Nigeria was ruled by the military from 1966 to 1979. During that time, the military ruling council, composed of the head of state, the military upstart that took over the government, and his appointed cabinet made decisions that governed the entire country.
At the state level, the military governor, appointed by the head honcho military leader at the center, and his cabinet made decisions that governed the state.
In 1979, the then military leader, Olusegun Obasanjo decided to hand power to a civilian government. Before doing so, he wrote a spanking new constitution for Nigeria. He embraced the American presidential system of government and discarded the British parliamentary system.
Shehu Shagari was elected the first executive President of Nigeria and governed until 1984 when the military returned to power. The military, playing musical chairs among them selves, governed Nigeria until 1999. In 1999 the last military strong man Abdul Salami handed the government to a civilian elected president, a former military leader of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The 1999 constitution bequeathed to the nation by Mr. Salami is American styled presidential system. It is doubtful that this constitution is legitimate? A constitution is a set of rules that the people accept as how they want to play their political game. It is legitimate only if the people themselves wrote it, or wrote it through their elected representatives. In as much as the 1999 constitution was not written by the people, even if it is good on paper, it does not represent the people’s wishes and, therefore, strictly speaking, is illegal. Shall we then say that the present political dispensation in Nigerian is illegal? In as much as they rule under a constitution that was not written by the people they are not ruling, as Jean Jacque Rousseau would say, by the people’s general will.
That not withstanding let us briefly see what this Yankee constitution demands of legislators in Nigeria.
Whereas in the British Parliament the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial are fused and are in Parliament, the American system of government separates the three branches of government.
Charles Montesquieu had recommended the separation of powers to avoid tyranny and the Americans listened to him and structured their government accordingly. Thus, the three branches of governing are separated and are in fact required to compete with each other; they are supposed to be in adversarial relationship. The idea is that their in-fighting would prevent one person from becoming too powerful, prevent tyranny and, that way protects democracy and liberty. The legislature is supposed to check the president , the president the legislature and the judiciary is supposed to make sure that all play by the rules of the game and punish whoever does not do so. (John Marshall, the first Chief Justice of America managed to extend the role of the judiciary by adding judicial review to it, even though the constitution did not specify that it do so.)
5 thoughts on “The Legislative Process in Nigeria”
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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.
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.
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.
wow ……………………lol
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!