ABSTRACT
The legislature is an indispensable part of government in any democratic dispensation. Democracy is all about ensuring popular participation and control of the process of government. Since all the people cannot participate and individually control their government at the same time, they entrust these rights and duties to an elected few among them known as legislators. The legislature is one of the basic structures of any political system. It is known by a variety of names in different countries. Some states identify their legislature as Congress, Parliament, Duma or Knesset. Others designate it as Soviet, Diet, Assembly, etc.
The legislature is ubiquitous in every system of government to perform legislative functions. The law making process is an interesting chain of activities, which involves passing of motions into resolutions and bills into laws which depending on certain circumstances contribute in one way or the other to national development. In every nation, the legislature as the accredited representatives of the people has the duty of promoting national development through its chain of activities. In Nigeria, legislature has the mandate and is under obligation to initiate debate and show concern on matters affecting the generality of people in the country. In spite of the criticality of the legislature to national development, it is clear from Nigerian experience that some legislatures fail to play such role with expected level of success. Every now and then, we get to hear of prosecutions and conviction of lawmaker particularly senator for corrupt practices and financial crimes. The instances of corruption activities are so numerous that the institution has lost its place of pride among the institutions of democracy. Several commentators and analysts at one time or the other referred to the National Assembly as a den of thieves and self-centered people.
This work seeks to examine the structure of our legislative institution, its members and the condition which may disqualify or qualify lawmakers from contesting legislative positions or further make them incapable of being in the position if such condition arises when they have already been elected. Especially the issue of conviction as it affects a Nigerian lawmaker (senator) and vis-à-vis his counterparts in other jurisdiction of the world. Also, the roles of our Nigerian criminal justice system as it relates to commission of crimes and the parameters for its determination.
