FOR SSE DEGREE YR 2 2020

THE NIGERIAN INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTION

On 1st October 1960, Nigeria became independent. This meant that Nigeria was a sovereign state independent of colonial influences. However, this was not fully the case. The Queen was still the head of state, even though, she was represented by a Nigerian in the person of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who was the Governor-General (head of government) while Tafawa Balewa was Prime minister (head of state).

The constitution was like the 1954 constitution but with minor changes. There was the inclusion of provisions for acquiring citizenship of the country. There was also included in the constitution provisions for the procedure for amendment of the constitution. Some Judges of the courts were appointed through nomination by the judicial service commission upon the assent of the Privy Council. The Privy Council was as at then the highest court of appeal in the country.

The constitution divided legislative powers between the center and the regional legislature. It made provisions for an exclusive legislative list. It also made provisions for a concurrent list. Items in the exclusive list were to be legislated by only the central legislature. Items in the concurrent list were to be legislated upon by the central legislature and the regional legislatures. Items not included in any of the lists were regarded as residual lists which were within the sole purview of the regional legislature.

It also provided for a dual executive. This meant that we had the Head of State and the Head of Government in two different people. The head of government was Nnamdi Azikiwe while the head of state was Tafawa Balewa. The head of state had only ceremonial functions while the head of government had executive powers. He was responsible for the day to day running of the activities of government. The constitution also provided for its supremacy. This was in contrast to the convention in a parliamentary system. In a parliamentary system they have parliamentary supremacy, not constitutional supremacy. However, due to the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria, the constitution had to be supreme in order to dissuade fears of domination of minority groups.

Even though, Nigeria was purported to have gained independence from the British, there were still some vestiges of imperialism in the independence constitution. One of them is that the queen was still the head of state, who was represented by a Nigerian. Also, the highest court of appeal was the judicial committee of the Privy Council in the House of Lords instead of the Nigerian Supreme court. It was due to these that a new constitution had to be made. This was the 1963 republican constitution that gave Nigeria their full right as a republic nation.