The Legislative Process in Nigeria

The first republic of Nigeria was parliamentary. In understanding how the English made laws, we understand how laws were supposed to be made in the first era self governing Nigeria.
In the British Parliamentary system, elections are held. Many parties contest elections. At the end, votes are counted and whichever party wins the majority is invited by the Queen to form Her Majesty’s next Government. In England of today there are many parties but only two are relevant in real political discourse: the Labor party and the Conservative Party (we might also mention the Liberal party and the Social Democratic party). English governments are these days formed by either Labor or Tory (Conservatives).
The leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. His lieutenants assume the posts that they had been shadow ministers of when they were in opposition.
The Prime Minister and his cabinet essentially rule England. Each minister is given a ministry to supervise. In real life, the permanent secretary of a ministry, a civil servant, rules his ministry, but in political terms, the “perm-sec” merely advises the political minister, and the later is supposed to be the one who makes decisions regarding his ministry. The minister, in turn, works with his fellow cabinet members and the prime minister in making the decisions affecting the Realm.
Legislation in the House of Common goes like this. The prime minister and his cabinet introduce most of the Bills that are discussed and eventually become law. But on paper, all members of Parliament are entitled to introduce their ideas of what policy they want enacted into law. The Bill is handed to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker gives it to the civil servant clerk of the House to read. It is then routed to a parliamentary committee where it is studied, debated and hearings held. Ultimately, amendments are made to the Bill. Then the committee votes on it and if it passes it is routed to the Full House for further debate. If the entire House approves it by a simple majority, it is sent to the House of Lords for further debate and voting. As noted, the opinion of the Lords is not binding, for if the Lords reject the Bill, the prime minister can still submit it to the Queen for her signature (assent) anyway. The Queen must sign the Bill, she has no choice in the matter for she does not rule England and cannot reject the people’s will. When she signs it, it becomes a Parliamentary Act, part of the statutory law of the Land.
(Unlike the United States that has a written constitution Britain does not have a written constitution so her laws are essentially an accumulation of parliamentary Acts and the rulings of judges. Britain is a Common Law country. I should say that unlike the United States, there is no Supreme Court in Britain. The highest court in the land is the Privy Council, a committee of the House of Lords. This council acts as the final court of appeal in England.)
The above is a brief summary of how laws are made in Britain. It seems very simple but the devil lies in the details. For our present purposes, the relevant point is that Nigeria inherited the British parliamentary democracy system and for the first six years of her independence attempted to practice that mode of making laws and public policies.
It appears that the first Nigerian republic learnt well from Britain and from all available evidence was initially well behaved. The then Nigerian MP, apparently, was as good as the English MP. Then Nigerians listened to the call of the jungle and embraced lawlessness.
In 1966, the military intervened in Nigerian politics and scattered the politicians who by then had redefined their function as that of being thieves stealing from Nigeria’s treasury rather than leaders managing the Nigerian economy. (I must confess that one of the greatest joys of my life is sitting in the galleries watching British Parliamentary debates, particularly watching cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister Answer questions. Their mastery of the English language and knowledge of facts and figures on every facet of British life is something that one wished that Nigerian leaders had. The typical Nigerian politician would not know such a simple data as how many students are in Nigeria secondary schools, how many passed the O. L last year etc. But the British Prime Minister, on the spot, would give you data on most aspects of British life. That is real governance.)

5 thoughts on “The Legislative Process in Nigeria”

  1. This is good stuff. “When bad men combine,the good must associate”
    paraphrasing Edmond Burke. How can we save our Motherland from the vampires and blood sucking parasites in the country? Talking is necessary but neither adequate nor sufficient.

  2. umoru Jose Bob-manuel

    pls keep previaling on our leaders to do the write thing at the time it is being needed. the rule of law is not effective as it ought to be. keep me posted o latest moves. thanks.

  3. it was a very wonderful piece, i intend make refrences to it for my research. but what i wish to know here is, u talked perfecttly well of the american legislature how it works and many others, but u did not even talk about how the nigerian legislature is? how it works? its segments? nothing, u just killed it, made it look so terrible and not even worth rehabilitating, am sure there is someting good about it, besides what have u done to help or create change for others to follow, really we dont need people to tell us our faliures only that they should also tell us what to do to make us go forward. how will u write such a thing about your own country on the net. aint u suppose to be an ambassador of nigeria and hope that all will be well. its really disheartening.

  4. gosh! this had me reeling with laughter…so we do have a lot of people this bold in Nigeria. this is a typical scenario of the Nigeria state of affairs.
    This deserves an applause… i wish this campaigns could be brought to the streets.
    why fear this good-for-nothing men called leaders. but the uprising against them is crawling gently and of course we would get there, someday, we can’t lose hope on our beloved nation, NIGERIA!

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