International Journal of Advanced Legal Studies and Governance, Vol. 3, No. 3, Dec. 2012 1 The Relevance of Public Complaints Commission to Nigeria's Democratic Development Kunle Aina Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan Ibadan Nigeria. E-mail: kunleaina@hotmail.com ABSTRACT The paper critically examines the statutory provisions on the Public Complaint Commission (hereinafter called the Commission), and make appropriate suggestions for reform. The Public Complaints Commission is a statutory creation with wide powers of inquiry and investigation: it has wide powers to receive complaints from members of the public against maladministration and misuse of administrative machinery by any public authority and companies or their officials. In Nigeria like other developing countries, the use of administrative power by officers of government and their institutions to oppress, victimize and discriminate against the citizenry is quite common and rampant. The use of administrative powers to flagrantly abuse the citizen's human rights and freedom is also a common occurrence. Thus, there is the need for government to intervene and take definite action to stem this problem that is gradually embarrassing the government, which led to the promulgation of the Public Complaints Commission Decree 31 1 (now ACT) 2 of 1975. Keywords: Public Complaint Commission, Act, Ombudsman INTRODUCTION The Public Complaints Commission is better known all over the world as Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is known and performed by various agencies all over the world 3 . In United Kingdom they are known as "Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (PCA). The Ombudsman in U.K is attached to the Parliament while there are also various other Ombudsman services in the United Kingdom 4 which are specific for each industry or areas of influence. The history can be divided into three main periods. First around 1809 in an era of authoritarian monarchy. It developed as a check on executive power and incidentally it developed within the executive itself. The kings of Sweden had established it to ensure that their administration would vigorously respect and implement their laws. Ombudsmen are therefore public officers set up to straighten the authority of the executive over the other powers. Secondly, the regimes became more parliamentary, the office was towards the second half of ninetieth century, redesigned and moved away from the sphere of the executive and became the instruments of the parliament to monitor and control the executive. Today, it is still an essential element in the Swedish theory of "constitutional" control. Thirdly, by the twentieth century, it acquired its relative autonomy and has now evolved into the citizens instrument. Posing as the 'defender of civil rights against the arbitrariness of bureaucracy, it is no longer confined to the horizontal relationship between authorities but is also part of the vertical control of the state by citizens. As such, it combines the two basic dimensions of accountability in democratic systems 5 . The institution of the