The Effect of Legislative Autonomy on the Performance of Nigeria’s 9th Senate

This study examines the relationship between legislative autonomy and legislative performance in Nigeria, using the 9th Senate as a case study. Despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing legislative independence, Nigeria’s legislature has historically been constrained by executive dominance, financial dependence, and weak institutional capacity. These challenges have raised concerns about its ability to effectively perform its constitutional roles of lawmaking, oversight, and representation. The objective of the study was to investigate whether and how legislative autonomy influences the performance of the 9th Senate. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining survey data with key informant interviews involving legislators, parliamentary staff, and civil society actors. The integration of quantitative and qualitative evidence revealed a strong consensus on the value of autonomy: 96.5% of respondents agreed that autonomy enhances institutional effectiveness, while 93.7% affirmed that it improves the quality and timeliness of laws. Yet only 21.6% perceived the 9th Senate as operating independently. Interview narratives supported these patterns, explaining that dependence on the executive for budgetary releases weakened committee oversight, while party-controlled leadership recruitment curtailed institutional assertiveness. This combination of numerical trends and experiential accounts highlighted a paradox: although the Senate passed numerous priority bills efficiently, these largely reflected executive preferences rather than independent legislative initiative, thereby limiting the legislature’s credibility as a coequal branch of government. The study concludes that legislative autonomy is indispensable for enhancing performance. It recommends full implementation of constitutional provisions on financial independence, reforms in leadership recruitment to reduce partisan capture, sustained capacity development for lawmakers and staff, and the expansion of citizen engagement mechanisms to strengthen accountability and reinforce democratic legitimacy.