Prebendalism and Budget Authorization in the Nigerian Legislature

Abstract

In recent times, the process by which the parliament approves budget estimate from the chief executive has being hijacked by self-serving elements in the National Assembly at the detriment of the masses. Reports abound on how the Nigerian parliament made themselves the highest paid law makers in the whole world, cases of law makers demanding bribes from ministries in which they have oversight functions on have been reported severally. This paper attempts to discuss the effects of the prebendalists on budget authorization, and the means through which they prebendalize during the process of budget authorization in the Nigerian legislature. The paper identified over bloating of budget, neglect in their oversight functions, delay of budget by anti - government forces in the parliament, etc. as the major effects. The paper also revealed that illegal allowances, award/implementation of constituency projects, and padding of budgets through government agencies such as Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Nigerian Directorate of Employment (NDE), Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Agency (OORBDA), Lower Niger River Basin Development Agency (LNRBDA) and other river basin agencies serve as conduit pipes through which lawmakers prebendalize. Data collection was through secondary sources while content analysis was adopted as a method of analysis. The paper was interrogated using Prebendalism as a framework of analysis. It was recommended that the House of Senate be scrapped and only the House of Representatives retained to save cost. It was also recommended that the Nigerian masses should organize a peaceful protest to the National assembly to demand for an end to self – representation, and finally, a convocation of Sovereign National Conference was suggested to enable Nigerians establish an independent guideline for selecting credible people into leadership positions.