Abubakar O. Sulaiman is the Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS). He is an indigene of Kwara State in North-Central Nigeria. Prior to his appointment as DG, he served at various levels of government culminating in his appointment as the Minister for National Planning and Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He also served as the Deputy Chairman, Nigeria Economic Council and Chairman, Transition Technical Sub- Committee responsible for managing the transition between the government of President Jonathan and that of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

Prof. Sulaiman has represented the people and government of Nigeria in several capacities on the international front notably as the Nigerian delegate to the United Nations Ordinary General Assembly in 2015. He has widely researched, published and delivered papers at various high-level conferences and capacity development activities both in Nigeria and internationally.

The University Don had spent over two decades engaged in teaching and research at the University of Abuja and has supervised numerous undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations/theses. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; an M.Sc. in International and Strategic Studies from the University of Jos and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Abuja.

In his capacity as the Director-General of NILDS, Prof. Sulaiman is charged with the general responsibility for matters relating to the day-to-day management and operations of the Institute, the only body charged with the statutory responsibility of building the capacity of the Legislature and other institutions of democracy in Nigeria, the ECOWAS sub-region and internationally.