Assessment of the Channels of Communication for Public Participation in Law Making Process of the 9th National Assembly, Nigeria (2019-2023)

Aremu Sulaimon Babansulaimon; Abubakar Sidiq Suleman

doi:10.58709/niujhu.v11i3.2688

Aremu Sulaimon Babansulaimon Institute of Governance & Democratic Studies, Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria
Abubakar Sidiq Suleman Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Nigeria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58709/niujhu.v11i3.2688

Abstract

The study unveiled the effectiveness of the channels of communication for public participation in law making process of the 9^th National Assembly. The main objective was to assess the effectiveness of the channels of communication of the Nigeria 9^th National Assembly. The study was anchored on Deliberative Democratic Theory which helps to understand the quality inclusiveness, and democratic integrity of the country's law-making process, particularly with the citizen. The study adopted survey method and Krejci and Morgan 1920 formula to select 380 respondents in Abuja metropolis. The respondents were purposely selected to allow people with in-depth knowledge participate in the survey. The study however, discovered that there is troubling narrative about the legislative process during Nigeria 9th Assembly, particularly covering public participation in Law-making. The study further discovered that none of the channels for public participation was effective in disseminating information. Law-making process channels like television, radio, newspaper, town hall meeting, and social media were not effectively utilised to communicate to the public during the law-making process. More so, several challenges were discovered on the hindrance to effective public participation in the law-making process such as lack of awareness and information about legislative procedure, ethnic complicity, technical language use during the law-making process, lack of internet, partisan and lack of accountability, constitute challenges to the public participation in law-making process in the country. However, the study recommended that the National Assembly should adopt more inclusive and transparent mechanism for public participation and media channels should be effectively utilised to reach out to the public.

Keywords: Civic Education, 9^th Assembly, Channels of Communication, Public Participation, Law Making Process.