Committee System as a Fulcrum of Effective Legislative Process: Study of Abia State 7th House of Assembly

Abstract

The legislature is an institution which represents the common and collective interest of the citizens through the enactment of laws and the exercise of oversight functions on the activities of the executive. This is why in the performance of the myriad of legislative and other related functions which the modern legislatures are saddled with, the use of legislative committees became an indispensable tool. The legislative committee becomes the necessary tool for the legislature to achieve its mandate of bill-making, oversight and representation. In the performance of its assignments, the legislative committees have to contend with the overbearing influence of the executive arm and this has adversely affected their performance. This obvious interference is more pronounced in the state assemblies where the Governor determines members of the state assembly during the conduct of the party’s primaries. That is the reason why the main objective of the study is to examine how despite this anomaly, the legislative committees still facilitate the efficiency of the 7th Abia Assembly in carrying out their mandate. The legislative committees of the 7th Abia Assembly played a vital role in the parent body with reference to bill drafting, deliberation, oversight, and budget process, and that is the justification for carrying out the study. This study examines the committee system as a fulcrum for the effective legislative process of the 7th Abia State House of Assembly. The study adopted the survey research design with a questionnaire administered to House members (including the committee members) and the staff of the 7th Abia State House of Assembly. The data obtained were presented in tables using simple percentages to analyze it. This was done by analyzing the respondent views or information that was collected from the questionnaire administered to the respondents. The study revealed that the legislative committees are relevant and useful as they enhance the efficiency of their parent body (whole House) in the core mandate of legislation, oversight and representation. It also revealed that the committee system impacted positively the development of the State through the enactment of people’s-oriented laws and carrying out oversight functions over relevant government agencies to ensure the judicious use of government funds and also, expose corruption and curb arbitrary government policies that may have a negative impact on the citizenry. It also revealed that the political and administrative machinery put in place does not allow committees to perform optimally, and as important as oversight the committee’s activities are hampered by a lack of funds to address these encumbrances, legislative autonomy, adequate capacity building and improved fundings are needed to enhance their performance. The study recommended improved budgetary provisions to the legislative process of legislative committees to enhance their capacity to conduct activities with little or no interference. The legislative committee occupies a pride of place in the legislature as its functions cannot be substituted even during the authoritarian regimes of the defunct Soviet Union the use of legislative committees was never jettisoned.