Delegated Legislation and Legislative Responsibility in Nigeria: The Way Forward

Abstract

Delegated legislation is usually made by the executive pursuant to the powers given to it under an Act/Law of the Legislature. The Act/Law is usually known as the enabling Act/Law. The legislature sometime sets the parameters within which a delegated legislation can be made. Such powers can either be drawn broadly or narrowly. Delegated legislation is to be made within the ambit of the powers delegated. Often times, legislative drafters are not involved in the drafting of these delegated legislation and as a result, most delegated legislation in Nigeria are repleted with a lot of ambiguity, verbosity and ultra vires the powers delegated to them by the primary legislation. This problem forms the basis of this research. This research examined the legislative responsibility in delegated legislation in Nigeria. However, the legislature seems not to be responsible for how these delegated legislations are made after they pass the enabling Act/Law. This research used the Doctrinal method of research, which is library oriented and used primary sources of materials such as the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and many other relevant statutes and secondary materials such as textbooks, journals, articles, newspapers, internet sources and other materials are used for the purpose of carrying out the research. The research found that there is no standardise legislative framework for legislative responsibility on delegated legislation in Nigeria. The legislature just donates powers to the delegate without an institutionalised framework to exercise oversight on how the delegated legislation is made. Similarly, professional legislative drafters are not used in drafting delegated legislation. The research recommended that there should be a standardise statutory framework that will give the legislature oversight powers over delegated legislation thereby making them legislatively responsible as to how delegated legislations are made in Nigeria. Similarly, legislative drafters should be involved in drafting delegated legislation.