Most legislative studies in Nigeria have been devoted to the National Assembly, and when studies cover state legislatures, they have predominantly examined legislative executive relations, with little reference to member effectiveness in lawmaking. Yet, public opinions on the state legislatures show lack of trust on the capacity of legislators. This study presents empirical data on the legislative effectiveness of state lawmakers using the Bayelsa State House of Assembly and the Cross River State House of Assembly as case studies. The study presents legislative effectiveness scores for members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly and Cross River State House of Assembly based on the number of bills they sponsored and moved through executive approval, and members’ ability to adequately review and scrutinize executive bills independently. The study revised the Legislative Effectiveness Score formular with regards to the Nigerian context for the calculations. Additionally, the study conducted interviews and triangulated data from the interviews and the Revised Legislative Effectiveness Scores analysis. While the findings showed that members of state legislatures are not effective, those belonging to the majority party have more chances to become effective members. The findings also show that party competition and executive control affect legislative effectiveness. To strengthen legislative effectiveness, the study recommends a genuine electoral reform that empowers members to win free and fair elections.
Keywords: Political Parties, lawmaking, legislative effectiveness
