Legislative oversight governance: A narrative from democratic consolidation and security sector governance in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria’s fledgling democratic experiment requires security sector governance that brings the whole nature, character, operations and financing of a nation’s security sector under the watchdog of the legislative body for the civil populace. The logic of operation and responsiveness of the security sector of any nation is a function of the quality of control exercised by the legislatures. The noticeable deficiency of the legislature in performing oversight functions over the management and regulations of activities of the Nigeria security agencies, particularly the military, in the face of rising security threats. Informed by this background, this study employed the engagement cost value theory to investigate legislative oversight governance and security sector governance in Nigeria. The study engaged security sector governance and democratic consolidation as a measure legislative oversight governance in Nigeria. The study adopted exploratory research design while content analysis of publicly available archive documents was employed for the analysis. Secondary data were generated via journals publication and other documented materials relevant to the study. Finding from this study submitted that legislative oversights do not have significant have influence on democratic consolidation in Nigeria. Result that emanated from the study also revealed that legislative oversight governance does not promote security sector governance in Nigeria. This study therefore concludes that legislative oversight governance does not influence security sector governance neither does it promote democratic consolidation in Nigeria. The study recommended a re-invigorated civil society movement to consolidate democratic institutions galvanize for an effective legislative sector to deepen the democratization of the nation. The study also recommended that the office of the National Security Adviser should be reserved for informed civilian diplomats and technocrats as done in developed clime as such will promote human security as against state centric security.