Translating Policy into Legislation in Nigeria

Abstract

Legislation goes through processes before it becomes law. It starts as a public policy to bring
about a change in society. To make such public policy binding and effective, some of them are
translated into a draft bill and sent to the legislature for onward passage into law. This research,
therefore, examines the process of translating public policy into legislation in Nigeria. This
research is based on the doctrinal method, which is library-oriented. Primary sources of materials
were utilised such as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and many other
relevant statutes and secondary materials such as textbooks, journals, articles, newspapers and
internet sources. The research finds that even though the government can implement some of its
decision in the form of policies, however, public policies have their limitations which is why some
of these public policies must be translated into a draft bill and forwarded to the legislature for
onward passage into law. The research also recommends that there should be more training and
retraining of legislators, policy makers and legislative drafters involved in the translation of public
policy into legislation.