OrderPaper and BudgIT, leading civic tech organisations in Nigeria, have launched the advocacy to improve separation of powers in Nigeria.
Two leading civic organisations, BudgIT and OrderPaper, have expressed deep concern over the weakening of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, citing increasing executive overreach, a compromised legislature, and a judiciary struggling to maintain independence.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, both organisations decried the steady erosion of the constitutional principle of separation of powers, warning that this trend is fueling governance failures, economic instability, and public distrust in democratic structures.
According to the statement, Nigeria’s parliament has, over the years, struggled to assert itself against the executive arm of government. This weakness, they noted, has compromised the legislature’s ability to exercise effective oversight, deepening systemic failures across sectors.
“Unchecked executive dominance has stifled legislative oversight, weakened accountability mechanisms, and fostered budgetary mismanagement. This has contributed to Nigeria’s worsening economic instability, with GDP per capita declining by nearly 50% and inflation reaching 31.7% in 2024. The executive’s persistent disregard for court rulings and refusal to comply with legislative summons further highlight the erosion of checks and balances.”
BudgIT and OrderPaper further criticised the National Assembly for failing to serve as a bulwark against executive excesses. Instead of scrutinising budgets and enforcing fiscal responsibility, the groups said lawmakers have become complicit in the executive’s financial recklessness.
They cited the controversial N2.24 trillion inserted into the 2024 budget by legislators as an example of poor financial discipline that has weakened governance and diminished public confidence in the parliament.
The judiciary was also not spared, with the organisations accusing it of aloofness and vulnerability to political interference due to a lack of financial and administrative autonomy.
“Executive defiance of court rulings and allegations of judicial compromise have eroded public trust in the judicial system. Without financial and administrative autonomy, the judiciary remains vulnerable to political influence,” the statement noted.
Speaking on the impact of these institutional failures, BudgIT’s Head of Open Government and Institutional Partnership, Vahyala Kwaga, lamented that the consequences extend far beyond political power plays to real-life humanitarian crises.
“Over the past decade, more than 11 million Nigerians have been internally displaced—8.7 million due to disasters and 3.3 million due to violence—underscoring the severe human impact of weak institutions. To prevent further democratic decline, we call for a national conversation on restoring legislative oversight, ensuring the executive adheres to judicial rulings and legislative summons, and safeguarding judicial independence,” he said.
OrderPaper’s Programme Manager, Uko Etuk, also emphasised the need to strengthen parliamentary accountability.
“The National Assembly must reclaim its constitutional mandate as a check on executive (and judicial) excesses. Our work tracking legislative transparency and accountability has shown that ineffective oversight, executive overreach and obvious resistance to legislative oversight, is directly linked to governance failures, mismanagement of constituency projects, and lack of public trust in democratic institutions,” he said.
To this end, BudgIT and OrderPaper are set to launch a full-scale advocacy campaign for full financial autonomy for the judiciary and local governments, stronger legislative accountability, and stricter enforcement of constitutional checks and balances.
As part of this campaign, a Policy Brief has been developed titled, “Nigeria’s Lost Decade: Effects and Remedies of the Weakening Separation of Powers (2014–2024),” providing data-driven insights and actionable recommendations for reform, to be published in the coming days.
Both groups called on policymakers, civil society organisations, the media, and citizens to support the campaign and demand a transparent, accountable, and constitutionally balanced government.
