To be seen, or heard, but not both: the role of support services in implementing legislative public engagement in Nigeria

Empirical evidence of the dynamics of institutional representation of legislatures suggests an increase in public engagement activities, with unelected officials taking the lead. Different from elected legislators, legislative staff and aides are increasingly occupying spaces in the legislature’s public interface. This scenario is largely in contrast with the chaotic public perceptions of the institutions, and the sometimes-divisive politics that characterise them. As research exploring this subject is still limited, gaps remain in understanding how it manifests across different contexts. This is especially so in developing democracies where the study of legislative processes and development have been overwhelmingly about legislators, with little research on the frameworks and practices that shape legislative public engagement (LPE). Against this background, this paper draws on months of fieldwork in Nigeria’s largest legislative institution, the federal House of Representatives, and the influential Lagos State House of Assembly, to explore the roles of officials in developing and implementing public engagement initiatives. How do officials fit into LPE in the spaces of Africa’s presidential democracies often impacted by low institutional capacity and high legislator turnover? How does LPE with external stakeholders, in turn, influence the positioning and agency of officials in the processes and workings of legislatures? This paper will therefore contribute towards a better understanding of the role of officials in the development of LPE processes and the ensuing institution-public interface, whilst accounting for national-subnational variations in institutional representation.