COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA AND NIGERIA

Abstract

Legislative oversight is the supervision of the Executive branch of government by the legislative branch.  It  includes  the  review,  monitoring,  and  supervision  of  federal  agencies,  programs, activities, and policy implementations. Since the legislators are the representative of the people from their different constituencies, it is imperative that they see to the implementation of policies beneficialto the common man. As a result of legislative oversight,the legislators will be able to make new lawsor amend the existing ones. Legislative oversight hinges on the principle and or doctrine  of  separation  of  powers  and  therefore  serves  as  checks  and  balances  for  effective democracy.  This  work  compares  legislative  oversight  in  Nigeria  and  South  Africa.  This  is because  of  the  peculiar  background  of  the  two  countries.  It  must  be  recalled  that  South  Africa was under the minority rule of Apartheid until theygot their independence in 1994 and Nigeria on the other hand have been under militaryrulewith intermittent democracy until 1999when the military  handed  over  the  mantle  of  leadership  to theciviliangovernment.  This  work  therefore among other methods ofresearch adopt a comparative and historical approaches. It will discuss the  methods  of  legislative  oversight  in  the  two  jurisdictions  under  review  and  finally  draw conclusions and make recommendations.