Democracy Radio, and the strengthening of its analysis, legislative drafting, tutorial and capacity-building capabilities.
He mentioned the expertise demonstrated how strategic planning, institutional dedication and efficient execution may reposition public establishments to reply extra successfully to the wants of the individuals they serve.
The director-general additionally highlighted the completion and occupation of NILDS’ everlasting complicated, describing the event as a defining milestone within the institute’s institutional development.
According to him, NILDS moved into its everlasting complicated on May 25, 2023, after years of delay, offering a secure base for its legislative analysis, coaching and democratic improvement actions.
“That relocation was much more than a physical movement. It represented institutional stability, growth, identity and a long-term vision for democratic capacity-building,” he mentioned.
Sulaiman maintained that significant institutional transformation required leaders to confront longstanding challenges quite than turn into snug with current limitations.
“Leadership, at its core, requires the courage to confront what is difficult rather than simply manage what is convenient,” he mentioned.
On individuals administration, the NILDS boss argued that establishments couldn’t obtain sustainable progress with out recognising the contributions of their workforce, encouraging various views and creating alternatives for employees to develop professionally.
“If decision-making is the heart of leadership, managing people is its soul. No leader achieves anything alone,” he mentioned.
He defined that efficient management required greater than issuing directives, noting that leaders should construct groups, encourage initiative, promote skilled improvement and make sure that particular person contributions align with institutional targets.
Sulaiman cited workers welfare, profession development, skilled coaching and inclusive decision-making among the many areas requiring sustained consideration, including that establishments carried out higher when leaders empowered their personnel quite than centralising each determination.
He additionally highlighted the enlargement of NILDS’ coaching actions from roughly 13 programmes yearly to about 60, describing the expansion as proof of the institute’s elevated capability to serve legislative and democratic establishments.
The institute, he mentioned, had additionally expanded its tutorial and improvement partnerships, strengthened its worldwide engagements throughout Africa and pursued initiatives aimed toward selling girls’s political management and democratic improvement.
Turning to measurable outcomes, Sulaiman outlined a number of achievements recorded by NILDS over the previous seven years, together with the supply of greater than 200 capacity-building programmes, the coaching of over 3,000 legislators, parliamentary workers and public officers, and the institution of greater than 20 strategic partnerships.
He additionally highlighted the institute’s work with Nigeria’s 36 state Houses of Assembly, significantly in strengthening legislative capability and supporting the event of more practical parliamentary establishments.
The director-general mentioned management needs to be assessed by the outcomes of selections and the lasting worth establishments created, quite than the intentions behind insurance policies or the quantity of actions undertaken.
“Vision without execution is fantasy. Decisions without outcomes are intentions. Managing people without results is merely activity. Leadership must translate vision into measurable impact,” he declared.
He additional careworn the significance of investing in younger Nigerians, citing NILDS’ internship alternatives for younger attorneys serious about legislative drafting and its annual engagement of greater than 60 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
According to him, such initiatives present younger individuals with sensible publicity to governance and alternatives to contribute to the nation’s legislative and democratic improvement.
Sulaiman mentioned the long-term significance of institutional achievements lay of their means to construct capability that may endure past the tenure of particular person leaders.
He described NILDS as an rising African democratic information hub, bringing collectively legislative analysis, govt schooling, parliamentary diplomacy and democratic innovation to strengthen governance and institutional improvement.
The director-general offered what he referred to as the Leadership Covenant, urging leaders to base their choices on goal quite than recognition, place individuals on the centre of institutional processes and measure success by the energy of the establishments they depart behind.
He argued that these ideas utilized throughout geographical, political and institutional boundaries, significantly at a time when public establishments confronted rising calls for for accountability, effectiveness and tangible outcomes.
“Leadership is a practice, not a position,” he mentioned, including that institutional transformation required braveness, imaginative and prescient and resilience, significantly when leaders encountered tough circumstances.
In one of many central reflections of his tackle, Sulaiman mentioned historical past was extra probably to bear in mind leaders for the enduring contributions they made to establishments and society than for the places of work they occupied.
“History rarely remembers those who merely occupied office. It remembers those who expanded the possibilities of institutions, elevated the dignity of people and left society more capable than they found it,” he mentioned.
He referred to as for a brand new era of leaders dedicated to strengthening democratic establishments, upholding human dignity and creating alternatives for future generations.
“That, to me, is the essence of leadership in practice. It is the leadership Africa deserves. It is the leadership democratic institutions require. And it is the leadership this generation must be prepared to bequeath to the next,” he mentioned.
Sulaiman’s participation within the summit supplied a possibility to current Nigeria’s expertise in legislative capacity-building and democratic institutional improvement to a global viewers, whereas underscoring the significance of accountable management, evidence-based choices and sustainable institutional development.
