One hundred days after he assumed office as Director-General of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Prof. Muhammed Ladan, believes his efforts to reposition the institute for better performance. Has he? Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU asks.
The Director-General of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Prof Muhammed T. Ladan has restructured the institution’s directorates.
Ladan said it was part of efforts to reposition the institute as a “world-class legal training institution.”
The ex-Ahmadu Bello researcher, who is NIALS’ seventh D-G, stated this recently in a statement on his 100th day in Abuja.
Ladan said following his appointment to lead the institute, he resolved “to reorganise and make the institute more visible and relevant,” and that he achieved this by expanding its academic directorates from two to three.
“Before now, the institute for 40 years comprised of only two Academic Directorates namely: Directorate of Research and Directorate of Studies,” Ladan said.
The D-G explained that he merged the Directorates of Studies with the Postgraduate School and renamed it as Directorate of Postgraduate Studies and then created one additional Directorate, the Directorate of Continuing Legal Education.
He added: “With the upgrade of Postgraduate Studies, a unit under Directorate of Studies to a Directorate, the Directorate of Postgraduate Studies is now at par with the status of postgraduate schools found in Nigerian universities and all over the world.”
Directorate structure and objectives
The directorate consists of two divisions and a centre; namely, the Continuous Legal Education (CLE) Unit, the Consultancy Services Unit, and the Centre for Trade and Regional Economic Integration Law. The objectives of the Directorate include:
Continuing Legal Education
The core mandate of the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) arm of the Directorate is to coordinate continuing legal education programmes (workshops and training courses) organised solely by the Institute or in collaboration with the institute’s partners. The CLE also coordinates the Institute’s roundtables, public lectures, and seminars. CLE NIALS carries out a continuous review of its courses periodically and introduces courses with dynamic and sustainable topics to build the capacity of lawyers in the private and public sectors.
Consultancy services
In fulfillment of the institute’s mandate to conduct research in any area of law or related subjects, with the objective of applying the research results in the interest of Nigeria; for national development and dissemination of research findings for the use of policy makers at all levels. The Consultancy Department provides one of the avenues through which the institute is able to provide knowledge-specific services to other government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies; including private and non-governmental organizations.
Centre for trade, regional economic integration law
Further to the institute’s mandate, the Centre for Trade and Regional Economic Integration Law is established to fill the expertise gaps in trade and regional economic integration law and practice in Nigeria and Africa. This is with the view to enabling the pursuit of trade and economic integration without losing sight of the changing dynamics of the economics of the individual countries. The Centre also seeks to provide a viable platform for the development of policies and jurisprudence on Trade, Investment, Regional Integration, and the AfCFTA. Also, conduct research, document and publish its findings on Regional Economic Integration Law and Practice, among others for the benefit of Nigeria, the ECOWAS/ other RECs, and the African Continent.
Others
According to Ladan, these are just the latest in a long list of activites to improve the institute’s performance.
He said the Directorate of Administration now comprises eight divisions as against the former six.
The divisions are: Human Resource Management; General Administration; General Services; Legal Services/Council Matters; Protocol, Information Publicity and ICT; Editorial/Printing Press; Procurement/Supplies; Works and Physical Planning.
He noted that Bursary Directorate, formerly comprising four, now has an extra Division.
The D-G said: “The Divisions are Revenue; Expenditure; Salaries and Wages; Final Accounts then Budget and Planning. With the above expansion and advancement in cadre, stagnation is expunged in the institute’s Administrative and Bursary Directorates.”
According to him, he had in his 100 days in office, empowered the Audit Unit of the institute to function independently of the Bursary Department and report directly to the Director-General’s Office.
“This is to avoid unnecessary manipulations, influence and undue abuses,” he said.
Another area that has been improved, is staff welfare, the D-G said. According to him, the backlog of staff promotions that were pending from 2016-2019 had been fast-tracked and cleared.
Ladan said: “This exercise was achieved in less than 50 days” of his assumption into office.
“More so, about 65 per cent of staff has been empowered through sponsorship to attend relevant workshops and trainings, within and outside the country.”
According to him, worthy of note is “the effort to fast track NIALS affiliaion on postgraduate programmes with the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Osun State Nigeria.
“It is expected that upon completion, the institute’s postgraduate programmes will be accepted all over the world.”
He pledged to speed up efforts to enable the institute to access funds from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund).
“The institute’s Dean of postgraduate school will now belong to the body of Dean of Postgraduate School at National University Commission (NUC),” Ladan added.
NIALS’ collaboration with mda’s and partnership with donor agencies
Another area the Director-General believes he made laudable progress in his 100 days in office is the area of positioning NIALS for greater visibility which, according to him, has helped the institute to attain a world class status.
He explained that this was achieved through collaborations and signing of memorandum of understanding with relevant agencies of government, ministries and parastatals.
Ladan said he went on courtesy visits to heads of relevant agencies course programmes, NIALS Press, and soliciting for support in developing NIALS ICT based programmes.
“Some of the notable achievements from some of his visits are the signing of MOUs between National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) and NIALS, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and NIALS (for the provision of ICT tools, technical guidance and donation of desktop and laptops to enable the smooth running of NIALS online workshop/postgraduate diploma courses), partnership with donor agencies both continental and global and renewal or extension of donor funded programmes.
“Other examples include signing of MOU between the Rector of the African Institute, Ambassador Sani Muhammed and NIALS, the African Union Institute of Internal Law based in Arusha in Tanzania,” the D-G said.
Ladan also attended the commissioning of Treaties by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as well as a conference on Governance and Law Innovative Interventions on Water, Energy and Food Resources Scarcity/Insecurity in Doha Qatar.
Some other achievements include: MacArthur Foundation renews collaboration with NIALS on Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Giz German Foundation and NIALS, British Council and NIALS, renewed/extended NIALS Partnership on Human rights in African Staff exchange/collaborative research programme with the Canadian Osgoode/York University, University of Pretoria South Africa in November 2019 for 2020 and beyond, forging teaching/research collaboration between NIALS and Qatar’s Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha 2020 amongst others.
Improved communication and information sharing amongst staff
Another notable reform, according to him, is the introduction at NIALS of the communication and information sharing approach amongst Institute Staff, Management and the Director General.
“The institute now has social media handles such as WhatsApp groups, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for dissemination of information and the NIALS website is being upgraded to meet up with current trends in information Technology.
“There is also prompt reponses to staff complaints, request and external communications including official correspondences on MDA’s and Donor Agencies.
‘’NIALS Newsletter, NIALS Newsline, Revised Information Booklet and NIALS Annual Report are used for periodic reporting of activities in the Institute,” he said
Empowerment of the audit
The Director-General also credited his reforms for the “improved transparency and accountability in governance through periodic auditing of financial transactions without fear or favour.”
He said by empowering the audit department, he set up a “framework for transparent audit as well as framework for improved staff productivity with targets and timelines through the revised performance evaluation form and the newly introduced template for staff performance deliverable output.
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