Effect of Legislative Turnover on Quality of Law-Making inNigeria’s 8th And 9 th Senate.

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between legislative turnover and the quality of law-making inNigeria's 8th and 9th Senates between 2015 and 2023. A quantitative survey design was adopted, withprimary data collected in 2025 through a structured questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale. The studypopulation comprised 10,618 entries across the two legislative periods. Using purposive sampling, 800questionnaires were administered, of which 320 valid responses were retained for analysis. Descriptive statistics, reliability tests and regression analysis were employed to examine the relationships betweenelectoral system, electoral defeat, electoral preferences and party structure, and perceived law-makingquality. The findings revealed that electoral system had a positive and statistically significant relationshipwith perceived law-making quality (B = 0.532, p < .001). Electoral defeat (B = 0.045, p = .748) andelectoral preferences and party structure (B = 0.118, p = .425) exhibited positive but statisticallyinsignificant relationships. These findings indicate that respondents' assessments of electoral arrangements were associated with their perceptions of law-making quality, whereas the other electoral factors showed nostatistically significant associations. The study highlights the relevance of electoral processes to perceivedlegislative performance and discusses implications for transparency, accountability and institutional continuity in the Nigerian Senate