Browsing by Author "Saliu Hassan A."

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    Getting it right this time: agenda setting for the ninth Nigerian National Assembly
    (Nigerian Political Science Association, 2018) Saliu Hassan A.; Bakare Adebola Rafiu
    Agenda setting is fast becoming an established norm in Nigerian legislature both at the national and sub-national levels. This is in recognition of the need to adopt world best legislative practices in order to make the Nigerian legislature more focused and effective. Agenda setting gives policy direction to an Assembly by identifying priorities so that legislators know where to channel their resources in becoming effective. It also states the internal operations and processes thereby serving as legislative compass and directory as it enables the legislators to know where they are starting from and where they are going (target) by the encl of their tenure. However, the Nigerian experience since 1999 in this regard is pathetic in the sense that agendas are usually single-handedly set by the presiding officers during their inaugural speeches. This makes it difficult to achieve the essence of the agendas as most the issues set out are usually unattainable because they do not care much about diverse interests and opinions of members of the legislature. It is on this note that this paper set out to provide a template upon which the 9th National Assembly could build its agenda. The paper argues that the process of setting an agenda should be a collegiate one in order to make it inclusive in terms of diversity of members and achievable in terms of realistic goals. The paper identifies the issues responsible for the poor performances of previous Assemblies and urges the 9th Assembly to learn from the past experiences. It recommends that the Assembly should first consider electing its presiding officers through consensus to avoid divided house, make the actual salaries and allowances of legislators public, return the country's budget cycle to January-December, and ensure harmonious legislative-executive relations, among others
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    Strategies for Consensus Building in Legislative-Executive Relations in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic
    (NPSA, 2021) Saliu Hassan A.; Bakare Adebola Rafiu
    The Nigerian experience of democratic rule especially between 2015 and 2019 has put the issue of legislative-executive relations at the front burner of discourse in Nigeria. While it may not be too healthy for both arms of government to be too close as a result of the dominant-tendency of the executive as observed in the early days of the return to democracy under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term, the confrontational legislative-executive relations as witnessed during the 8th Assembly is neither healthy for good governance. This contradictory trajectory has renewed scholars’ interest in attempts to produce a template on how best governance should be done especially in terms of institutional relationships. However, despite the increasing attention, there is still much left to be desired as most people are yet to understand what should be the basis of the relationship between the two arms of government. It is against this backdrop that this paper attempts to explore the patterns of legislative-executive relations as witnessed under the Fourth Republic. The paper observed that the relationship has been that of deference and defiance, thus posing threat to good governance and democratic survival in the country. Premised on this, the paper outlines strategies that could be adopted to build consensus between the two arms of government. The paper concluded that cordial legislative-executive relation in a ‘maintenance’ order is more beneficial for good governance and democratic advancement than ‘confrontational’ relationship.