The Legislative Process in Nigeria

(For decades, democrats ruled Congress before the Republicans took over control of it in the 1990s. It looks like the Republicans are going to be in control of Congress, Presidency and Judiciary for a long time to come. Why? It seems that the democrats have marginalized themselves; they have managed to alienate ordinary Americans by championing such absurd policies as homosexuality, abortion on demand, and other idiotic liberal courses that destroy the social fabric rather than strengthen the nation.)
A Bill comes to the committee and the committee chair decides when to hold public hearing on it. In the meantime, he sets his civil service staff to study it, particularly to cost it out; that is, show the financial aspect of the Bill, figure out what the proposed bill would cost the tax payers. If you want to give the entire country medical coverage, how much would it cost to do so and where would we obtain the funds to pay for it? Bureaucrats come up with these figures for the chair. It might take these bureaucrats many years to obtain the required information.
The chair then decides what to do with the Bill, and if he judges it frivolous, kills it by not wasting time on it by having public hearing on it. If he decides that it warrants public hearing, he sets a date for such hearing and publicizes it in Congressional reporter (journal).
All American citizens who wish to testify, for or against the bill, have the right to call and ask to come and testify. In reality, it is mostly interest groups that have the ability, information and other resources who come and testify.
On the scheduled day, folks come and testify for and against a Bill. The testimonies may last weeks, months or forever. When hearings are done, and amendments are made to reflect the consensus of the committee members desires…it is at the committee that real politics takes place, Bills are changed, amended to obtain other members support…Bills are bargained, trade offs made, and compromises reached, this is real politics stuff, not idealistic politics…. the chair then calls for vote.
If members approve the Bill by a simple majority, it goes to the Full House. But before the vote, party leaders, through their whips make sure that their party members on the committee vote as the party requires them to vote. Whereas each member has a right to vote independently, a member who ignores the party’s wishes may not be reelected come the next election. Indeed, the party leadership might marginalize him and get him out of the loop, the backdoors where real decisions are made, not in public hearings where members grandstand for the press and public.
If the Bill passes committee it goes back to the Speaker who decides when to have the full House debate it and after debates (here further amendments are made to the Bill) a vote is called for. Again, party leaders remind members how they are expected to vote on the Bill. If it passes the entire house and passes the other house (Bills are introduced in the two houses concurrently, if it originates in one house, the person introducing it must find some one in the other chamber to introduce it in the other house), the two leaders of Congress, the Speaker and President pro-tem, appoint a conference committee to reconcile whatever differences there are in the two Houses approved versions of the Bill. Then the final version is voted on again and approved by the two Houses.
I must add that the Senate has an added procedure that the lower house does not have, filibuster. Here, a Senator can talk for however long he wants to on an issue and thereby prevent bringing the Bill to a vote. He represents a sovereign state and no one can ask him to stop speaking if he decides to talk. He could bring a novel and read it aloud to the House. He may talk for days, weeks and years. Whenever the Bill is brought up, he takes the floor and talks his heart out and takes up the entire time scheduled for the Bill hence prevent voting on it.
Senate Procedural rules stipulate that a Bill will not be voted on until all senators have talked all they want on it. In the past, Southern Senators used to use this mechanism to kill voting on any civil rights Bill. That way, they did nothing to end segregation.
Frustrated, blacks bypassed Congress and went to the judiciary for help. The 1954 Supreme Court landmark ruling on Brown versus Topeka, Kansas School Board, in effect, ended segregation in schools. Congress had refused to integrate schools and the NAACP had to use the court system to change the Jim Crow laws of the land.