Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions of the Nigerian National Assembly: A Performance Assessment (2015-2019)

Abstract

Globally, the elected Members of the Parliament (MPs) who must ensure that they function in an internally democratic manner and have the necessary authority and resources to carry out their basic functions of legislation, representation and oversight. Although, these MPs are usually faced with enormous challenges relating to carrying out their core functions of law making, representation and oversight, they seek for ways to improve their performance in order to be more open, accountable, responsive and independent. For effective parliamentary performance, Committee system is very vital. This is so because, the parliament performs most of its core functions through the viable means of the Committee system. Committees are the defining characteristic of the modern legislature. Therefore, the Committees form an integral part of parliament through which legislators carry out their assiduous tasks. The committees are small groups or sub-divisions of legislators assigned on temporary or permanent basis during the life-span of a parliament to examine matters more closely than could be done in the plenary (see National Assembly Hand Book, 2011). It is an essential part of legislative process. Legislative committees (sometimes called commissions) are units of organization within a legislative chamber. The possible roles of the committees vary from country to country, depending upon the governing system, strength and organization of political parties, available resources and other relevant factors.