The Acting Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategy Study (NIPS) in Kuru Jos, Plateau state, Jonathan Mela Juma, has lamented that the Institute is facing a lot of legal challenges from many of those it is owing money.
The Director General, who led participants of the Course 39 of the Institute to have a parley with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, Friday, emphasised that the Institute has been operating below its envisaged capacity due to funding challenges.
“In spite of the facts that we have looked inwards and appealed to corporate organizations, we are still living with constant threats of litigations from our creditors for services offered to the Institute.”
He said that NIPSS was conceived by the founding fathers to serve as a think tank and a center of excellence for executive training.
According to him, the Institute is expected to develop a top class technocrats of high intellectual capacity who will conceptualize and ensure the implementation of innovative and dynamic policy initiatives and strategies critical for the realization of our national development aspirations.
“Since 1979, the Institute has produced a total of 1,914 top level policy strategy experts whose positive contributions in various aspects of our national lives cannot be easily quantified.
“In 2017, a total of 66 participants were carefully selected after a rigorous screening process.
“The participants undertook study tours of 12 states in Nigeria, 6 countries within Africa and 6 outside Africa, to understand of the roles of STIs in developing agriculture and Argo allied industries.”
Jonathan Mela expressed gratitude to President Buhari for his support, which he said, is a clear manifestation of his zeal to ensure that Nigeria is at per with most developed nations of the world.
“We are encouraged by this support and are determined to improve on our vigour in stimulating and training visionary leaders and change agents who will be the vanguard in the drive for a new era in Nigeria: a new era of self reliance, sustainable peace and prosperity.”[myad]
