Lawmakers in Nigeria seem to have mastered the art of disappearing when their presence is needed the most, and for citizens dealing with rising hardship, that absence is beginning to look less like procedure and more like abandonment.
As reported by The Guardian, the National Assembly has spent a significant stretch of 2026 on recess, sitting for only 17 days in the first quarter, even as political activities ahead of the 2027 elections begin to take centre stage and threaten to further shrink the already limited time for lawmaking and oversight.
At a time when food prices are climbing, jobs are scarce, and insecurity continues to shape daily life, the country’s legislative arm has spent more time away from plenary than in it, raising a simple but uncomfortable question about who is minding the store while Nigerians are left to manage the consequences of policy decisions they did not make.
As reported, since the current National Assembly was inaugurated in June 2023, it has spent more days on recess than in session, and in the first quarter of 2026 alone, lawmakers sat for just 17 days out of a possible 90.
The constitution expects at least 181 sitting days in a year, but what Nigerians are seeing is a calendar that looks more like a public holiday schedule than a functioning legislature.
In defence, lawmakers insist that recess does not mean rest, that committee work continues, and that oversight happens outside the chamber.
But for ordinary citizens, oversight should not happen quietly behind closed doors; it is something they ought to see and feel in real terms, through agencies being questioned, delayed projects being explained, and public funds being tracked with urgency.
Limited legislative activity shows up clearly in delayed budgets passed months into the fiscal year, reforms that remain stuck in draft form, and government agencies operating with minimal scrutiny, allowing decisions that affect millions to move forward without the level of questioning democracy is meant to guarantee.
With party primaries approaching and election campaigns already taking shape, many lawmakers are shifting attention from legislative duties to securing political tickets, and while seeking re-election is part of the system, it becomes a problem when the responsibility of lawmaking is effectively put on hold in the process.
The impact is immediate for citizens, as traders struggle with bad roads that should have been fixed under proper oversight, young graduates face an economy that requires legislative action to unlock jobs, and families dealing with unreliable electricity depend on policies that need active monitoring to ensure they deliver results.
Responsibility sits squarely with key institutions, as the National Assembly leadership must enforce a disciplined legislative calendar and treat plenary sittings as essential, committees must make their oversight work visible and accountable to the public rather than buried in reports, and the executive must not interpret legislative silence as a free pass to operate without scrutiny.
Citizens also have a role beyond expressing frustration by demanding clear answers from their representatives about what has been done during extended recess periods, the oversight activities carried out, the findings from those engagements, and how they have translated into improved governance, since democracy does not function on autopilot and accountability is rarely self-imposed.
What is unfolding is a broader test of whether governance can function effectively when one of its core pillars is frequently absent in practice, as political activity continues while legislative engagement thins out, leaving decisions to proceed with limited checks and ordinary citizens to bear the consequences.
If elected representatives are often not present to carry out their duties, who is truly speaking for the people when it matters most?
