E-parliament and constituency representation in Nigeria

Abstract

The legislature plays important roles of domesticating and monitoring the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as well, ensuring that government is accountable to the public for national progress on them. These hallowed responsibilities require that legislators are in constant communication and dialogue with the citizens they represent. E-parliament has been seeing to enhance the relationship between legislators and their constituencies, thus enhancing their democratic values. The study engaged a mixed method involving content analysis and case study design. Information were drawn through content analysis of the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS) website and literature search. The aim is to determine the accessibility, usability, and usefulness of the NASS website for citizens-legislature interactions to enhance inclusive governance. Results of the analysis reveal that implementation of e-parliament in Nigeria is still majorly at the stage of information provisioning with low supporting tools for interacting and consulting the constituents. The paper argues that, despite the numerous challenges being encountered in the application of ICTs tools, e-parliament is fundamental to reducing the wide gap between citizens and their representatives in Nigeria. With e-parliament, government’s policies and programmes and their implementation are in agreement with citizens aspirations and expectations which are considered pivotal to realizing SDGs in Nigeria.

Keywords

• e-parliament
• national assembly
• constituency
• interactivity
• sdgs
• nigeria