Future work

terms of population size with 3,902,051 and 3,702,676 respectively have eleven (11) seats each. Also, Zamfara state with the population size of 3,278,873 people is allocated seven seats while those with lower population such as Enugu with 3,267,837 people and Kebbi with 3,256,541 inhabitants are given eight seats each and above all Edo state with 3,233,366 residents has nine seats. The injustice meted on Ogun and Zamfara among others like Anambra, Bornu and Delta can also be seen in the allocation of ten seats to Niger and Imo with 3,954,772 and 3,927,563 people respectively as against the same allocation to Anambra, Bornu and Delta states with a whopping one million people higher. The same trajectory is observed in the FCT’s two seats compared to five given to Nasarawa and Bayelsa with a simi-lar population range (Bakare 2014).

Standing Committees

1. Agricultural Colleges and Institutions 2. Agricultural Production and Services 3. Aids, Loans and Debts Management 4. Air force

5. Anti-corruption 6. Appropriations 7. Army

8. Aviation

9. Banking and Currency 10. Basic Education and Services 11. Capital Market and Institutions

12. Civil Societies and Development Partners 13. Climate Change

14. Co-operation and Integration In Africa 15. Commerce

16. Constituency Outreach 17. Culture and Tourism 18. Customs and Excise 19. Defence

20. Delegated Legislation 21. Diaspora Matters 22. Drugs and Narcotics

23. Electoral Matters and Political Party Matters 24. Emergency and Disaster Preparedness 25. Environment and Habitat

26. FCT Area Councils and Ancillary Matters 27. FCT Judiciary

28. Federal Capital Territory 29. Federal Character 30. Federal Judiciary

31. Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) 32. Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) 33. Finance

34. Financial Crimes

35. FOI (Reform of Government Institutions) 36. Foreign Affairs

37. Gas Resources 38. Governmental Affairs 39. Health Institutions 40. Healthcare Services

41. HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control 42. Housing

43. Human Rights

44. IDPs, Refugees and Initiatives on North East 45. Industry

46. Information National Orientation, Ethics and Values 47. Information Technology

48. Insurance and Actuarial Matters 49. Inter-parliamentary Relations 50. Interior

51. Justice

52. Labour, Employment and Productivity 53. Lake Chad

54. Land Transport

55. Legislative Budget and Research 56. Legislative Compliance

57. Local Content

58. Maritime Safety, Education and Administration 59. National Planning and Economic Development 60. Navy

61. Niger Delta Affairs

62. Niger Delta Development Commission 63. Pensions

64. Petroleum Resources (Downstream) 65. Petroleum Resources (Upstream) 66. Police Affairs

67. Population

68. Ports, Harbours and Waterways 69. Poverty Alleviation

70. Power

71. Privatization and Commercialization 72. Public Procurement

73. Public Safety and Intelligence 74. Public Service Matters 75. Rural Development 76. Science and Technology 77. Solid Minerals

78. Special Duties 79. Sports 80. Steel

81. Sustainable Development Goals 82. Telecommunications

83. Tertiary Education and Services 84. Treaties, Protocols and Agreements 85. Urban Development and Regional Planning 86. Water Resources

87. Women Affairs and Social Development 88. Women in Parliament

89. Works

90. Youth Development

Order 17, Rule 1(1 & 2) confers the power to nominate and appoint members of these committees with Committee on Selection. It further limits the membership size of these committees to 30 except the Committees on Appropriation, Constituency Outreach, FCT, Federal Character, Public Petitions, Niger Delta Development Commission, House Services, Public Accounts and Internally Displaced Persons, Refugees and Initiatives on North-East Zone each of which has a maximum of 40 members. Rule 3 of the Order 17 stipulates that the Committees shall be guided by the rules of the House except in connection with the motion of high privileges (Federal Republic of Nigeria 2016). This is because the committee system is an extension of the House. Anytime the committees are meeting, it is assumed that the House is meeting and all committees’ activities are regarded as legislative activities.

The powers and jurisdictions of the Committees are clearly stated in the Order 17 and 18 of the Standing Order. These range from fixing of meeting days, organising public hearings, calling and interrogating witnesses, enforcing House rules and making recommendations to the House among others. The provisions also make room for the creation of sub-committees as may be required. However, despite the enormous powers granted the Committees, it places an express limitation to the powers of the Committees. Order 17, Rule 10 states that:

The House shall not delegate to any Committee the power to decide whether a bill shall be passed into law or to determine any matter which it is empowered to determine by resolu-tion under these Rules. A Committee may, however, be authorized to make recommenda-tions to the House on any such matter (Federal Republic of Nigeria 2016).

It is pertinent to note that the politics that goes into the nomination and selection of the committee members is enormous. The politics is heightened at the level of appointing the chairmen of the committees. The speaker wields enormous influence being the statutory chairman of the Committee on Selection. The fact that the prin-cipal officers of the House make up the members of the Selection Committee makes the committee to be the most important and powerful committee in the House. The principal officers use the committee to check the perceive excesses or punish any member that is not on the same page with the House authority. For instance, Hon.

Abdulmumin Jibrin was removed as the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation of the eighth Assembly on July 20, 2016 by the speaker (Ogundipe 2016). The speaker enjoyed the unanimous support of other principal officers who are members of the Selection Committee to dispose him and replace him with Hon.

Mustapha Bala Dawaki (Odunsi 2016). Though, the situation led to a legislative mess of 2016 budget padding where the ousted chairman (Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin) raised several allegations against the principal officers and indicting all members including himself of corruption. The consequent of which is the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges triggering its powers as stipulated in Order 18, Rule 7 to recommend him for suspension which was approved by the House.

The oversight function of the House is carried out through the Committees. Each committee oversees the activities of the MDAs to ensure conformity to their statu-tory mandates and budgetary provisions. However, this often creates confrontations between the two arms of government. While the legislature sees it as constitutional

role, the executive sees it as antagonistic venture. This trajectory is highly respon-sible to the underperformance of this function by the National Assembly. The com-mittees’ ineffectiveness is borne out of the hindrances facing the oversight functions.

This includes executive resistance, institutional constraints, material resource con-straints and composition of staff of Committees, among others (Hammalai 2010).