Assessment of constitutional provision on committee’s effectiveness on legislative process in Bauchi State House of Assembly

Abstract

The state house of assembly is the legislative arm of a state government. Its constitutional provision and committee effectiveness have been the subject of much debate in the literature. This paper assesses the structure of the state house, the constitutional provision, committee effectiveness on legislative process. The paper qualitative method via interview as primary source of data, purposive sampling was used in determining the selection of informants and thematic analysis was used in discussing the themes under study. The findings of the study reveals that the state house of assembly is an important part of the state government, and it is responsible for carrying out the will of the people of the state. The findings reveal that the constitution have provided powers to committees for investigation, this is in section 62 (1) which provide powers for the National Assembly to constitute committee to carry out task while section 103 (1) give power to state house of assemblies to constitute committees. The effectiveness of the committees is relative because some factors hampered it performance. These factors include ignorance of legislatures, Lack of cooperation from Public Sectors, Internal politics and Godfatherism, corruption among others. Its constitutional provisions and committee effectiveness are major factors in determining its effectiveness and success. These factors must be carefully considered to ensure the state house is able to properly serve the
people of the state.