Oni, Samuel O. (2013) Legislature-Executive Relations in the Presidential System: A Study of Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria, 1999-2011. ["eprint_fieldopt_thesis_type_phd" not defined] thesis, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.
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Abstract
This study examines legislature-executive relations in the presidential system. The relationship between the legislature and the executive is pivotal to any constitution and is one of the central characteristics of a model of government. The need for separation of the roles, powers and personnel of the executive and the legislature capable of instituting harmonious inter-organ relations as well as ensure independence of the legislature in order to achieve the common goal of governance, underpinned the adoption of presidential system in Nigeria. The nature of legislature-executive relations in the presidential system has, however, attracted wide variety of viewpoints both about conflicts and cooperation and whether benefits or liabilities result from either. It is on this basis that the study examines the nature, causes and consequences of legislature-executive relations in two of Nigerian states - Lagos and Ogun between 1999 and 2011. It investigates the extent of legislature’s independence in its constitutional processes in the face of the executive’s influence in the two states. The study engages a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, while data were gathered from primary and secondary sources. A well structured, closed and open-ended questionnaire was administered on 300 respondents selected through a combination of simple random and purposive sampling techniques from the legislature, executive, academia, civil society organisations, political parties and mass media from Lagos and Ogun States. In addition, in-depth non-scheduled structured interviews were conducted on selected political actors in the two states. Data gathered were analysed using percentile, measures of central tendency and content analysis. While the success of the presidential system depends on healthy legislature-executive interactions, findings reveal that a noxious pattern of legislature-executive relations conditioned by such socio-political and economic culture as rent-seeking, manipulations, impositions, patronage and political clientelism, among others, existed in Lagos and Ogun States. This nature of relationship is not only injurious to democratic consolidation, but also treacherous to their political development. Besides, while the legislature’s independence is fundamental to presidential democracy, the executive’s domination and meddlesomeness in the legislative business of the Assembly in the two states hampered the institution from performing the crucial role of citizens’ representation through legislation and oversight. The inability of the legislature to meaningfully impact on policy process and perform its oversight role on the executive portends a reversal from democratic to quasi-dictatorial governance. Consequently, the study emphasizes the need to address those factors that encouraged the subordination of the legislature under the executive. These include, among others, the implementation of the self-accounting and service commission laws, institutionalization of the practice of party democracy, well-defined ideology and manifesto by political parties which must be the legal compass for elected party members to help both the executive and the legislature to pursue a joint agenda and the explicit specifications in the constitution, of the expectations of both the executive and the legislature regarding the legislative review of the annual appropriation bill.
| Item Type: | Thesis (["eprint_fieldopt_thesis_type_phd" not defined]) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JA Political science (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Mrs Patricia Nwokealisi |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Sep 2013 12:22 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Sep 2013 12:22 |
| URI: | http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/1462 |
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