BY OKAFOR AUGUSTINE IZUCHUKWU
To improve the quality of legislation in the country, Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) has got approval for a blueprint on digital library of Nigerian laws for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in accessible format.
The approval was in compliance with Sections 19 and 20 of the Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Act 2018. The law makes it mandatory for all arms of government (including the National Assembly) to provide information about their activities (acts, bills, motions and other documents of the National Assembly) in a format accessible by PWDs.
Secretary of ALDRAP, Dr. Tonye Jaja, disclosed that the Executive Secretary of the National Assembly Library asked the group to write a report on the need to establish a digital library of Nigerian laws for PWDs.
According to him, the report, the first of its kind in Nigeria and Africa, will serve as a guide for the agency and National Assembly Library Trust Fund to design a digital and physical database and library to become part of the National Assembly Library.
ALDRAP submitted a proposal to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, urging it to insert a new clause into the Legal Practitioners Bill to back Legislative Drafting as a distinct area of legal practice in Nigeria.
The group had recommended that an elaborate process of constructing a text of legislation be made a new sub-discipline of law and subject for legal research and scholarship.