Program Helps Nigerian Civic Groups Find Footing With National Assembly

Making contact with busy lawmakers and staff to advocate public policy changes can be a daunting task for civic groups. Protocols and procedures are sometimes complicated and the right point of entry may not be clear. In Nigeria, the National Assembly Civil Society Organization Liaison Office (CSOLO) has been working to help smooth that process.

The liaison office arose out of a three-year NDI program that provided assistance to members of the National Assembly and civic groups to improve policymaking procedures on government transparency and poverty reduction issues. During a recent event in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, NDI and the CSOLO provided civic groups with an overview of the National Assembly’s legislative process and discussed how the CSOLO could help the organizations develop strategies for reaching out to lawmakers. One journalist who attended described the impact of the session in an article for the Daily Trust, one of Nigeria’s most popular newspapers.

In addition to the formation of the CSOLO, NDI’s program also helped make the legislative process more inclusive by funding civic groups to deploy interns with expertise in such areas as health, education or agriculture to National Assembly committees that work on poverty reduction. Lawmakers drew on their interns’ knowledge to prepare background information in advance of public hearings and sessions to mark up legislation. NDI has worked closely with Nigerian democrats to support the development of nascent democratic institutions since the country’s 1998-99 transition from military to civilian rule.