Getting it right this time: agenda setting for the ninth Nigerian National Assembly

Abstract

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