The Director General of the National Institute of Legislative Studies and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, has urged the Nigerian elites to work with and guide politicians to make the country better.
Sulaiman, who is a former Minister of National Planning, said this while addressing reporters made the call while responding to questions during a press conference to mark his sixth year in office.
He said: “In the last two years, we have come up with what we call Elite Census Platform. This is because if we allowed this thing to be addressed by politicians alone, this country is beyond the politicians.
“The number of people in politics is very insignificant compared to the larger populace. When (former President Muhammadu) Buhari was to be brought in as a candidate, I could recall that Mr. President said in some clime, when politicians failed, they brought in people with military experience. That was the justification for bringing Buhari.
“That’s another story to hear another day. We are now saying this time round, where a country is failing, I think the best thing is to bring out the elites, to shape the direction and perception.
“So, the institute has come up with this Elite Consensus Platform. We have mobilised elites from the various sectors, identified issue areas, proposed new methodologies to address these issues.
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“While people are waiting for conferences or conventions or whatever people are talking about now, NILDS is at the forefront saying we have enough people in this country that can guide our policy makers in the way.”
“They are not politicians. They don’t have any special interest as regards projects. So, the point I’m making here is that on the issue of trying to shape the perception, the attitude and even repositioning our politics, we have been engaging with politicians, CSOs, NGOs, the elites and intellectuals. We have produced a lot of reports to that effect, which we channel to the government.
“However, one resolution we have is that we don’t just roll out our report to the public because the DG too has a Governing Council which I am answerable to. At times, we submit reports to them before we get to the public.”