Until not very long ago, the literature on legislative-executive relations was bifurcated. It had evolved into two separate and independent bodies of work. One thesis focused on parliamentary and the other on presidential systems, which were considered to represent two completely independent and alternative ways to organize the political world. Today a more integrated view of executive-legislative relations in democratic regimes exists. The emergence of this new perspective owes a great deal to the appearance of two seminal books, which, perhaps in a way unintended by the authors, questioned the premises upon which the bifurcated view of parliamentary democracy and presidential democracy rested. Kaare Strom’s Minority Government and Majority Rule (1990) demolished on empirical and theoretical grounds the basic officeseeking assumption that informed studies of parliamentarism. John Huber’s Rationalizing Parliament (1996), in turn, questioned the appropriateness of the conflict model at the root of most thinking about executive-legislative relations in democracies. The specific contribution of each of these authors may be traced to studies of legislative politics that focused on the United States of America congress. As a consequence of these shifts, legislative organization came to the forefront of analyses of executive-legislative relations. In Nigeria, since the transition to civilian rule in May 29, 1999, the country has witnessed conflicts between the legislature and the executive over budget, oversight, and vote allocation matters. These conflicts are not only restricted to the federal level but also a common phenomenon at the state government level. This paper discusses the poor relationship over the confirmation of service chief’s matter and offers suggestions on how to improve the process. The paper concludes by positing that until strong democratic institutions are built and elected officials better understand their roles, the search for harmony between the executive and the legislature will continue to elude Nigeria. The new chiefs must put their best foot forward as they set forth to tackle the insecurity in the North-East zone of the country. This is not the time for rhetoric. They must frontally confront the security problems facing the country, especially the Boko Haram insurgency which President Jonathan recently described as the biggest challenge his administration has faced since inception.

Until not very long ago, the literature on legislative-executive relations was bifurcated. It had evolved into two separate and independent bodies of work. One thesis focused on parliamentary and the other on presidential systems, which were considered to represent two completely independent and ...