Yiaga Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement has trained 74 Nigerians from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory on legislative engagements.

The training, conducted with the support of the European Union under its European Union Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), is aimed at strengthening constituency engagements to empower the people about the work of legislators.

At the workshop on capacity building for constituency legislative aides and interns, the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo said they will want to see better engagement between lawmakers and the constituents.

Itodo said the organisation would also sponsor Nigerians for three months to provide support to respective constituency offices.

He said: “The Internship period is designed to build the capacity of young Nigerians through direct understudy of the running of Constituency offices, legislature-constituent relations and legislative engagement.

“I implore you to maximise the knowledge you will gain here not because you are legislative aides or interns but consider this as an opportunity to improve your knowledge and skills on how best to improve the democratic process.

“I urge you, beyond the training ti utilise the knowledge to improve the quality of your participation in the governance process.”

He said: “Studies have shown that 53 percent of interns within organisations become full-time hires. I therefore urge you to make full utilisation of this training programme to prepare yourself for future legislative capacity preparation.

“The experience and exposure that you will gain at the conclusion of this capacity training workshop will enhance your individual ability to serve as efficient research assistants in your respective constituency offices and also participate in the legislator’s constituency office activities.

“It important to state that as the first batch of this training that the future success of this program depends on your adequate feedback mechanism from various constituency offices that will encourage continued support from Yiaga Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement with the support of the European Union and their ability to give the time and energy to promote it.”