Legislative Oversight and Executive Accountability in the Seventh National Assembly

Abstract

Legislative oversight and executive accountability are implicational-related concepts so much that the presence of one means a presence of the other and vice versa. Hence, an examination of the performance of oversight function in the 7th National Assembly viz-a-viz the concepts of horizontal and vertical accountability cannot be overstated. Specifically, the study evaluated the performance of oversight functions by the Committees of the 7th National Assembly, identified deficiencies in the discharge of the oversight mandate by the Committees of the 7th National Assembly aimed at ensuring executive accountability, and suggested measures that would be needed to remedy deficiencies in the performance of oversight by the Committees of the National Assembly in the future. The study adopted the mixed research design employing the simple random sampling in the administration of the research instrument (questionnaire) to a statistically determined sample size (using the Taro Yamane’s formula) of one hundred and twenty-three (123) respondents drawn from the population of committee clerks of the National Assembly. Data were sourced from a primary source (questionnaire) and secondary sources (sessional report of the Senate Committee on Defence, the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s self-assessment toolkit, official publications of the National Assembly, journal articles, magazines, the internet, among others). The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the analysis of quantitative data while the content analysis was adopted in analyzing qualitative data. Findings showed that there were sufficient legal frameworks for the operation of committees in the National Assembly as demonstrated by the empirical analysis of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) toolkit as well as the Stapenhurst, Sahgal, Woodley, and Pelizzo’s benchmark for assessing the performance of the Public Accounts Committee even though the question of effectiveness persists. This, notwithstanding, the 7th Senate Public Accounts Committee (7th SPAC) made gains in its accountability drive by recommending the refund of an unretired advance of a deceased Immigration Officer to the tune of N441, 750.00 among others. Despite the efforts, the study identified the inadequacy of financial and material resources, the lack of finance jeopardizes oversight goals as committees were left at the mercy of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to undertake oversight visits, etc., as deficiencies in the oversight process in the National Assembly. Indeed, given the imperatives imposed by the principle of separation of powers, legislative oversight is necessary to enhance executive accountability in the presidential system. Therefore, in line with the deficiencies inherent in the oversight process, the study suggested the provision of financial and material resources, sanctions for non-implementation of oversight reports, among others as measures that would remedy and enhance the performance of legislative oversight in the future.