The sheer scale of activity inside Nigeria’s National Assembly has been laid bare, with the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, revealing that more than 14,000 personnel work within the complex every day, excluding lawmakers and visitors.
The disclosure offers a glimpse into the enormous administrative machinery behind Nigeria’s federal legislature, where 469 lawmakers operate alongside thousands of career civil servants and legislative aides.
Ogunlana made the revelation on Tuesday at the final phase of a capacity-building programme for legislative aides to members of the 10th National Assembly.
According to the Clerk, the volume of activity at the complex makes administrative coordination particularly demanding.
“No parliament in the world is as busy as the National Assembly,” he said, attributing the scale of the operation to the combination of its workforce, lawmakers and daily visitors.
Beyond the numbers, Ogunlana highlighted the legislative output of the 10th Assembly, saying both chambers had passed 3,500 bills in the last three years.
The Senate accounted for 1,500, while the House of Representatives passed 2,000 bills, according to the CNA.
But as the National Assembly celebrates its legislative workload, Ogunlana is also pushing for reforms to address what he considers a longstanding weakness in the parliamentary system—the welfare and professional status of legislative aides.
The Clerk renewed his call for a dedicated salary structure for aides, describing them as an important part of the machinery that enables lawmakers to perform their legislative responsibilities.
He urged the National Assembly Service Commission and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to resolve the existing ambiguity surrounding the remuneration and conditions of service of legislative aides.
Ogunlana noted that while NASC is responsible for the appointment and administration of aides, their remuneration operates within a framework developed or approved with RMAFC and subject to National Assembly approval.
He also questioned the classification of their appointments, pointing out that although legislative aides are temporary and non-pensionable, it remains unclear whether their engagements should effectively be treated as full-time or part-time positions.
For the CNA, the issue goes beyond salaries.
He argued that Nigeria needs a professional legislative support service capable of attracting competent personnel and retaining them long enough to develop institutional expertise.
The proposed reforms, he said, should ultimately produce a corps of legislative aides equipped to provide stronger technical and professional support to lawmakers.
Ogunlana’s intervention therefore shifts the conversation from the number of bills passed to the machinery behind the lawmaking process—and whether the people who help legislators draft, research and process legislation are being given the structure and incentives required to perform that role effectively.
With more than 14,000 personnel already working around the National Assembly every day, the challenge, according to the Clerk, is not merely managing numbers but building an efficient parliamentary workforce capable of matching the demands of Nigeria’s increasingly complex legislative business.
Inside Nigeria’s ‘Busiest’ Parliament: 14,000 Staff, 3,500 Bills and a Welfare Fight
The sheer scale of activity inside Nigeria’s National Assembly has been laid bare, with the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, revealing that more than 14,000 personnel work within the complex every day, excluding lawmakers and visitors.
The disclosure offers a glimpse into the enormous administrative machinery behind Nigeria’s federal legislature, where 469 lawmakers operate alongside thousands of career civil servants and legislative aides.
Ogunlana made the revelation on Tuesday at the final phase of a capacity-building programme for legislative aides to members of the 10th National Assembly.
According to the Clerk, the volume of activity at the complex makes administrative coordination particularly demanding.
“No parliament in the world is as busy as the National Assembly,” he said, attributing the scale of the operation to the combination of its workforce, lawmakers and daily visitors.
Beyond the numbers, Ogunlana highlighted the legislative output of the 10th Assembly, saying both chambers had passed 3,500 bills in the last three years.
The Senate accounted for 1,500, while the House of Representatives passed 2,000 bills, according to the CNA.
But as the National Assembly celebrates its legislative workload, Ogunlana is also pushing for reforms to address what he considers a longstanding weakness in the parliamentary system—the welfare and professional status of legislative aides.
The Clerk renewed his call for a dedicated salary structure for aides, describing them as an important part of the machinery that enables lawmakers to perform their legislative responsibilities.
He urged the National Assembly Service Commission and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to resolve the existing ambiguity surrounding the remuneration and conditions of service of legislative aides.
Ogunlana noted that while NASC is responsible for the appointment and administration of aides, their remuneration operates within a framework developed or approved with RMAFC and subject to National Assembly approval.
He also questioned the classification of their appointments, pointing out that although legislative aides are temporary and non-pensionable, it remains unclear whether their engagements should effectively be treated as full-time or part-time positions.
For the CNA, the issue goes beyond salaries.
He argued that Nigeria needs a professional legislative support service capable of attracting competent personnel and retaining them long enough to develop institutional expertise.
The proposed reforms, he said, should ultimately produce a corps of legislative aides equipped to provide stronger technical and professional support to lawmakers.
Ogunlana’s intervention therefore shifts the conversation from the number of bills passed to the machinery behind the lawmaking process—and whether the people who help legislators draft, research and process legislation are being given the structure and incentives required to perform that role effectively.
With more than 14,000 personnel already working around the National Assembly every day, the challenge, according to the Clerk, is not merely managing numbers but building an efficient parliamentary workforce capable of matching the demands of Nigeria’s increasingly complex legislative business.
