The Embassy of the United States of America has expressed willingness to equip the library of the National Assembly.
The Political Affairs Officer of the embassy, Robert Kerr, stated this on Wednesday during a roundtable discussion with legislative aides of lawmakers at the US Embassy in Abuja.
The session was organized for aides of young Nigerian legislators who are not more than 40 years of age by the US Embassy and Youth Initiative for Advocacy Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) as part of Young Legislators Accountability Project, YLAPNG.
Mr. Kerr stated the readiness of the US government to equip the National Assembly library, following complaints by the legislative that the library is not well equipped for meaningful research.
They expressed disappointment that they had to depend of external libraries to carry out their duties.
“I heard some of you complaining about the libry. The Embassy will be interested in equipping the library with devices and books,” he said.
YIAGA’s Head of Research and Advocacy, Samson Itodo, tsaid he roundtable was convened to assess the needs, gaps and challenges of parliamentary aides in the discharge of their duties.
Besides library, another challenge mentioned by the aides was poor capacity building. They admitted to not being properly trained in the areas of legislative draft, policy analysis and other areas of their duties. They lamented that their induction program only came six months after they had assumed duty.
