Sub-National Legislature and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Lessons from Osun State House of Assembly

Abstract

This paper examines the contribution of sub-national legislature in reinforcing democratic consolidation in Nigeria by drawing lessons from the Osun state legislature in South-West Nigeria. Specifically, the authors interrogate changing party composition, oversight actions and executive reactions and constituencies' activities of members of the Assembly across three terms of twelve years: 1999-2003; 2003-2007 and 2007-2011. The analysis presented in the paper reveals that relationship between the Osun state legislature and executive has been defined by dominance by the latter manifested through financial dependence of the Assembly in carrying out legislative activities, overdependence on the executive for maintenance of members and their offices, domination of legislative agenda with executive bills and other executive oriented activities as well as reliance on the executive to guarantee legislative members' political career. The paper concludes that in spite of the foregoing drawbacks, the Osun state legislature remains relevant to the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria especially in its contributions towards legitimising, supporting and stabilising the polity and serving as deliberative arena for securing government policies and programmes.