We have completed the signing of Wales international attacker Brennan Johnson from Crystal Palace in a deal that sees Dwight McNeil move to Selhurst Park. 🔵
For days, Nigeria’s government has been organising mass weddings to help low-income families overcome the cost of marriage. The programme supports widows, divorcees, orphans and unmarried people.
Opay please:
-I don't want to play with a child.
-I don't want to claim stars.
-I don't want to invite people I sent money to yesterday.
-I don't want a N2million loan, fast and easy.
Thank you for your attention to this matter🙂
Alhamdulillah, I'm now an https://t.co/H4daGbm9o5 holder. 🎓 This achievement is dedicated to you, Baba. You inspired me to pursue it before you passed, 😥 and today I have done it. Rest well, Baba. I miss you. 💔 @Usman_Yau_78@seseforex@ABFXKILLER@SpeedouForex@rahmath369
Today, I marked the completion of the PLAC Legislative Internship Programme in Abuja, Nigeria.
The public policy immersive experience is a flagship initiative of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre - @PLACNG), with support from the @EUinNigeria, that provides young Nigerians under the age of 35 with first-hand experience of parliamentary processes and procedures over a ten-week period.
It is exciting to note that this year, only 40 interns (typically one representative from each state and the FCT) were selected from a pool of over 3,000 applicants across Nigeria in what is widely regarded as a highly competitive and merit-based recruitment exercise.
As PLAC Legislative Interns, we are attached to legislative committees where we contribute through research, informed reflections on policy proposals within our respective committees, and engagements with past and present leaders across government institutions, the diplomatic corps, civil society, and academia. I was deployed to the Senate Committee on National Planning and Economic Affairs, where I developed a research proposal examining the extent to which Nigeria’s annual budgets aligned with the Medium-Term National Development Plan (2021–2025).
Beyond committee work, the internship programme also encourages participant-led policy initiatives. One of the most notable was the opportunity to propose and develop topics for an official PLAC podcast. During this exercise, I successfully rallied my colleagues around a discussion on Digital Technology and Cybersecurity Policy in the age of Artificial Intelligence, alongside four other important public policy themes.
To conclude the programme, participants took part in a Model Legislative Assembly, where each intern represented a federal constituency in a simulated plenary session. Alongside colleagues representing constituencies across the North-East, I co-sponsored a Bill to amend the North-East Development Commission (Establishment) Act, No. 7 of 2017. The proposed amendments sought to provide for the mandatory inclusion of women and persons with disabilities on the Governing Board, strengthen the review and implementation of the North-East Development Master Plan, improve the reporting of outstanding statutory remittances due to the Commission, and enhance transparency and public reporting of its activities.
I also contributed to a motion moved by my colleague representing Edo State, Hon. Esther Ogbonmo, calling for a more proactive response by relevant government agencies to the recurring flood crisis in Nigeria’s South-South region. In my contribution, I argued that beyond strengthening disaster response, Nigeria’s foreign policy institutions should consistently present these recurring floods as one of the consequences of the global climate crisis.
Communities such as Hinna, Dadin Kowa, and Zambuk in Yamaltu/Deba Federal Constituency, which contribute very little to global greenhouse gas emissions, continue to bear a disproportionate share of the consequences. Accordingly, I argued that Nigeria should continue to use international platforms, particularly the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to advocate for greater accountability from highly industrialised countries whose historical emissions have contributed significantly to climate change.
I am sincerely grateful to PLAC, the European Union, and the National Assembly of Nigeria for this invaluable opportunity to witness first-hand the workings of one of Nigeria’s most consequential public institutions.
The experience has further strengthened my commitment to evidence-based public policy, legislative research, and inclusive governance. I look forward to building on these lessons as I continue pursuing opportunities to contribute to Nigeria’s development through research, policy, and public service.
So, if you happened to run into me at the National Assembly over the past ten weeks and wondered what I was up to, this was it.