Stakeholders Unite to Formalise Action on Legislative Governance Accountability in Nigeria

The Erudite Growth and Advancement Foundation (ERGAF-AFRICA) in partnership with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and strategic support from Christian Aid (CA) are set to hold a high-level Stakeholders Convergence in Abuja to advance a bold new phase of the Legislative Governance Accountability in Nigeria.

The historic event slated to take place on March 3 will be held under the auspices of the Coalition for Legislative Governance Accountability in Nigeria (COLGAN).

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, Communications Officer at ERGAF-AFRICA, Chioma Lucky, speaking on behalf of the conveners, emphasized the urgency of institutional reform.

“This initiative is a crucial step toward ensuring our political representatives are truly serving the interests of the people. By using data-driven insights from the NASS Barometer, we can move from mere advocacy to concrete action for a more responsive legislature.”

According to her, leading governance accountability institutions, including CISLAC, Christian Aid, Action Aid, FCDO, Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Policy Alert, Connected Development (CODE), Legis 360, CJID, ICIR, Cleen Foundation, Order Paper, KAS Foundation, Ford Foundation, YIAGA-Africa, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Budgit, and Centre LSD among others, are aligning around a shared commitment to entrench legislative governance accountability as a non-negotiable democratic standard.

The statement added that the convergence seeks to scale the ERGAF-AFRICA NASS Deliberative Barometer Productivity Index Report, an evidence-based accountability instrument designed to systematically track, measure, and evaluate the plenary productivity of Nigeria’s 469 federal lawmakers across key sectors, using multivariate legislative instruments as indicators.

At a time when Nigeria faces mounting socio-economic pressures, declining public trust in democratic institutions, and an observable erosion in the quality and frequency of legislative debates, this initiative places the National Assembly under rigorous empirical scrutiny.

The ERGAF-AFRICA Legislative Governance Innovation and Policy Hub pioneered the NASS Barometer as a data-driven solution to reverse the worrying decline in legislative deliberations and to warehouse credible, sector-based productivity data on parliamentary performance.

The Barometer moves governance accountability from rhetoric to measurable outcomes. By deploying core parliamentary instruments as benchmarks, motions, bills, debates, committee reports, and oversight engagements, the Index provides citizens, reform advocates, and development partners with a transparent lens into the workings of the legislature.

The Abuja event will bring together civil society leaders, governance reform advocates, and development partners to formalize a collaborative framework for sustained engagement.

Stakeholders are expected to endorse and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing a coordinated pathway for leveraging the NASS Barometer insights to drive policy reform advocacy, strengthen citizen participation in the policy process, and elevate standards of legislative productivity nationwide.

The ERGAF-AFRICA NASS Deliberative Barometer Index Report is not merely a publication; it is a civic instrument of democratic correction. It empowers citizens with credible data for informed voting decisions, equips advocacy groups with empirical evidence for reform campaigns, and challenges legislators to meet the constitutional expectations of representation, lawmaking, and oversight.

As Nigeria’s democracy matures, accountability must no longer be optional; it must be measurable, transparent, and institutionalized, and the COLGAN’s stakeholders convergence marks a decisive step toward that future.