A Comparative Analysis of the Committee System in the Nigeria National Assembly and other Assemblies around the World

Abstract

The legislative arm of government is the arm that represents the people, makes laws for the country, and conducts
oversight functions on the executive. Its functions are numerous and tasking. Therefore, they create committees to
reduce their workload and perform their task more efficiently. This paper examined the roles of committees in
several legislatures of the world in order to shed light on the importance of committee system in a legislature or
parliament. Through this paper, it was discovered that although there are differences in every legislative committee
as they have their unique systems and styles, nevertheless, they have general similarities in their mode of
determining membership of the committees, functions of the committees, powers of the committees, and so on. This
paper adopted the doctrinal research methodology and relied on primary and secondary sources. Through this
paper, it was understood that the role of committees in every legislature is of paramount importance. They cannot be
done without as that would lead to inefficiency in the legislature. The paper recommended that members of
committees and the legislature at large should conduct training regularly to improve their abilities so as to better
improve themselves and the whole legislature. Also, members of the media department in the legislature should be
diligent and participate in publicizing the activities of the committees so as to carry the citizens along; finally,
committees should be staffed adequately so as to ensure efficiency in their activities.