AN ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SERVICE COMMISSION FROM 2013‐2018

CHAPTER ONE 

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

In almost all known forms of government in the world, especially under the Presidential System, the legislature is an indispensable arm of government because of its centrality as a symbol of popular representation and watchdog role on both the Executive and the Judiciary. The Legislature performs three core functions in any democracy especially in Presidential systems. These roles are law making, oversight and representation. In Nigeria, these core functions are expressly captured in Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended. Apart from these core functions, there are other subsidiary functions that are performed by the legislature such as political education, socialization, constitutional development, leadership training among others. The task before any legislature is enormous as citizen’s expectations are on the rise for the legislature to deliver on good governance. For the legislature to achieve its constitutional mandate of effective representation, it requires support services.

However, the mandate of the legislature cannot be achieved without the required legislative support services from the skilled personnel that are appointed either on a pensionable or non-pensionable basis and who also require to be trained, promoted, and disciplined. Habu (2010), espoused that the legislatures have established specialized agencies that are saddled with the specific mandate to recruit, train and deploy relevant staff and personnel for the smooth operations of the legislature. He further posits that others have, depending on the legislative environment, relied on auxiliary staff or professionals on non-permanent basis to perform and carry out legislative duties for them.

 

In Nigeria, since the return to democracy in 1999, efforts have been made to maintain and sustain the independence of the legislature hence the establishment of a body legally empowered by law, to amongst other things; appoint, promote and discipline staff for the legislature. The National Assembly Service Commission Act 2014 as amended states that the essence of establishing this specialized agency for recruitment is to guarantee job stability and instill loyalty to the legislative arm of government and to ensure fairness, equity in the recruitment process and respect for the Nigeria Federal Character Principle.

Section 51 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) as amended clearly states that there shall be a Clerk to the National Assembly and such other staff as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly. Thus, in 2000, the National Assembly Service Commission was established by an Act of the National Assembly. The National Assembly Service Commission Act 2014 as amended, section 6, (1) (2) is charged with the responsibilities to appoint, promote and discipline personnel for the legislature. Essentially, the National Assembly Service Commission supports the legislators, Committees, Principal Officers with the legislative support services at all stages of the legislative process, through its personnel that possesses appropriate knowledge and skills. It is against this backdrop that this study assesses the performance of the National Assembly Service Commission, from 2013 – 2018.

1.2     Statement of the Research Problem

The National Assembly Service Commission Act of 1981 was repealed, re-enacted in 2000 and amended in 2014. Specifically, the Commission, according to Section 6 (2) of the National Assembly Service Act 2014 as amended, is charged with the following mandate; appointment of experienced and qualified staff into the National Assembly Service, promotio of such staff, discipline or transfer of staff from of the National Assembly Service as well as to ensure good working conditions for the service.

Adebo (1988), asserted that since Independence in 1960, Nigeria has experienced repeated military coups and each instance of these coups, the legislature is usually disbanded by the military coupists as the Constitution is suspended. Habu (2010), said that over the years, this has affected the capacity and experience of the legislature as a distinct arm of government from the Executive and the Judiciary. In order to remedy this retardation particularly at the federal level, the National Assembly Service Commission was established to fill the gap in manpower and personnel support structure. Since the establishment of the National Assembly Service Commission in 2000, no serious research effort has been made to assess the contribution or performance of this body. Moreover, it appears that despite the existence and expansion in structure and operations of the Commission, lack of adequate manpower and skilled personnel has been expressed by leadership of the various sessions of the National Assembly. Consequently, there has been series of calls for more skilled personnel and professionalisation of the National Assembly manpower. It is based on the foregoing observation that this research work assesses the performance of the National Assembly Service Commission from 2013 – 2018.

Research Questions

This research work is guided by the following research questions:

1. What are the constitutional mandates of the National Assembly Service Commission?

2. To what extent has the National Assembly Service Commission been able to achieve its mandate from 2013 - 2018?

3. What are the challenges that confronted the National Assembly Service Commission from 2013 - 2018?

4. What measures can be adopted to address the challenges confronting National Assembly Service Commission in the discharge of its mandate?

​​​​​​​Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of the study is to assess the performance of National Assembly Service Commission. The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. Examine the mandate of the National Assembly Service Commission in terms of appointment, promotion and discipline,

2. Assess the performance of the National Assembly Service Commission in the discharge of its mandate from 2013 – 2018,

3. Examine the challenges that militates against the effective performance of National Assembly Service Commission in the discharge of its mandate between 2013 and 2018; and

4. Identify measures that can be adopted to address the challenges confronting National Assembly Service Commission in the discharge of its mandate.

Scope of the Study

This study focuses on the performance of National Assembly Service Commission and looks into its activities from 2013-2018 because of the critical role it plays for the legislative arm of government in terms of appointment, promotion and discipline. The Commission has been in existence for almost two (2) decades hence the need to assess and know whether it is serving the purpose for which it was established. The analytical scope bothers generally on the attempt to resolve theoretical and empirical connection between public regulatory institutions or structures and performance. This is important in order to justify the existence of such institution such as the National Assembly Service Commission.

​​​​​​​Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is to help the National Assembly Service Commission to identify the exact challenges that have been hindering the attainment of its objectives and bring a practicable solution to it. Furthermore, the findings of this study can help other researchers to further explore different dimensions of organizational performance in order to examine their impact.

​​​​​​​Definition of Key Concepts

Organization: this has to do with the formal structures that encompass the coming together of individual in order to achieve a common goal.

Performance: This refers to the examining of the expectation against the outcome (attainment) of organizational goals.

Recruitment: This implies the process of bringing an individual to occupy a position in an organization.

Promotion: This refers to the hierarchical change in position of employees in an organization.

Discipline: This means the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

 

​​​​​​​Organization of Chapters

In any research work, organization of chapters is conventional for the presentation of chapters as it helps for proper understanding of ideas in the study. As a result of this, the research work consists of five (5) chapters.

Chapter one gives a general introduction of the research work, highlights the statement of the research problem, objectives of the study, put some succinct research questions, define the scope of the study, significance of the study and defined key concepts and the organization of the work.

Chapter two deals entirely with the review of related literature and the theoretical framework, here relevant scholarly works to the research were thoroughly revised.

Chapter three deals with methods adopted in carrying out this research work. Specifically, the researcher would outline the research design, sources of data, population of the study, sample size, sampling technique and limitation to the study. Chapter four deals with the presentation of analysis and interpretation of data collected and discussion of findings.

Finally, chapter five summarizes and concludes the research work as well as gives out relevant recommendations.