Parliamentary elections were held in Nigeria on 7 July 1979 for the first time since 1964 to elect a Senate and House of Representatives on 14 July. The result was a victory for the National Party of Nigeria, which won 36 of the 95 Senate seats and 168 of the 449 House seats.^[1] It formed a coalition with the Nigerian People's Party in order to gain a majority.^[2] Voter turnout was just 30.7% in the House election.^[3]

Members of both houses were elected using the single-member plurality electoral system. Each State was divided into five districts, each of which elected a Senator. Each State was also allocated a number of seats in the House of Representatives based on its proportion of the population.^[4]