National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS has conferred honourary award of Fellow of the Institute on Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, former Head of State and Dr Bukola Saraki, former Senate President.

The institute also conferred the award on former Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, Minister of State for Labour, Ms Nkiruka Onyejeocha and Prof. Mike Obadan, an educationist.

The awardees were honoured at the 8th NILDS/UNIBEN Postgraduate and 3rd NILDS Higher National Diploma Programme Convocation ceremony in Abuja on Monday.

The Director-General of the institute, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said that the award was in recognition of their efforts to the growth and development of NILDS.

He said that the awardees were recognised for their contributions to national development.

Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has pledged the 10th Senate’s continued commitment towards supporting President Bola Tinubu’s policies on student loan programmes and other initiatives aimed at addressing out-of-school children in the country.

Akpabio, who was represented by his deputy, Senator Jibrin Barau, said despite challenges in the nation’s education sector, the country was still doing well in global ranking.

Akpabio said, “Despite the lingering challenges in the nation’s educational sector, data shows that Nigeria has recorded better performance in its Human Development Index in the UNDP 2024 report than it did in 2019.”

He, however, pledged that the 10th National Assembly has put machinery in motion to ensure proper funding in the sector through appropriation in the next fiscal year.

Supporting the educational sector through increased funding will therefore enable our country to record significant transformational changes,” he said.