With the end of the second world war in
1945, there was a wind of change which blow
cross the world, which led to
various changes and transformations of several countries, colonies, protectorates
and the indeed the world policy. This
change as well affected the then colony and protectorate of Nigeria. This
no doubt brought about the
change of the 1946 Richards constitution which was originally meant to last for
9 years i.e from 1964-1955
This supposedly or impliedly, came as a
result of the activities of the educated
elites and ex-service men, who had
seen that the colonial masters
were not the ‘gods’ they thought
them to
be, as they took part actively in the war and witnessed how some of these ‘gods’ (white men) died in this own hands. The Lagos press under
the eminent leadership of Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe played a very vital role. The
criticism against the 1946 constitution was so much so that played a very vital role. The criticism
against the 1946 constitution was so much so that Igwenyi
(2004) noted that governor general Sir
John Macpherson had to start planning as
early as 1948 on how to satisfy the yearnings of the Nigerian elicits.
The Arthur Richards constitution was
severely criticized by the Nationalist
because it was imposed on Nigeria without any prior consultation. This made nationalists’ of the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) under Herbert Macaulay and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe tour important towns, educating the people on the political issues at hand and collecting donations to send a protect delegation to London. This Nwankwo
(1990) gave as partly the
reason for the short lived nature
of the Richard constitution and
equally made Macpherson to allow
three years from 1984 to
1951 fro public opinions and consultations.
Interestingly, consultations were made
at the level of towns, native
authorities, divisions provinces and regions. A draft committee was constituted
to harmonize the view of the people and this report was laid before the Ibadan
general conference of 1950 . The final report of this conference was forwarded
to the governor and secretary of state for colonies
The approval made by the duo became the Sir,
John Macpherson’s constitution in 1951 thus, Nigerian were given opportunity to
fashion a constitution and the provisions were evident of this expression of
self –determination to a reasonable degree