By Our Reporter
A bill seeking to upgrade the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) into a full-fledged university serving Nigeria and the West African sub-region has passed first reading in the Senate.
The proposed legislation, titled West African University of Legislative Studies (Establishment) Bill, 2026 (SB. 1087), was presented during plenary on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
The bill is sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, who had announced his intention to initiate the process two days earlier at the 10th Convocation Ceremony of the NILDS-University of Benin (UNIBEN) postgraduate programmes in Abuja.
At the ceremony, Barau disclosed that he had commenced discussions with the Director-General of NILDS, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman, on the proposed conversion of the institute into a university.
According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ismail Mudashir, the proposed institution would be named the West African University of Legislative Studies (WAULS).
Barau, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, said the university would leverage NILDS’ existing infrastructure and institutional capacity to advance legislative practice, democratic governance and regional integration.
He explained that the institution would offer legislators and other stakeholders from Nigeria and ECOWAS member states opportunities to acquire specialised knowledge and skills in legislative studies, democratic governance and institutional development.
The Deputy Senate President further noted that Nigeria’s hosting of the ECOWAS Parliament, ECOWAS Commission and ECOWAS Court of Justice placed the country in a strategic position to establish a regional centre for legislative capacity building.
He expressed confidence that the National Assembly would pass the bill and that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would give it assent.
