Search

Legislature–executive impasse is one of the challenges Nigeria's democracy has been facing since its transition back to civil rule on May 29, 1999. The polity has been witnessing conflicts between the legislature and the executive over budget matters. Despite certain provisions of the 1999 constitution aimed at rectifying some of the problems identified with legislature–executive relations in the previous Republics, the Fourth Republic also followed the confrontational and conflictual power relations between the executive and the legislature. This study seeks to look beyond a constitutional solution to manage the intermittent imbroglio between the legislature and the executive with a view to fostering good governance and development. The study relies on secondary data. The paper investigates the factors responsible for legislature–executive conflictual relations; and the effects of this impasse on budget, governance and development. It also examines the mechanisms for legislature–executive collaborative relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Nigeria became a signatory to Child's Rights Convention and African Children's Charter in 2003, all hope seems to be better for the Nigerian child, who had been repeatedly used as an object and forced to take action (child marriage and child betrothal), contrary to best international practice and humanity. Nigeria's Legislative House of Assemblies of states is supposed to adopt these declarations as an operative law to protect the rights of children in their respective states. However, because of religious, ethnicity, and cultural diversities, this act is yet to be localised in some states. Specifically, only twentyfive states out of the thirty-six states and eleven out of the nineteen states have localised the child act in their states. This invariably has implications for the development of children in Nigeria. Some of the implications include forced child marriage, child labour, and a large percentage of out-of-school children. While studies have investigated the problems faced by children in terms of the non-localization of the child act by some states in Nigeria, evidence is scant on the rationale for the refusal of some state houses of assemblies to adopt and legislate the child act for the protection of the Nigerian child. Given this, the paper examines the role of the legislative act in the development of the Nigerian Child. It adopts a qualitative research design that sourced data through the secondary method. The paper's findings indicated that too much snug with religion, ethnicity and cultural diversities stampeded the Nigerian parliament from the full implementation of the child rights act in Nigeria. The results indicated that poor implementation of the child rights act had repeatedly cut back the progressive development of Nigerian children and Nigeria. The paper concludes that the localisation of the child act in all the states is a noble means through which the Nigerian child and Nigeria can achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the issues and challenges inherent in executive-legislative relations in Nigeria's presidential system with special focus on the Eight National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. The paper notes that cordial and symbiotic relations between these two arms of government are irreducible minimum requirements for entrenching robust participatory democracy and ultimately development. However, the above have not taken firm footing, due to the prevalence of acrimony, squabbles and perfidy in executive-legislative relations. Data for this study were collected from secondary sources, and the adoption of textual analysis invigorated the discussion, findings and recommendations. Among others, the paper canvasses the need for deliberate cultivation/deepening the culture of civic engagement, consensus building and respect for constitutional provisions and delineation of boundaries in political and governance spheres. Other recommendations proffered are capable of redressing the irritants and challenges observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]