Parliamentary democracy and citizen's welfare in Nigeria: The case of National Assembly

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Bonn Obiekwe Nwanolue,Victor Chidubem Iwuoha,Onyinyeomachukwu Gift Uwaechie,Okorie Albert
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2750

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Parliamentary democracy and citizen's welfare in Nigeria:

The case of National Assembly

Bonn Obiekwe Nwanolue

1

| Victor Chidubem Iwuoha

2

|

Onyinyeomachukwu Gift Uwaechie

2

| Okorie Albert

2

1

Department of Political Science,

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University,

Igbariam, Nigeria

2

Department of Political Science, University of

Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Correspondence

Victor Chidubem Iwuoha, Department of

Political Science University of Nigeria, Nsukka,

Nigeria.

Email: victor.iwuoha@unn.edu.ng

Funding information

This research is funded by the Nigerian

government's Tertiary Education Trust Fund

(TETFund) 2019.

This study examined how National Assembly's legislation has facilitated or enhanced

citizen's social welfare in Nigeria. Based on qualitative research methods and post-

colonial theory, the study argued that the National Assembly has primarily elevated

its private interests (including the interests of the executive arm) above qualitative

pro-people legislation that could enhance citizen's social welfare. Between 2015 and

2018, only 12 out of the 86 bills passed and assented to by the President were

related to, and had direct effects on citizen's social welfare in Nigeria. Hence, an esti-

mated 86.9 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty. Unemployment rate increased

from 10.57% of total labor force in 2012 to 22.56% in 2018. Key challenges include:

poor communication between lawmakers and the citizens, frequent turnover of

legislators, lack of experience/technical capacity, corrupt tendencies and executive–

legislative crisis. Thus, citizens' engagement via town hall meetings and public inter-

actions is imperative for the enactment of qualitative pro-people legislation that

improves people's lives and social welfare.

KEYWORDS

National Assembly, Nigeria, parliamentary democracy, poverty, social welfare

1|INTRODUCTION

The hallmark of legislative role in any democratic society is fair, transparent

and equitable representation that is aimed at salvaging the yearnings

and aspirations of the hoi-polloi, through policies, programmes and legisla-

tion that enhance socio-economic and political stability. This is exquisitely

practicable when the legislature discharges its functions toward the

enhancement of citizens' welfare. This includes the enactment of laws that

enhance the provision of basic amenities, gainful employment,industrializa-

tion, enthronement of maximum security of lives and property, and so on

(Iwuoha, 2018). However, since the expansion of oil revenue receiptsin the

1970s, the legislature in Nigeriahas watched idly while the country's federal

government consciously de-prioritize or politicize issues of intergovernmen-

tal fiscal responsibility, accountability, citizen's welfare and poverty allevia-

tion (Adejunmobi, 2000;Ayede,2009;Anicheetal.(2021).

Nigeria has been in quagmire of a pseudo-democratic dispensa-

tion that seems to have cataclysmically alienated the citizens from

social welfare (Nwanolue, 2003). The Nigerian National Assembly

which is charged with the role of enactment of laws that govern the

federation has not been able to legislate beyond scientific frivolities,

actions of personal aggrandizement, self-succession, permanentization

of parliamentary seat syndrome, policies of prebendalism, favoritism,

nepotism, squander-mania and arbitrary enhancement of their per-

sonal emoluments in a quick successive, sarcastic and contentious

manner (Obiorji & Iwuoha, 2021). The National Assembly approved

for itself about N150 billion annually between 2010 and 2013,

amounting to about N600 billion. It also allocated N139.5 billion in

the 2018 budget and N125 billion in the 2019 budget, representing

25% of the Federal government total overhead cost, in addition

to the plethora of sidekicks that came their way in the course of

their so-called oversight functions in the ministries and parastatals

within the period (Sanusi Lamido, cited in Vanguard, 2010,

December 4). The citizen's welfare has therefore never been a

major prioritized focal point in the nation's legislative democracy.

Received: 15 May 2020 Revised: 9 March 2021 Accepted: 10 August 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2750

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2750. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2750