Party Affiliation and Law-making Efficiency: A Study of the Seventh and Eighth Nigerian National Assemblies

At the core of the achievement of good governance and service delivery, in any given democracy, is the legislature. Given that political leaders emerge from political parties with differing ideologies, an efficient executive-legislative relationship underscores the execution of favorable public policies while seeking to entrench the democratic process. Using the Seventh and Eighth Nigerian National Assemblies as cases, this study explores the dynamics of the party affiliation of leadership, both at the executive and legislative arms, in managing and discharging legislative duties—oversight functions, scrutiny of bills, and the conduct of government officials. The study investigates how competing interests and/or party ideologies shape the legislative process during both periods. Using the descriptive method, the study extensively draws on qualitative official documents, interviews, discussions, books, journal articles, and newspapers on surrounding issues; while subjecting it to thematic content analysis. The study concludes that objectivity, transparency, and accountability are indispensable values a democratic leader should display. This, in turn, depicts the need to reinforce the efficiency of lawmakers in discharging legislative duties as against pronouncing disparities in individual and party ideologies. The paper is compartmentalized into five parts—introduction; overview of legislative decision-making in the realization of good governance; investigation of party homogeneity at the leadership level and the discharge of duties in the Seventh National Assembly; exploring party variance at the leadership level and the discharge of duties in the Eighth Assembly; and the conclusion.