AN EVALUATION OF THE OVERSIGHT FUNCTION OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This Chapter deals with the introduction, it comprises the background of this research work Statement of Research Problem, Research Questions, Research Objectives, Scope and Limitation of the Study, Significance of the study and Conceptual Clarification.

Background to the Study

The authority and power of the National assembly and state legislatures to conduct oversight is conferred by the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and the statutes and standing rules of the legislatures at the national and state levels. Furthermore, the authority given to the statutory bodies to conduct or respond to oversight functions requires that reports are submitted to the National Assembly or State legislature through the relevant committees. According to (Frolick, 2016), legislators have the legal backing, authority and responsibility to hold governments to account in their activities. (Ojo and Omotola, 2014) posited that, legislators hold ministries, departments and agencies of government accountable in their activities to the public. Not only do they hold the executive accountable in their functions, they also have the power to approve or confirm appointments made by the executive and judiciary. Such appointments include that of ministers, chairmen, Ambassadors, Chief Justice of the federation, federal commissions and councils, justices of the supreme courts and the chief judge of the Federal High Court. According to (Madue, 2012) legislatures conduct oversight in order to:

• Ensure transparency and openness of executive activities: Legislatures shed light on the operations of government by providing a public arena in which the policies and actions of government are debated, scrutinized, and subjected to public opinion.

• Hold the executive branch accountable: Legislative oversight scrutinizes whether the government's policies have been implemented and whether they are having the desired impact.

• Provide financial accountability: Legislatures approve and scrutinize government spending by highlighting wasteful expenditure within publicly-funded services. Their aim is to improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government expenditure.

• Legislatures also oversight policy and ensure that policies reflect the development needs of the people and government expenditure reflect approved policies of government.

• An effective legislature contributes to effective governance for sustainable human and national development. (NDI 2000), states that the function of oversight is to wield enormous powers in governance by executive arms. (Saliu and Muhammad, 2010) indicate that legislative body takes active role in understanding and monitoring the performance of the executive arm and its agencies. It is described as surveillance on the activities of the executive arm. It is inevitable that a functional and efficient legislature is needed, in democratic governance, to engender sustainable development which guarantees some real decision-making power of the people over and above the formal consent of an electoral choice (Adekunle, 1996).

The constitutional power assigned to the Legislature under the 1999 constitution makes it veritable tools for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. The primary goal of the legislature in Nigeria is to make law for good governance of Nigeria, which the executive in then required to implement. This includes the power to make appropriation and allocate financial resources for the execution of Government programs. This power implies and intend to supervise the executive branch of Government in order to ensure the legislative prescription in the budget have been complied with adequately.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. (SDG, 2022) Before the Sustainable Development Goals was established there was a previous development plan called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mark’s a historic and effective method of global mobilization to achieve a set of important social priorities worldwide. MDG express widespread public concern about poverty, hunger, disease, unmet schooling, gender inequality, and environmental degradation. The MDGs lasted from 2000-2015. Then, it was globally agreed that goals to fight poverty should continue, which led to the birth of SDGs. This is also expected to run for another 15 years (2015-2030). The concept of sustainable development is based on the concept of development (socio-economic development in line with ecological constraints). Also the concept of needs (redistribution of resources to ensure the quality of life for all) and the concept of future generations (the possibility of long-term usage of resources to ensure the necessary quality of life for future generations).

The essence of the concept of sustainable development derives from the Triple bottom line concept, which implies the balance between three pillars of sustainability– environmental sustainability focused on maintaining the quality of the environment which is necessary for conducting the economic activities and quality of life of people, social sustainability which strives to ensure human rights and equality, preservation of cultural identity, respect for cultural diversity, race and religion and economic sustainability necessary to maintain the natural, social and human capital required for income and living standards. In addition, concerted efforts have been made to enhance the legislative and oversight roles of Parliamentarians on the SDGs implementation process. In more specific terms, two select committees on SDGs have been established in the Senate and the House of Representatives. As part of the national SDGs advocacy and campaign program, the OSSAP-SDGs has entered a partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to train graduating youths into becoming SDGs champions in their local communities and in various areas of deployment for national service. It is against this background that was carried out to evaluate of the oversight function of National Assembly in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Abuja.

1:2 Statement of the Problem

The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) reinforces the policy and legal basis of sustainable development in the country. Pillars of sustainable development are embedded in many parts of the Constitution. The Federal Republic of Nigeria is “a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice.” The Constitution promises all Nigerian citizens justice which encompasses social, economic and political statuses as well as the dignity of the individual.

It is evidence that all the objectives, directives and principles that has being provided by the 1999 constitution are not justifiable. This is because of the lingering challenges that we already face in Nigeria, according to (Agba, Chukwurah and Achimugu, 2014), have asserted that the overall performance of the Nigerian legislators in accordance with their constitutional mandated functions and roles in public policies and programmes have fallen short of both national and international expectations. The ways public policies are implemented in Nigeria have been defective and as such have not been able to address some social challenges of the nation like poverty, unemployment, insecurity, lack of obedience to the rule of law by the executive, injustice, decay in the nation’s infrastructures, and many other social ills plaguing the nation. The National Assembly has experienced many challenges in the last twenty years – 1999 – 2019 from leadership problems to allegations of corruption, in-effectiveness accusations by the public and other challenges.

According to (Makinde 2005), it is not enough to formulate a policy, achieving the success and outcome lies in the implementation. Implementation problem is the widening gap between intentions and results. Many a time, policy actors pay little attention to the subject of policy implementation while it is taken for granted that once a policy is adopted by government, it must be implemented and the goals expected is achieved. These lapses and „carelessness‟ often result in poor policy implementation.

In the case of Nigeria, there are so many abandoned projects and well written policies that were not either implemented at all or not well implemented. Among the reasons that have been adduced for these are; lack of professional skills by the legislators (Popoola, 2016); (Ewuim, Nnamani &Eberinwa, 2014), personal interest of the legislators (Popoola 2016); (Ojo and Omotola 2014), lack of involvement of all stake holders in public policy process and corruption. (Eneanya, 2014); (Yagboyaju, Ojukwu, Salawu and Oni 2016). There are some tools and procedures and if not effectively carried out, the contribution that the parliamentarians can make to sustainable development will not be fully achieved. This is why it is of great importance for the National Assembly to legislate on these objectives by focusing on sustainable development.

​​​​​​​Research Questions

Based on the theoretical and practical issues identified, this study is aimed at answering the following research questions:

1. To what extent is National Assembly using the 1999 Constitution to oversight Sustainable Development Goals?

2. How does the Committee system in National Assembly maintain oversight on Sustainable Development Goals

3. What strategies is the National Assembly using to ensure compliance with Sustainable Development Goals

4. What are the challenges in the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals?

​​​​​​​Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this studies are to:

1. Evaluate the extent in which National Assembly is using the 1999 Constitution to oversight Sustainable Development Goals.

2. Find out how the committees of the National Assembly maintain oversight on Sustainable Development Goals in Abuja.

3. Assess the strategies that the National Assembly uses to ensure compliance with Sustainable Development Goals in Abuja, and

4. Examine the challenges National Assembly face in implementing Sustainable Development Goals in Abuja.

Significance of the Study

This research work can provide helpful insight into understanding of the involvement of the legislative oversight to the effectiveness of the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria under the 8th National Assembly. This study is relevant and considering the importance of partnership with the United Nation. Using the 8th and the 9th Session of the Legislative Oversight in the National Assembly as a case study, this research hopes to bring to the fore the extent of the participation of the National Assembly committees to superintends the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals of various MDAs. This includes: budgeting provision, policies, programs and activities.

This study is therefore significant as it will help the members of the National Assembly, State Assembly and everyone that will be opportune to read this research work to know the extent at which the oversight helps in the implementation of the Sustainability Development Goals. It will also create avenue for further research on the topic.

​​​​​​​Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study focused on the oversight system of Nigeria National assembly on the Sustainable development Goals. Thus, only the current constitutional provisions and legislative instruments of Nigeria was put under consideration. Also, the oversight function of the legislature was limited to the provisions of the current constitution in operation. The key stakeholders in the formulation of Sustainable Development Goals framework and goals, global parliamentary bodies made commitments to support the realization of the goals from (2015-2022).

​​​​​​​Conceptual Definition of Terms

Evaluation: Evaluation is the systematic assessment of the relevance, adequacy, progress, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of a procedure. It is relevant if it answers the need and the policies and priorities it has been designed to meet. It can also be defined as the making of a judgment about something, an assessment or review of performance of a thing.

Oversight: Oversight is the act or duty of overseeing refers to the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation.

National Assembly: A group of people assigned with the mandate of making laws in Nigeria. It is a bicameral legislature established under the section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It consist of 109 Senate members and 360 Members House of Representatives.

S.D.Gs: The SDGs (Sustainability Development Goals) was drafted from the MDGs of the UN after the assessment of the latter. The following goals are set as SDGs by the members of the UN in 2016 and the target they choose to achieve before the 2030.