COMMITTEE SYSTEM AND LEGISLATIVE EFFECTIVENESS IN NIGERIA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: A STUDY OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE OF THE 7TH SENATE (2011-2015)

CHAPTER ONE 

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Nigeria’s federal legislative body, the National Assembly, consists of two Chambers—the House of Representatives and the Senate. All members of the National Assembly are elected directly for a tenure of four years. Although, as the consequence of being a former British colony, Nigeria started out with a Parliamentary System of government at independence in 1960. It switched to a Presidential System modeled after that of the United States in 1979. This was done primarily to achieve a more enhanced separation of powers, and checks and balances, among the three arms of government. In addition to its legislative mandate, the current Constitution accords the National Assembly extensive oversight powers. These include control over the spending of federal funds, the authority to provide advice and consent for appointments to key executive positions, the power to approve all treaties negotiated by the executive, and the power to impeach the President and his Deputy (Hanibal, 2017).

Also crucial to the proper functioning of the body are the various committees. While the Nigerian Constitution requires each house of the National Assembly to form two committees, a joint committee on finance and a public accounts committee, it permits each body to form as many other committees as it deems fit. The National Assembly may establish various forms of committees such as special committees, standing committees, ad hoc committees, and committees of the whole. The legislative process in Nigeria involves both houses of the National Assembly and the President. Typically, once a bill (executive, private, or member’s bill) is introduced in the National Assembly, it goes through a rigorous process before it is enacted into law, they are three readings of the bill, scrutiny by the relevant committee where amendments may be made, and presidential assent (Hanibal, 2017).

As it is worldwide, the major functions of the legislature are to make laws and scrutinize bills; oversee the executive arm of government and advocacy via representation. The need for overall proficiency in the discharge of the enormous and numerous legislative duties and responsibilities makes the committee system within the legislature both important and indispensable (Olalekan, 2017).

In the 7th Senate, there were no less than 65 Standing Committees as well as 5 Ad-hoc Committees, while the House of Representatives had at least 95 Standing Committees spread among core areas of need including Agriculture; Rules and Business; Public Accounts; Finance; HIV, Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control; Human Rights; Legislative Compliance; Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions; Air Force; Health; Works; Navy; Commerce; Aviation; Power; Women Affairs; Defence; Environment; Housing; Land Transport; Telecommunications, Aids, Loans and Debt Management; Solid Minerals; Tertiary Education and Tetfund amongst others. These committees cater for specific issues of governance and do the necessary work of oversight over different MDAs and statutory corporations of government.

One major essence of the committee system includes the examination of proposed legislations critically in order to enhance its functionality and desired impact on the society. This is done via public hearings and interaction with professionals, experts and stakeholders in the particular field which they have a purview over. Simply put, these committees fine-tune bills, motions and resolutions before they are presented on the floor for general debate and subsequent passage into law

In the speech of Senate President Bukola Saraki on the 23rd of November, 2015 when the first batch of standing committees were inaugurated, he specifically referred to the committee system as a veritable tool that a democratic legislature must rely on for some of its most important works. He added that the ability to carry out effective oversight functions and expose corruption squarely rests on the effectiveness of the legislature’s committee system. And with the appointments and selection of members into these committees made based on their prior antecedents, backgrounds, passion, knowledge, expertise, and the highest standard of legislative competence, nothing less than the very best was expected from the chairmen, vice chairmen and members of the respective committees (Olalekan, 2017).

Committee System is an essential part of the legislative process. Senate committees monitor on- going governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information, and recommend courses of action to the Senate. Thousands of bills and resolutions are referred to Senate committees. To manage the volume and complexity, the Senate divides its work between standing committees, special or select committees, and joint committees. These committees are further divided into subcommittees. Committees help to set the agenda of the Senate by considering and reporting on a bill.

In the Nigerian National Assembly for instance, legislators apart from debates in the Chambers, operate a committee system of legislation where legislators are grouped into committees in most cases where they have legislative interest, experience and qualifications. The Senate Committee on Public Accounts is one of the many committees in the Senate. Examining the effectiveness of the committee vis-à-vis the Effectiveness of the Legislative Committee System, is therefore critical.

Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly (PAC) is one of the highly empowered committees established by the standing orders of both houses to examine Federal Government (FGN) accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted to meet the public expenditure and the Auditor's report thereon, as provided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is one of the important committees with relatively higher number of staffing in relation to other committees. The Committee was established with the objectives of pursuing the provisions of section 62 and 85 (5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and rules 96 and 9 (5) of the Standing Order of the Senate 2015.

​​​​​​​Statement of the Research Problem

It is a known fact that the Legislature is one of the key arms of government that is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring good governance and nation building through effective legislation and oversight. One of the strategies adopted to ensure smooth discharge of its function is the committee system.

Thus, given the role committee system plays in the legislative process, it is pertinent to periodically subject it to evaluation with a view to identify areas of successes and challenges and to ensure continuous improvement in the committee system processes. This created the imperative for the study. Furthermore, the need to study Committee System is underscored by its importance. The system does not only aim at lessening the pressure of work on the floor of the house, but also at increasing the efficiency of the larger house in its overall responsibilities. Committees are task oriented bodies with clearly defined purposes and directions, which act on behalf of the whole house, which in fact confer legitimacy on them to get some specific legislative responsibilities sorted out in a more manageable and efficient manner. This, perhaps, prompted Ojagbohunmi (2006) to argue that committees are usually composed of legislators, delegated to perform some work of the parent body more closely and in detailed manner, where the Legislators would otherwise not have had enough time to carry out such responsibilities (Cummings & Wise, 1997).

Therefore, the Parliament cannot effectively carry out its legislative responsibilities without the Committee System.

The choice of PAC for a case study was also underscored by the fact that Public Accounts Committee has traditionally occupied a higher status over other committees in the legislature. In many countries, it is the oldest parliamentary committee. The Gladstonian reforms in Britain gave rise to the creation of a Public Accounts Committee in 1861, and many other Commonwealth countries followed this model from there on. The historical fact that the Public Accounts Committee tends to be one of the oldest of all parliamentary committees indicates that its importance as the legislature apex for financial oversight and scrutiny has long been recognized (Wehner, 2002, p. 3-4).

The committee also functions to strengthen the operations and management of public account of the federation to eliminate corruption and enhance transparency, accountability and good governance. Indeed, it is not out of context to subject PAC to investigation as there has been previous studies in other jurisdiction on PAC such as the ones conducted in Australia and New Zealand by Klynveld, Peat, Marwick and Goerdeler (KPMG) in 2006. The study of the performance of the 7th SPAC will therefore give a good insight unto the performance of the other committees that jointly made up the Senate. Accordingly, this study examines Public Accounts Committee of the 7th Senate (2011 – 2015) and its contribution to effective legislation.

​​​​​​​Research Objectives

The broad aim of this study is to examine the Committee System and Legislative Effectiveness in the Nigerian Senate with particular reference to the Public Accounts Committee of the 7th Senate (2011-2015).

The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. Examine the Role of 7th SPAC in ensuring Legislative Effectiveness during the period under review.

2. Examine the challenges faced by the Public Account Committee of the 7th Senate.

​​​​​​​Research Questions

This study is to be guided by the following research questions

1. What Role has SPAC played in ensuring Legislative effectiveness of the Legislature during the year under review?

2. What are the challenges faced by the 7th Senate Public Accounts Committee in the discharge of its responsibilities?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study focus on Public Accounts Committee of the 7th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2011-2015). The choice of this period is not accidental. It was a period the government of the day instituted the Single Treasury Accounts (TSA) in its quest to fight corruption and minimize wastages in government ministries and departments. This coincided with the coming of a new government which placed high premium on anticorruption and this tasked the Senate Public Accounts Committee to be more proactive as the electorate were demanding greater transparency and accountability in the management of public funds from the Legislature. The period could be expected to provide ample opportunity for the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate to work effectively.

Although, there could be instances of citing other Committees for purposes of example, the focus is on Public Accounts Committee of the 7th Senate.

​​​​​​​Significance of the Study

This research work will be invaluable in extending the theoretical and conceptual frontier of knowledge particularly in understanding how Committee System can foster effective legislation. Furthermore, this study is conducted with the utmost hope that the outcome and findings would challenge other scholars and researchers to take off from the findings and explore other aspects of the subject with the ultimate goal of increasing the richness and broadening the intellectual discourse of the area of the study.

Not many studies that existed on National Assembly focused on Committee System’s effectiveness, especially on its contribution to effective legislation. This study intends to fill this gap by making contribution to the existing knowledge in the area of the study.

​​​​​​​Definition of Key Concepts

• Legislative Effectiveness: Legislative Effectiveness is a summary metric of how successful Legislatures are in carrying out their Legislative function. This can be done through the legislative process of law making, oversight functions and representation. Legislatures may be effective at moving their proposed legislation through key committees and to the floor of the Senate/House of Representatives. Legislative effectiveness can also be defined as “the proven ability to advance Legislative agenda items through the legislative process.” It is also the degree to which, or how successful Legislatures are in producing desired results; or success.

• Committee System is defined in the study to mean subgroups of the legislature that are assigned with the responsibilities of carrying out legislative activities, which are within their jurisdiction and according to their Standing Order and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and they are to serve within the tenure of that Parliament. Senate Committees on Public Account Committee (SPAC) is used as a case to carry out this study.

• Legislature: The legislature is the arm of government charged with the responsibility of law making, representation and oversight functions over executive body. Legislatures form important parts of most governments; in the separation of powers model, they are often contrasted with the executive and judicial branches of parliamentary government.

• Public Accounts Committee: This is a group of people chosen by the Parliament to examine the accounts of government departments or MDAs in order to check that money is being spent in a careful and suitable way, and not misappropriated. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a select committee of Parliament established by the Constitution. It is responsible for overseeing government expenditures to ensure they are effective and honest. The PAC is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government.

- Auditor General for the Federation: The Auditor-General assumes the highest point of the financial accountability pyramid. As the officer responsible for auditing government income and expenditure, they act as a watchdog over financial integrity and the credibility of reported information.

​​​​​​​Organizations of Chapters

The research is organized in five chapters. Chapter one discusses the background to the study, statement of the research problem, objectives of the study, research questions as well as the significance and delimitation of the study. Chapter two reviews related literature and theoretical frame work, chapter three discusses the methodology used in collecting data, sample procedure, research design, as well as method of analysis. Chapter four presents and discusses findings by making use of table. The final chapter summarizes and concludes the research.