CAPACITY BUILDING IN PUBLIC SERVICE: NBA- ICLE TO TRAIN LAWYERS IN KADUNA STATE PUBLIC SECTOR
The Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education (NBA-ICLE) has concluded a partnership with the Kaduna State Government under which the NBA-ICLE will train the lawyers employed by the State Government in its various Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The focus of the week-long intensive workshop which would run from 27th June 2022 to 1st July 2022 will be to share knowledge, provide trainings and equip the lawyers with knowhow in both the areas of law that are pertinent to their day-to-day work and other areas of law that may be relevant to them as they deal with their counterparties in the private sector and elsewhere.
The workshop which is fully funded by the Kaduna State Government will feature subject matter experts drawn from across Nigeria, and will cover subjects such as Contract drafting and negotiation; PPP/Public Procurement; What the Public Sector Lawyer Must Know about Taxation; Understanding Intellectual Property Protection in Public Sector; Legislative Drafting; Emerging Procedural Trends in Civil and Criminal Procedure; and Best Practices and Approach in Business Regulation.
According to the Chairman of the Governing Council of the NBA-ICLE, Mr. Tobenna Erojikwe, “What we are doing is to develop capacity in the public sector by focusing on peculiar public sector issues. We often hear people complain, rightly or wrongly, that there is a dearth of capacity in the public sector relative to the private sector. So, our goal is to, through these trainings and workshops for public officers gradually bridge that gap and empower participants to properly understand their space and compete with their colleagues and counterparts from anywhere”.
Continuing, Mr. Erojikwe said, “We are in talks with other State Governments to replicate this model across the country. The idea is not just to have the Nigerian Bar Association add value to its members in the public sector, but we expect that if our colleagues in the public sector constantly improve their capacity through workshops of this nature, dealing with public offices and officers will be easier, and regulation/government business, justice administration and commerce will be significantly enhanced”,
Since the NBA-ICLE Governing Council was constituted by the NBA President – Mr. Olumide Akpata a year ago, the NBA-ICLE has organised over 60 free trainings with a total of about 30,000 Nigerian lawyers participating. This is the first time that the NBA-ICLE will be organising a workshop that does not focus on the generality of lawyers across the branches but is dedicated to developing capacity amongst members of a very important closed group. The workshop also serves as an income generation source for the NBA-ICLE which until recently has been fully funded by the NBA but has grown into a financially independent and self-sustaining organisation under its current leadership.
