LEGISLATIVE EFFICIENCY AND DEMOCRATIC STABILITY IN THE FOURTH REPUBLIC GOVERNANCE AND POLITICS OF NIGERIA: A RE-APPRAISAL OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Abstract

Democracy is a vital instrument that propels political proficiency, economic development and social stability of any nation state. This is easily actualized where there is a high level legislative efficiency and efficacy. The National Assembly of any country is a binding force that transforms the politics and governance of that state into a scenario that maximally addresses the yearnings and aspirations of the downtrodden. Democracy in Nigeria has been a mere political desideratum hanging on a limping utopia (Adewusi, 2011:27). Simply put, the National Assembly dictates the operational mechanism of democracy, with certain sharp contradictions arising from defined self interest, instead of democracy dictating the operations of National Assembly. Therefore, this paper examines the roles of Fourth Republic National Assembly in actualizing legislative efficiency and democratic stability in the governance and politics of Nigeria. Accordingly, the paper discusses the History of Nigerian Democracy, Democracy Experiment and Political Life in Nigeria, Legislative Activities in Nigeria (1999 to 2011), and Democratic Stability in Nigeria. Methodologically, data for this work were gathered mainly from
secondary sources of recorded human documents. Again, our research design was based on ex-post facto analysis. The paper based its theory on the analytical framework of theory of democracy. Hence, it is found that Nigeria as a nation lacks in the shared values and symbols upon which the formation of democratic consensus rests. The National Assembly members are deeply busy into unprecedented capital accumulation to the utter detriment of the electorates. Therefore, it is our recommendation, inter alia, that members of the National Assembly and politicians in general should address state of unemployment in Nigeria that has deepened level of poverty, triggering off diseases of all kinds. This completely connotes democratic restructuring and legislative enhancement in the fourth republic Nigeria.