Abstract
Existing studies on the Nigerian House of Representatives (HoR) focus on examining the performance of the legislature base on its core functions of lawmaking, oversight and representation. This paper extends the scope covered by such studies. The paper reviews two versions of the Standing Order of the House of Representatives to identify major departures. Drawing from existing literature, the paper also examines how the academic qualification of Members of the lower chamber as well as party affiliation of the leadership have changed from Nigeria’s 4th to 8th Assembly. By focusing on the proportion of Bills passed within each legislative session, the paper highlights a major weakness in the Volden and Wiseman methodology of assessing legislative effectiveness that measures the effectiveness of individual Members rather than focusing on the legislature as an institution. Secondary data were collected from Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and PLAC (Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre) from 1999 to February 2019. Descriptive analysis by way of trend analysis, charts, tabulation and percentages, were used for the analysis. It was found that: (1) whereas Nigeria’s population have changed from an average of 48,096,105 within 1960–1966 to 152,157,666 within 1999–2018, the total number of Members in the House of Representatives have only grown from 320 to 360: representing a 12.5% change as against population that has recorded a percentage change of 216.36%; (2) a comparative analysis of two versions of the Standing Order of the House of Representatives shows that the House has recorded significant feet in strengthening its internal rules to allow for effective selection of members into committees unlike in the past where committee membership was based on party affiliation/nomination; and (3) the educational qualification of members elected into the House of Representatives within 1999–2019 also shows that the lower chamber has continued to attract persons with higher educational qualification as representatives. The paper concludes that, the Nigerian House of Representatives from 1999 to 2019 has a performance score of 20%, measured by proportion of Bills passed. While the 8th HoR came on board with high expectation as reflected by the number of Bills presented, it performed below expectation against this benchmark.
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Notes
- 1.
Others are: Committee on Rules and Business, Committee on House Services, Committee on Public Petitions, Committee on Public Accounts, Committee on Ethics and Privileges and Committee on Media and Public Affairs (see Section 117, Standing Order XVIII of the House of Representatives, July 2014).
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Appendices
Appendix A: Number of Constituency by Geopolitical Zone in Nigeria
South East States | No. of Constituency | South South States | No. of Constituency | South West States | No. of Constituency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abia | 8 | Akwa-Ibom | 10 | Ekiti | 6 |
Anambra | 11 | Bayelsa | 5 | Lagos | 24 |
Ebonyi | 6 | Cross River | 8 | Ogun | 9 |
Enugu | 8 | Delta | 10 | Ondo | 9 |
Imo | 10 | Edo | 9 | Osun | 9 |
Total (5) | 43 | Rivers | 13 | Oyo | 14 |
Total (6) | 55 | Total (6) | 71 | ||
North East States | No. of Constituency | North Central Stats | No. of Constituency | North West States | No. of Constituency |
Adamawa | 8 | Benue | 11 | Jigawa | 11 |
Bauchi | 12 | Kogi | 9 | Kaduna | 16 |
Borno | 10 | Kwara | 6 | Kano | 24 |
Gombe | 6 | Nasarawa | 5 | Katsina | 15 |
Taraba | 6 | Niger | 10 | Kebbi | 8 |
Yobe | 6 | Plateau | 8 | Sokoto | 11 |
Total (6) | 48 | Total (6) | 49 | Zamfara | 7 |
Total (7) | 92 |
Appendix B: Nigeria’s population by states and geopolitical zone
Benue | 5,741,815 | Bauchi | 6,537,314 | Jigawa | 5,828,163 |
Kogi | 4,473,490 | Borno | 5,860,183 | Kaduna | 8,252,366 |
Kwara | 3,192,893 | Gombe | 3,256,962 | Kano | 13,076,892 |
Nasarawa | 2,523,395 | Taraba | 3,066,834 | Katsina | 7,831,319 |
Niger | 5,556,247 | Yobe | 3,294,137 | Kebbi | 4,440,050 |
Plateau | 4,200,442 | Adamawa | 4,248,436 | Sokoto | 4,998,090 |
North Central Population | 21,487,840 | North East Population | 26,263,865 | Zamfara | 4,515,427 |
Akwa/Ibom | 5,482,177 | Ekiti | 3,270,798 | North West Population | 48,942,307 |
Bayelsa | 2,277,961 | Lagos | 12,550,598 | Abia | 3,727,347 |
Cross River | 3,866,269 | Ogun | 5,217,716 | Anambra | 5,527,809 |
Delta | 5,663,362 | Ondo | 4,671,695 | Ebonyi | 2,880,383 |
Edo | 4,235,595 | Osun | 4,705,589 | Enugu | 4,411,119 |
Rivers | 7,303,924 | Oyo | 7,840,864 | Imo | 5,408,756 |
South-South Population | 28,829,287 | South West Population | 38,257,261 | South East Population | 21,955,414 |
FCT ABUJA | 3,564,126 | Total Population (Nigeria, 2016 Estimate) | 193,500,540 | ||
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Abraham, T.W. (2021). The Nigerian House of Representatives from 1999–2019: A Performance Assessment. In: Aremu, F.A., Bakare, A.R. (eds) Two Decades of Legislative Politics and Governance in Nigeria’s National Assembly. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4455-6_11
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