E-parliament and constituency representation in Nigeria

Abstract The legislature plays important roles of domesticating and monitoring the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as well, ensuring that government is accountable to the public for national progress on them. These hallowed responsibilities require that legislators are in constant communication and dialogue with the citizens they represent. E-parliament has been seeing to enhance the relationship between legislators and their constituencies, thus enhancing their democratic values. The study engaged a mixed method involving content analysis and case study design. Information were drawn through content analysis of the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS) website and literature search. The aim is to determine the accessibility, usability, and usefulness of the NASS website for citizens-legislature interactions to enhance inclusive governance. Results of the analysis reveal that implementation of e-parliament in Nigeria is still majorly at the stage of information provisioning with low supporting tools for interacting and consulting the constituents. The paper argues that, despite the numerous challenges being encountered in the application of ICTs tools, e-parliament is fundamental to reducing the wide gap between citizens and their representatives in Nigeria. With e-parliament, government’s policies and programmes and their implementation are in agreement with citizens aspirations and expectations which are considered pivotal to realizing SDGs in Nigeria.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Modern parliaments now use ICT for effective communication with their constituents to enhance the quality of their representation. The extent to which this is achievable however depends on the accessibility, usability, and usefulness of a parliamentary website for unfiltered information on the legislature and legislative process and beyond that, for interaction between citizens and their legislators. The Nigerian National Assembly, like many parliaments across the world, has a website. A content analysis of the website reveals that it contains vital information that are needed to create an informed citizenry. The website however lacks adequate capacity and tools for legislators to engage citizens in a dialogue that will enable public involvement in the policy process which has been viewed as pivotal to participatory governance and sustainable development.

Introduction
The crucial functions of legislation, oversight and representation make the legislature indispensable for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in any democratic polity. The legislature is responsible for domesticating and developing relevant policies for SDGs and as well, monitoring their implementation. Advancing the SDGs also involves legislative oversight to ensure accountability of government to the citizens for national progress on them (SDGs). It also involves inculcating citizens' perspectives in the national policies regarding SDGs which is achievable through legislative representation. As observed by Interparliamentary Union (IPU) & United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2017), these pivotal roles necessitate that legislators are in constant communication, consultation, interaction and dialogue with the citizens.
Legislatures across the world are now utilizing modern Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance democratic practices and inclusive governance by promoting effective interaction between them and the citizens they represent (Niebel et al., 2013;. E-parliament serves to deepen the relationship between citizens and their representatives (Bwalya et al., 2012;Loukis, 2011). As the principal representatives of the people, modern legislative institutions across the world are utilizing ICTs to bridge the massive gap and mitigate the weak relationship between them and their constituents, thus enhancing their democratic values. E-parliament adoption has also played a major role in eliminating the barriers that stand between legislators and those they represent (Unwunchola et al., 2017). With the use of ICTs, it is now possible to assuage the public distrust of political institutions and the decline in citizen's loyalty and attachment to the government, often referred to as democratic deficit (Vesnic-Alujevic & Nacarino, 2012;Elliott, 2016).
ICT is one of the fastest-growing industries in Nigeria . Paradoxically, citizens' participation and representation in the governance process in the country has, over the years, been very weak with public interests often at variance with governmental policies and programmes (Mustafa & Sharifov, 2018). Parliamentary representation entails interacting with the constituents whom the legislators represent and, as such, making informed decisions and exercising sovereign power on behalf of the people (Loukis, 2011;Seo & Raunio, 2017). Contrarily however, legislators in Nigeria hardly interact with citizens in their constituencies. In most cases, they only contact their constituencies during election campaign to commission new projects (Fashagba, 2016). Parliamentarians are expected to be very close to citizens to be aware of the needs of the constituency and respond to them accordingly (Johnson, 2005). As noted by Campbell et al. (1999), legislators require well-organized communication with their constituents. In Nigeria however, credible access to the legislators is lacking and they barely communicate with their constituents (Segun & Oni, 2014). The consequence is the high level of disengagement between citizens and the legislators and little or no significant efforts towards promoting political stability and sustainable development in the country (Mustafa & Sharifov, 2018). The objective of this paper therefore, is to examine the extent of the adoption of e-parliament to enhance citizens-constituents interaction to build public trust in the legislature and strengthen the legitimacy of governance in the country. It aimed at evaluating the website of the Nigeria National Assembly (NASS) to ascertain its accessibility, usability and usefulness for citizens-representative interactions considered imperative for healthy democracy and as well, achieving the SDGs.

E-parliament and citizens' representation
The primacy of the legislature as citizen's representatives is expressed by its being generally considered as the sovereign organ of the state power, the site of sovereignty, the first among the "political trinity", the realm of representation and the expression of the people's will (Loukis, 2011;Orluwene, 2014). The legislature, as the primary representative institution, articulates and expresses the will of the citizens (Seo & Raunio, 2017). Remarkably, the legislature is entrusted with the responsibility to represent the constituent units and exercises control over the government in a democratic society (Nwaubani, 2004;Somfalvy, 2020). Lending his credence to the legislature as citizens' representative, Miler (2016) avers that the legislature as the organ of government is a forum for the representation of the constituents. The representative roles of the legislature enable the government to harness the differences in the society and bring such to bear in governance (Johnson, 2005;Miler, 2016). These roles require that the legislature have access to information and constantly communicate and dialogue with the citizens (Bwalya et al., 2012;Oni, Oni & Ibietan, 2016). This view is reiterated by Loukis (2011) and Seo & Raunio, 2017) that the vital importance of the parliament in modern democracies as people's representatives, requires constant communication and interaction with the citizens.
As the representatives of the citizens, the legislators are to service the needs of their constituencies, lend their ears to them, educate them on policy issues, amass their views and demands and express them in the legislative chambers (Oni et al., 2019). In this regard, the legislature derives its representative mandate directly from the people and is accountable to them. This accountability entails providing regular information to the constituencies and ensuring that its deliberations and decisions address the desires of the public. It could also be in the dimension of governance accountability which relates to the efforts put in by the legislature to ensure that public resources are used by the executive, to promote the welfare of the society and bring about development (McCormick, 2007). As citizens' representatives, the legislature requires access to information and continuous flow of communication, interaction and dialogue with the citizens. This will enable citizens articulate their needs to the legislature through existing channels and actively participate in the decision-making process that affects them (Niebel et al., 2013).
Information and Communication Technologies have been used by modern parliaments particularly in developed democracies, to strengthen the relationship between the legislature and the citizens by providing additional channel of communication that enables citizens' engagement and collaboration in the political process (Chadwick & May, 2003;UNDP, 2006;Leston-Brandeira, 2007;Loukis, 2011). Reiterating the importance of Information Communication Technologies on citizensrepresentatives engagement, Southern and Purdam (2016) asserts that democracy is never complete unless it makes an effort to reach out to those who do not participate in it, and in considering access to it. In this regard, e-parliament has been found to enhance parliament's engagement with their constituents as it provides diverse communication links between the two parties (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2008). E-parliament entails the use of internet services, telecommunications and information technology equipment and services and activities to enhance parliamentary transparency, accessibility and accountability (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009;Unwunchola et al., 2017). According to Mustafa and Sharifov (2018), e-parliament is the use of ICT tools for more open, efficient, accountable and enhanced citizens engagement with their representatives. E-parliament provides a two-way relationship where citizens interact with their elected parliaments and have opportunity to give feedback on some issues (Bernardes & Bandeira, 2016). As observed by Niebel et al. (2013), the adoption of ICTs enabled parliament opens up a dynamic approach to incorporating a large proportion of the population in the political decision-making process. It promotes transparency by aiding citizens in a constituency to demand accountability from their legislators. Thus, e-parliament helps to re-awaken the consciousness of citizens who have not been actively participating in parliamentary decision-making process. In another dimension, adopting Information and Communication Technologies enables the legislature to generate data crucial for monitoring and overseeing the affairs of government (Niebel et al., 2013).
Mobile communications and internet portals as well as online journals provide new sources of information and thereby enhancing citizen's awareness and opportunity to express their opinions . E-parliament enables population groups living in remote areas to gain better access to their legislators (Diamond, 2010). Citizens, who have previously been excluded from political debate, are provided opportunity to form their own opinions as well as participate (Niebel et al., 2013). In this regard, e-parliament facilitates healthy constituentrepresentative relationship by helping the parliament to be more responsive to the interests and diverse views of their constituencies in a democratic state. An ICT enabled parliament helps to improve parliamentary representative capacity. In the end, e-parliament can enhance public trust in their institution of governance.
Some nations around the world have embraced e-parliament to bring their parliaments closer to their constituents with varying degrees and have different levels of success (Arugu & Chigozie, 2016: 54). For instance, the Republic of Korea has adopted the use of mobile applications for parliament to operate a smart e-parliament that promotes participation, openness and efficiency. The Korean parliaments have access to applications that provide support to bill deliberation, research analysis and promotion of legislative activities. The bill information glance provides information on all current bills at a glance, lists what bills were proposed by members of the legislative assembly and gives information on the status of the bills. The legislation application gives room for the parliament to check the opinions of the citizens on different legislative initiatives. Similarly, Greece has adopted "Vouliwatch", Brazil has designed "e-democracia" while United Kingdom operates "what do they know and Alaveteli" as platforms to promote dialogue between citizens and parliamentarians and enhance the relationship between citizens and their representatives. These platforms offer citizens' access to their representatives' profiles and provide opportunity to communicate, evaluate and hold their representatives accountable. Citizens are also able to keep track on legislative initiatives and debate solutions to policy problems. Some African countries like South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria over time have given their legislatures online presence and have adopted the use of the internet for providing information on the legislature's activities. They provide information on access to their parliamentary buildings, educational visits, access to plenary sessions, history and role of committees and commissions of their parliaments (Oni, Oni & Ibietan, 2016). It is however instructive to note that e-parliament is not just about web presence but the impact that such has on parliamentary activities . According to Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009) and Monaco et al. (2012), Information provisioning and citizens interaction with members of the legislature and engagement in the policy process via web technologies are the goals of parliamentary website.

Methodology
This study adopted a mixed research methodology involving case study and content analysis of the Nigeria National Assembly (NASS) website and literature search. The combination of these research designs enables an in-depth analysis of the functions and structure of NASS websites and the extent to which it meets users' demands for legislative information and citizens-representative interaction. According to Yin (2018), case study involves detailed, in depth and intensive study of a unit. Content analysis on the other hands enables the identification of a website's functional and structural conditions and its ability to meet users' demands (Arrif, 2018). These approaches have been adopted in previous studies to determine the extent to which parliamentary websites enhance parliament and citizens interaction (Arrif, 2018;Bernardes & Bandeira, 2016;Corra, 2019;Edwards et al., 2015;Mustafa & Sharifov, 2018;Sobaci, 2010).
The National Assembly (NASS), a bicameral legislative structure of Nigeria comprises the Senate and House of Representatives. It is made up of Three hundred and sixty (360) members who are elected from constituents of roughly equal population size to represent the citizens of Nigeria on a four-year tenure with possibility of reelection. The Parliamentary website of the NASS is studied in terms of its accessibility, usability and usefulness for information provisioning and interaction between citizens and their representatives. These variables are considered to be key determinants of the performance of a website (Arrif, 2018;Bai, 2019;Fišer et al., 2012;Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009;Monaco et al., 2012;Seo & Raunio, 2017). According to Monaco et al. (2012), accessibility relates to the extent to which a website can be accessed by all individuals including those with disabilities in the society. Usability on the other hand, concerns with how users can successfully use the system provided by the webpage to achieve the goals for which it's set up for (Fise, et al., 2012). In this regard, usability relates to the extent to which a parliamentary web page's functions are easy to understand and can be effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily operated fast and successfully by the users (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009;Monaco et al., 2012). Usefulness denotes ability of a page to satisfy the plans and goals of all the stakeholders involved (Kragelj, 2003;Fise, et al., 2012;Bai, 2019). A parliamentary website is thus useful to the extent of its ability to provide basic information regarding the membership, history, functions and documentary of the parliament and as well possesses interactive tools that support citizens' consultations and engagement on public issues (OECD, 2001;Arrif, 2018;Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009). Following this therefore, the contents of the NASS website were evaluated to ascertain its accessibility, usability and usefulness for information provisioning and for citizens interaction with their representatives in the assembly.
In conducting the analysis, the contents of NASS website were coded against 92 key elements of a parliamentary website adopted from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009)) guidelines, Bernardes and Bandeira (2016), Mustafa and Sharifov (2018) and Arrif (2018). Elements that existed on the NASS website were marked ( p ) while elements not found were marked (x). It is imperative to note that the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009)  The evaluation of the NASS website was done between 25 November and 15 December 2019. A reevaluation of the website was carried out between January 5 and 25 January 2020 to ascertain the accuracy of the data collected from the website.

A. NASS Website and information provisioning
The first criterion for evaluating parliament websites centres on the information content. The result of the evaluation of NASS website on this criterion is shown in Table 1. In terms of access to the parliament, there is no information available for users on the NASS website regarding access to the parliamentary building, seating arrangements of officials at plenary meeting, virtual tour guide of the parliamentary building and parliamentary organization. The history of the parliament is not available, however, information about the composition, responsibilities, and function of the legislature and its constituent bodies are available on the website. Recently past events are available while there is no information about present and planned future activities and events of the Assembly. List of international legislative bodies which the NASS is a member, NASS annual report and statistics of both its current and past events are not available on the website.
With respect to information on elected leader, photographs of both current and past presiding officers exist on the website. However, the biodata of previous presiding officers are not available. Information on power and prerogative of presiding officer is also not available on the website. All required information about committees of the NASS, commissions and non-plenary bodies specified by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009)'s parliamentary website guideline, are available except links to websites and documents relating to activities of non-plenary bodies.
The evaluation also shows that Information on the biodata, photo, and contact address of the current members of the NASS are provided on the website. Also, list and biodata of the previous member are provided. Missing information in this aspect however, include statistics and demographic information, activities, functions and duties of individual members. Information about individual member's party are provided alongside their biodata but links are not provided to their parties' websites. This analysis is depicted in Table 2.
Information pertaining the elections and electoral systems are considered important to be provided on parliamentary website. A result of the website evaluation on the NASS electoral system and administration is revealed in Table 3. All information required in this regard are not available on the NASS website.
Concerning the administration of parliament, the organizational chart of the NASS administration exists on its website but the functions of respective officers are not available. Similarly, the information expected on publications, documents, and information services according to Inter-Parliamentary  (2018) Another category of the contents for evaluating parliamentary website entails information about parliamentarian responsibilities with respect to legislation, budget and oversight. Five subcategories of information are expected on the website as revealed in Table 4. In respect of these, the NASS website provides most of the information required-legislation and overview of the procedure and full text of standing orders, except that links to documents relevant to proposed legislation were not found on the website. Current business schedule, chart of business of parliament and glossary of terms and procedures are however, not available on the website. Information about report on budget or public finance, oversight and committees and nonplenary bodies do not exist on the website as shown in Table 2.
Table 5 reveals information concerning tools available for viewing and searching information on the NASS website. The website provides search engine for users to search the website using words in text and the result are sorted with most recent at the top. However, search results were not linked to either audio or video records. Broadcasting and webcasting features were not available. RSS is available for alerting services but options for email alert do not exist. The website is

B. NASS website and interactivity
A key criterion of parliament website evaluation dwells on availability of online tools for communication, interaction and dialogue with citizens. Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009) categorizes this into general feedback mechanism and communication between parliament members and citizens. With regards to general feedback, all required tools as itemized by Inter-Parliamentary Union (2009) specification are available on the NASS website. In terms of communication between parliaments and citizens however, there is no capacity to contact members via email form. Some basic provisions on parliamentary website for enhancing interactivity include blogs, online fora and discussions, e-petition, chatrooms, news comments, links to the personal websites of each legislator, information on how to contact each member, video webcast of each meeting and   (2018) plenary, audio webcast or broadcast, video archive (Arrif, 2018). For the NASS website however, online interactive tools for enhancing parliaments-citizens relations are limited to Twitter and Facebook only. This can be seen in Table 6.
Another important factor for evaluating parliamentary website relates to accessibility, usability and usefulness for persons with disabilities. In this regards, feature of accessibility by persons with disability is currently not available on the NASS website. Users can however easily see new event in the parliament from the home page, help and who to contact functions are available through the contact page. The website is backward compatible and accessible on all browsers. The FAQ page is however not developed and Site map, guidance on how to search for information on administration of the website are also not available as indicated in Table 7.

Discussion
E-parliament has been viewed as a groundbreaking innovation that can assist legislators across the world communicate effectively with their constituents. This enables citizens influence decisions that affecting them thereby solving societal problems (Waters, Hackley & Woodside, 2006). The website of the parliament creates a virtual community for interaction between the citizens and their legislators. The extent to which this is achievable however depends on the accessibility, usability and usefulness of the website for information provisioning and beyond that, for interaction between citizens and their parliaments.
Information content of the parliament is a vital criterion for measuring the usability, usefulness and accessibility of a parliamentary website. As observed by Mustafa and Sharifov (2018), parliamentary website is a veritable platform for unfiltered information on the legislature and legislative process. With respect to information provisioning, the NASS website provides a platform for accessing vital information concerning the Nigerian parliamentary process. The NASS website provides most of the information about parliamentarian responsibilities with respect to legislation and overview of the procedure and full text of standing orders, budget and oversight. Some other vital information that could be accessed on the NASS website are the composition, responsibilities, and function of the legislature and its constituent bodies, organizational chart of the NASS administrative structure, recently past events, committees of the NASS, commissions and non-plenary bodies, contact address of the current members and list and biodata of the previous members. It is pertinent to note that there are also some necessary information not available on the NASS website. However, most of the information that are considered very important factors of the usefulness and usability of parliamentary websites are present. The import of the rich content of the NASS website is that it will enhance a knowledgeable and critical citizenship which is a prerequisite for meaningful participation in the policy process. As observed by Monaco et al. (2012), accessibility, usability and usefulness of a website empower citizens to access parliamentary information. Romanelli (2016) noted that such parliamentary information creates an informed citizenry necessary for participatory governance and sustainable development.
Accessibility, usability and usefulness of parliamentary website for persons with disabilities ensure that e-governance design is user-centered and in this regard are considered gateways to e-parliament (Monaco et al., 2012). Parliamentary website must be designed for universal access so that people are not excluded based on socio-economic, physical and intellectual factors. A poorly designed website will be difficult to use and thus capable of excluding people. The nonavailability of the feature of accessibility by persons with disability on the NASS website constitutes a great weakness on e-parliament in Nigeria. The design of NASS has the potential of excluding a segment of the public whose right to being heard and perspectives being included in governance process should also be guaranteed.
A key criterion of parliament website evaluation dwells on availability of online tools for communication, interaction and dialogue with citizens. As observed by Mustafa and Sharifov (2018), the main aim of parliamentary website is to enhance citizens' online participation and interaction with their representatives. The interactivity of a parliamentary website is explained by its feature to establish relationship between the legislators and the citizens (Fiser, et al., 2012). Accessibility, usability and usefulness of parliamentary website for this goal are germane for e-parliament and constituency representation (Campbell et al., 1999;Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2009;Loukis, 2011). As observed by Monaco et al. (2012) and also reiterated by Romanelli (2016), accessibility, usability and usefulness of a website empower citizens not only to access parliamentary information but also to interact with their representatives using web tools. This is a general feedback mechanism and communication between parliament members and citizens that enhances knowledge sharing and dialogue. With regards to this important feature, the NASS website lacks adequate capacity and tools for legislators to engage citizens in a dialogue that will enable citizens' participation in the policy process. E-parliament goes beyond being a channel through which citizens access information but also a platform for active two-way communication that will engender interaction with citizens for an inclusive model of policy process (Romanelli, 2016). Some basic tools that enhance such interactivity like blogs, online fora and discussions, e-petition, chatrooms, news comments, links to the personal websites of each legislator, information on how to contact each member, video webcast of each meeting and plenary, audio webcast or broadcast, video archive are very limited on the NASS website. This finding is in agreement with previous submissions such as Mustafa and Sharifov (2018) who noted that parliamentary websites of state legislative institutions in Nigeria lack active and functional tools for citizens online participation and interaction with their representatives.

Conclusion and recommendations
This paper has reiterated the importance of the roles of the National Assembly as the representatives of the people, in realizing SDGs in the country. It has established that SDGs requires that the legislature is in constant communication, interaction and dialogue with the citizens which e-parliament portends. The content analysis of NASS website however revealed its accessibility, usability and usefulness for information provisioning. Its capacity for citizens' interaction and engagement in the decision process of the country's federal legislative body is very low. The website of NASS provides low tools for interactive communication between parliaments and citizens for effective constituent representation and inclusive governance in Nigeria. This analysis reveals that implementation of e-parliament in Nigeria is still majorly at the stage of information provisioning with low supporting tools for interacting and consulting the constituents. It is imperative that the parliamentary institution in Nigeria, like the modern parliament in developed world, is not just being seen as institution for formation of policy but also a body that can offer meaningful engagement with the citizens on issues that bother on the country's development through veritable, credible and universally accessible channels which e-parliament portends. This paper argues that with the exponential growth, acceptance and usage of the internet and mobile technology in Nigeria, the website of the nation's federal representative body can be developed further to provide a veritable platform for the legislators to actively engage citizens of their constituents which will enhance the quality and effectiveness of their representation and thus build public trust in them. E-parliament enables effective consultation, interaction and dialogue with the citizen considered imperative for realizing the SDGs in Nigeria.