BASIC FEATURES
OF REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION 1963
A constitution is a set of
fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or
other organization is governed. There rules together make up, i.e constitute,
not the entity is. When there principles are written down into a single
collection or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to comprise a
written constitution.
Constitution concern
different levels of organization from sovereign state to comprises and
unincorporated association. A treating which established an internated
organization is also its constitution, in that it would define how that
organization is constituted. Within states, whether sovereign or federated, a
constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the
procedure in which laws are made by whom, some constitution, especially written
constitutions, also act as limiters of state powers, by establishing lines
which a state rules cannot cross, such as fundamental rights.
The first republic was the
republican government of Nigeria
between 1963 and 1966, governed by the first republic constitution.
Features of the 1963
constitution both the 1960 (independence) constitution the 1963 (republic constitution
were the same. The only difference were the provision for ceremonial president
(1963) in place of the queen of England (1960) and the judicial appeals system
which terminated with the supreme court (1963) rather than the judicial
committee of the Brishpray limit (1960).
THE 1963
REPUBLIC CONSTITUTION OF NIGERIA
This was the first
indigenous contribution of Nigeria.
It had been noted earlier that Nigeria
has never had a constitution. The long title alone defeats the very definition
of a constitution by an Act 7 parliament or a degree. It is the other way
round. It is a constitution whether written or unwritten, that creates the
basis of the political existence of the senate or fashions the political,
social and economic institutions and related structures necessary for
maintenance of an orderly society. It is a constitution that creates the
parliament of any native, alongside our of its powers. A constitution to worth
the name, must be made by the people in a political or constitutions convention
or conference and must thereafter ratify, adopt or even reject the draft where
necessary. A constitution charter remains a draft until ratified by the people
for whom it was designed vide a referendum or some other positive popular act
showing adoption or ratification. A constitution properly so-called can
therefore not be decreed into existence no matter the degree of the military
force which any mulity puta wields, in the same vein, no parliament can enact
into law a constitution that is supposed to have created it. In the first place
that enactment is anything but a constitution. Therefore, all the
order-in-council of the British parliament
propriety to enact constitutions for Nigeria were theatricals bordering
on absurdity. The 1963 republican constitution which the Nigeria parliament
purposed to enact in 1963 following the earlier colonial comriderts and suspect
in no different (it remains an Act of parliament not a constitution, the
material different between the 1960 and 1963 constitute is that the latter
(1963 constitution) declared Nigeria a “Republic and cloyed the designation of
the Governor general to president the 1960 constitution has 104 sects and II
chapters where the 1963 constitute has 159 sects 12 chapter section 157 (1) of
the 1963 republic constitution is unique is that it specially named an
individual to dependent of Nigeria. It provides, Nnamdi Azikiwe shall be deemed
to se dected of the commencement of this
constitution (in recognition of his momuintal
contribute to the political emanpets and independent of Nigeria)
military without the operating of the constitute was interpled, knowledge into
a comatose state finally cannisalized by a litary of military decrees that
heralded the military take-over of the government of the federal republic of
Nigeria on January 15, 1966. section 1(1) of the constitution (suspension
modification/ decree no. 1 of 1966 provides as follows: the provisions of the
contrition of the federation mentioned in schedule 1 of this decree are hereby
suspended. The constitution (suspension and modification) (no5) decree of 1966 assorted the federal structure
of Nigeria and created not
it called “republic of Nigeria
and national military government in place of the federal military government,
the various autonomous regime were abolished. Comp of promises were decreed in
their place. The head of state became known as the head of the national
military government major general Johnson Thomas Umunakwu Agiyi Ironsi who
headed that government as the supreme commander of the Nigeria armed
forces obviously meant well for the country. He sought by this move to stern a
plethora of mutually antagonistic forces threatenry to fear the country apart.
But he misjudged the socio-cultural and hate filled political chemistry of the
various antipoetic forces locked, as it were, in a grim titanic battle of its,
gub, life death (it was a hydra-headed canter-worm that permeated the country’s
armed forces and made nonsense of the otherwise non-political institution of
national defence the North called honsis more evidence of Ibo domination. There
were demonstrations and rights in parts of the northern group of province
unfortunately, Ironsi destroyed himself by embarking on an ill-advised
national-wise for to appear the northerners and commence them that he was not a
tribalist. It did not take time before T. Y. Danyyma (on 29th July,
1966) he was their an army captained led a bad of dissident northern soldiers
to arreit the supreme commander of Ibade and killed him said he, “I arrested
Ironsi and Fayuyi in a small family longe where they were. No problems. We took
the crocodile and tore it open. There was nothing inside it, just mere stuffing
in an interview he granted news watch, November 2, 1992. the cater-comp that
aslord a Lt. colonel yakudu Gonon (new a refereed general who ruled Nigeria
from 29th July 1966 to 19th July 1975) as new head of
state was led by northern officers. By the constitution (supervision and
modification (no9) decree 1966. Gowon changed the political structure of Nigeria once
more to a federation. Section 2(1) of the said decree provides; As from the
appointed day the military government of Nigeria shall again be known as the
federal military government (the decree restored autonomy to the region and
re-established regional public serviced commission, judiciary and other similar
bodern) the crisis of confidence between the eastern region and the northern
region worsened with the assignation of Ironsi the eastern regional military
government Lt. colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu fund himself at odds with
Gowon over the assassinator of Ironsi by northern soldiers the killing of the
Ibosi in the northern part of the country. These was an astrosphere of
insecurity and bitterness in the eastern part as well as the question of
reparation thereto, Ojukwu, the then military Governor of eastern region,
declared that the basis of the Nigerian unity and nationhood was no longer
there. A 30-month civil war broke out between Nigeria and secressionalist state
of Biafra casted from 6th July, 1967 to 12th January,
1970) the nest in now history. Gowon was removed in a comp dietat as head of
the federal military government on 29th July 1975 by Brigadier
Clatter General) murtala Mohammed and his colleagues Gowon and Murtala Muhammad
had variously ruled the country vide a military oligarchy which had a complex
command system and permitted of no disputation of orders or command. At the
apex of each military government was the military head of state and
commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of the federal republic
of Nigeria (the was in contrast to
Ironsi title of supreme commander of the armed forces of Nigeria). There was also a supreme
military council (SMC) compared of top officers of the army, air force, the
rilary police this body wielded both the legislature executive powers. Here,
the legislature and executive powers of the federal government were merged,
with the judiciary as a distant, helpers third arm of government ( a very
defunction of totalitarianism an opposed to constitutionalism. Directly below
the supreme military council was the federal executive council. It was composed
of federal commissioners or ministers who headed the various federal
ministries. Murtale Muhammad, now a general, was assassinated on 13th
of February, 1976 in an unsuccessful comp distant to overthrow his government.
The leader of that attempted corp d’etat was it. Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka, a
young army officer from the country’s middle Belt. With the death of general
Muhammad, the mantel of military political leadership of Nigeria fell on
the shoulders of the former chief of supreme headquarter, Brigader (later a
general) Olusgun Obasanjo. The latter ruled from February over power to
democratically elected civilian provident, Alhaji shehu Shagar. The cinlican
president had to operate according to the provisions of the 1979 constitution”.
The constitution was subjected to a serves of military decree. Major general
Muhammad Buhari (returns) overthrew the civilian government of president shelun
Shagari and December 3, 1983 and moved quickly to suspend the operation of
certain ports of the 1979 constitution added by his able deputy, Brigadier
cluder, mayor general) Tunde Idiagbon.
NIGERIA THE FIRST
REPUBLIC
Nigeria became independent
on October 1, 1960 the period between dis ddate is January 15, 1966, when the
first military corp d’etat took place, is generally referred to as the first
republic, although the country became a republic on October 1, 1963. after a
plebiscite in February 1961, the northern came worms, which before then was
administered separately within Nigeria,
voted to join Nigeria.
At independence Nigeria had all
the trappings of a democratic state and was indeed regarded as a beacon of hope
for democracy. It had a large measure of autonomy to three (cater foor)
regimes, it operated a parliamentary democracy modeled along British lines that
emphasized majority rule, the constitution included an elaborate bill fo
rights; unlike other African states it adopted one party system immediately
after independence, the country had a functional, albeit regionally based,
multiparty system.
There democratic trappings
were not enough to guarantee the surmot of the republic because of certain
fundamental and structural weakness. Perhaps the most significant weakness was
the disproportionate power of the north in the federation. The departing
colonial authority had hoped that the development of natural politics would
forestall any sectional domination of power, but it underestimated the effects
of a regionalized party system in a country where political power depended on
population. The major political parties in the republic had emerged in the late
1940s and early 1950s as regional parties whose main aim was to control power
in regions. The northern republic congress (NPC) and the action Gomp (AG) which
controlled the northern region and the western region, respectively, clearly
emerged in this way.
The national council of
Nigeria citizens (NCNC), which controlled the eastern region and the Midwestern
region (created in 1963), began as a nationalist party but was forced by the
pressures of regionalist to become primarily an eastern party, albeit with
story pockets of support elsewhere in the federation. These regional parties
were based upon, and derived their main support from, the major groups in their
regions. NPC (Hause/Fulani) AG (Yoruba) NCNC (Igbo) A notable and more
ideologically-based political party that never achieved significant power was
Amunu Kano’j radical northern Elementary progressive union (NEPU), which
opposed the NPC in the north from its Kano
base.
There were also several
political movements formed by minority groups to press their demands for
separate states. These monitory parties in the region and usually aligned
themselves with the party in power in another region that supported their
demand for a separate state.
Ethnic minorities therefore
enabled regional parties to extend their influence beyond their regions.
In the general election of
1959 to determine which parties would rule in the immediate postcolonial
period, the mayor ones won a majority of seats in their regions, but none
emerged powerful enough to contribute a national government. A coalition
government was formed by the NPC and NCNC, the former having been greatly
foraved by the departing colonial authority. The coalition provide a measure of
north-south conseouns that would not have been the case if the NCNC & AG
had formed a coalition. Nnamdi Azikiwe (NCNC) became the Governor general land
president after the country became a republic in 1963), Abubakar Tatawa Balewa
(NPC) was named prime minister, and Obafemi Awolowo (AG) had to settle for
leader of the opposition. The regional premiers were Ahmadu Bello (Northern Region, NPC), Samuel Akintola
(Western region, AG) Michael Okpara (Eastern region, NCNC), and Dennis Osadebey
(Midwestern Region, NCNC).
Amony the difficulties of
the republic were efforts of the NPC, the senior partner in the coalition
government, to use the federal government increasing power in favour of the
northern region. The balance rested on the premise that the northern region had
the political advantage deriving from its preponderant size and population, and
the two southern regions (initially the eastern region and the western region)
had the economic advantage as sources of most of the exported agricultural
products, in addition to their control of the federal bureaucracy. He NPC
sought to redress northern economic and bureaucratic disadvantages under the
first national development plan, many of the federal government’s projects and
military establishment were allocated to the north there was an affirmative
action” program by the government to recruit and train northerners, remitting
in the appointment of less qualified northerners to federal public service
position, may replacing more qualified southerners. Actions such as these saved
to estrange the NUNC from its coalition partner. The reactions to the fear of
northern dominance, and especially this steps taken by the NUNC to counter the
political dominance of the north, accelerated the collapse of the young
republic.
The southern parties
especially the embittered NCNC, had hoped that the regional power balance could
be shifted if the 1962 census faroured the south. Population determined the
allocation of parliamentary seats on which the power of every region was based
because population figures were also used in allocating revenue to the regions
in determining the liability of any proposed new region, the 1962 census was
approached by all regions as a key contest for control of the federation. This
contest led to various illegalizes inflated figures, electoral violence,
fabification of results, manipulator of population figure, the like although
the chief census officer found evidence of more inflated figures in the
southern regions, the northern region retained its numerical superiority. At
could be expected, southern leaders repented the results, leading to a
cancellation of the census tot eh holding of a fresh census and to the holding
of a fresh census in 1963. this population cover was finally accepted after a
protracted loyal battle by the NCNC and gave the northern rgion a population of
29, 758,975 out of the total of 55,620288. these figures eliminated whatever
hope the southern had of ruling the federation.
Since the 1962-63 exercise,
the size and distribution of the population remained volatile political issues
(see population ch.2) in fact, the importance and semisivly of a census count
have increased because of the expanded use of population figures for revenue
allocation constituency delineation, allocation under the quota system of
admissions into schools and employment, and the sitting of industries and
social amenities such as schools, hospitals and post offices, another census in
1973 failed, even though it was conducted by a military government that was
less politicized the its civilian predecessor, what made the 1973 census
particularly volatile was the fact that it was part of a transition plan by the
military to head over power to civilians. The provisional figures showed an
increase for the states that were caused out of the fovour northern.
Region with a consumed 51.4
million people and of a total 79.8 million people. Old ferro of domination were
resurrected the stability of the federation was again seriously streated. The
provisional result were finally canceled in 1975. As of late 1990, no other
census had been undertaken, although one was scheduled for 1991 as part of the
transition to civilian rule. In interim, Nigeria has relied on population
proetion saved on 1963 census figures.
Other events also
contributed to the collapse of the first republic. In 1962, after a split in
the leadership of the AG that led to a crisis in the western region, a state of
emergency was declared in the region, the federal government involves its
emergency powers to administer the region directly. These action result in
removing the AG from regional power Awolowo, its leader, along with other AG
leaders, convicted of treatable jalopy. Awolowo’s former deputy and premier of
the western region formed a new party. The Nigeria national democratic party
(NNDP) that took over the government. The federal coalition government also
supported agitation of minority groups for a separate state to be excised from
the Western region. In 1963 the Midwestern region was created.
By the time of the 1964
general elections the first to be conducted solely by Nigerians, the country’s politics had become polarized
into a competition between two opposing alliance one was the Nigeria national
alliance made up of the NPC and NNDC; the other was the united progressive
grand alliance (UPGA) compared of the NCNC, the AG, and dir allies. Each of the
regional parties openly intimidated its opponents in the campaigns. When it
become clear that the neutrality of the federal electoral commission could not
be quartered, calls were made for the army to supervise the election. The UPGA
resolved to boycott the elections. When election were finally held under
condition that were not fee and were unfair to opponents of the regional parties, the NCNC was returned to power in the
east and Midwest, while the NPC kept control of the north and was about in a
position to form a federal government an its own. The western region became the
theater of war” between the NNDP (and the NPC) and the AG- UPGA the rescheduled
regional elections late in 1965 were violent the federal government refusal to
declare a state of emergency, and the military seized power on January 15,
1966. The first republic had collapsed.
Scholars have made several
attempt to explain the collapse some attribute it to the inappropriateness of
the political institutions and processes and to their not being adequately
enterected muder colonial rule, whereas other hold the elite responsible lacking
a political culture to sustain democracy, politicians fended to play the
political game according to established rules. The failure of the elite appears
to have been a symptom rather the cause of the problem. Because members of the
elite lacked a material base for their aspirations, they resorted to control of
state offices the resources. At the same time, the uneven rates of development
among the various gaps and region, invested the struggle for state power with a
group character. There factors gave importance to group, ethnic, and regional
conflict that eventually contributed tot eh collapse of the republic.
The final explanation is
closely related to all the forgoing. It holds that the regionalists of politics
and in particular, of party politics made the stability of the republic
dependent on each party retaining control of its regional base. As long as this
was so, there was a rough balance between the parties, as well as their
respective regions. Once the federal government involves its emergency powers
in 1962 and removed the AG for power in the western region, the fragile balance
on which the federation rested was disturbed. Attempts by the AG and NCNC to
create a new equilibrium, or at least to return the station quoante only
generated stronger opposition and hastened the collapse of republic.
THE 1922 CONSTITUTION THE CLITORAL CONSTITUTION
In 1922 a new constitution
revoking the 1914 constitution was promulgated under governor Clifford under
the constitution, a Nigeria legislature council was constitutional, but its
production was limited tot eh southern provenance ie the colony of loyos the
protectorate of southern Nigeria. The governor continued to be the legislature
authority for the northern half of the country. Also an executive council was
established for the whole country.
THE 1914 CONSTITUTION
The colony and protectorate
of southern Nigeria the
protectorate of northern Nigeria,
were amalgamated duled by one governor general, Lord Lugard. The legislative council
of the colony was restricted to worth law for the colony aloes, whilst the
governor –general made laws for the whole country.
THE 1946 (RICHARD) CONSTITUTION
In 1946, Governor Arthor
Richard promulgated a new constitution which came into effect on January 1st,
1946. prior to the Nigeria
had been divide into three regions in
1939, the northern western and eastern regions.
Mayor feature is the new
council was composed of the governor as president, 16 official and 28
unofficial (the latter cludy the 4 elected persons).
The regional houses were not
competent to legislate, even for their own regional they could only consider
bills affecting their regional, and make recommdant or pass resolute for the
central legislature lays to consider/
1951 (MALPHRSON) CONSTITUTION
The 1951 constitution was
the one the really introduced fundamental changes into the imperal/nation
relationship the relationship between the nature Nigerian groups duseli feature
as it came in after unprecedented process of consultation in the pp7 Nigeria as a
whole. As it introduced elected mayortres in the central legislature, to the
regional houses of assembly established a federal system for Nigeria for the
cot time.
The independence and
republic constitution the view of the above, it is hardly supreme that the 1960
and 1963 constitution epitomized true federation. The 1950 national conference
had been followed by others in 1953, 1954, 1957, and 1957, in which the
practice of true federation were perfected.
One important feature of the
1960 constitution is the extensive powers granted the regions, making them
effectively autonomous entities of the revenue arrangement which ensured that
the regions had the resources to carry out the immense responsibitors.
Under the 19960 and 1963
constitution, a true federal system made of story states or regions and a
central or federal state with limited powers, was instituted. Both the 1960,
(independence) constitution the 1963 (republican) constitution were the same.
The only differences were the provision for ceremonial president (1963) of
judicial with the supreme court (1963)
rather the judicial committee of the British privy council (1960).
The following features,
which emphasized the existence of a true federal system composed of powerful
and autonomous regions and a centre with limited powers are worth nothing.
1.
Each region had its own separate constitution, in addition to the
federal government constitution.
2.
each region had its own separate coat of arms and motto, from the
federal state or government
3.
each region established its own separate semi-independence mission in
the UK
leaded by agents-general.
4.
the regional governments had resided power, ie where any matter was not
allocated to the regions or the federal government, it automatically became a
matter for regional prediction.