PART-TIME LEGISLATURE: PANACEA FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA?

Abstract

The Legislature in Nigeria, otherwise called the National Assembly, is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. In addition to their primary responsibility of law-making, these two legislative houses also perform many significant roles in the socio-economic and political development of the country. In the discharge of their onerous legislative duties, these two legislative houses have sometimes been accused of acts incompatible with their revered status, such as legislative corruption and the general abuse of legislative immunity. This situation is further exacerbated by the high cost of running these two legislative houses. Hence there have been calls for either scrapping of one of the two legislative houses, or doing their job on a part time basis. After a thorough examination of the Nigerian constitutional provisions appertaining to the duties of the legislature, this paper recommends, among other things, part-time legislature as a better alternative, and calls on the lawmakers to avoid any act that can cast a pall on them.