GST III

TOPIC:
ELEMENTS OF NIGERIAN
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
PRESENTED BY:
G.A. ETINAGBEDIA ESQ.
INTRODUCTION:
The various tribal/ethnic component that makes up the present Nigerian state
had existed as an independent political entities in the pre-colonial era. With
British Conquest, the various Nigerian peoples came together under the
colonial administrative which first started in 1861 when Lagos formally became
a British Colony.

By 1900 nearly all parts of the modern day Nigeria were administered by the
representative of the British Queen as colonial territories, split into three
section.
 Lagos colony
 The protectorate of Southern Nigeria
 The protectorate of Northern Nigeria
In 1906 the Lagos colony and the protectorate of Southern Nigeria were

merged into one as the colony and the protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

On January 1, 1914 the Southern and Northern protectorate were

amalgamated for administrative convenience into a single entity called

Nigeria. Having Fredrick Lord Lugard as the first Governor general.

COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA

British conquest of Nigeria peoples was not automatic for its actualization.

After the fall of Lagos in 1951 and it subsequent annexation in 1861 other

Nigeria people submitted to British Overlord-ship administration.

THE STRUCTURE OF COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
The structure of colonial administrative consisted of the following personnel;
 The Governor-General
 Lieutenant General who is directly responsible to the Governor General.
 Division: Headed by the Resident Officer and finally
 District: Headed by the District Officer

This was the structure of the colonial administration, the overall aim of the British
colonial Government of training the people for eventual self-government coupled
with the peoples actual demand to see this actualization resulted in the
enactment of several constitutional provisions by the colonial administration.

From the above discussion on colonial administration in Nigeria, we shall focus on

the various colonial constitutional provisions.
THE CLIFFORD CONSTITUTION OF 1922

The first world war between 1914 - 1918 led to the re-awakening of national
consciousness of the part of the colonized people resulting in the decolonization
of colonial states.

Sir Clifford replaced Lord Lugard as the Governor General of Nigeria in 1920
promulgated the 1922 Nigeria constitution. Its major feature was that it
provided for the first time the principle of election to the legislature of four
Africans (though unofficial members), 3 from Lagos and 1 from Calabar. It also
stimulate the formation of the first political party which was the Nigeria National
Democratic Party (NNDP) led by Herbert Macauley.
THE RICHARD CONSTITUTION OF 1946
The Clifford constitution remained basically unchanged for 25 years with obvious
short falls including the fact that Northern part of Nigeria was not governed by its
provision. Sir Bernard Bourdillon who succeeded Clifford as Governor General
prepared a new constitution but could not promulgate it before his retirement in
1944.

It was his successor Sir, Arthur Richard that published the constitution in 1944. The
highlights were to promote the unity of Nigeria and secure increased participation for
the Nigeria people in governance, membership of the legislatives council increased to
28 unofficial members and its also created regional legislative council for the three
administrative regions North, South and West. The Northern region had a house of
chiefs which the Eastern and the Western region did not. It also laid the foundation of
Nigeria as a federation via its regionalization of polities, though met severe criticism
from Nigeria that later give rise to a new constitution.
THE MACPHERSON CONSTITUTION OF 1951
In response for further agitation Sir, John Macpherson who succeeded Sir, Arthur
Richard introduced new constitution in 1951. The constitution increased the
membership of the central legislative council to 148 out of which 136 were elected
by Nigerian, 68 North, 34 each from (East and West). It also gave the Western
region a house of chiefs and granted the regional legislature the power to make
certain laws for their respective region. Despite this constitution being home-made
given the wide consultation that brought it into existence, it was also brought
under attack from the political elite who opposed its non provision for the principle
of Universal suffrage as against the principle of indirect election. The Southern elite
criticize the imbalance in representation between the Northern and the Southern
region.
THE LITTLETON CONSTITUTION OF 1954

Agitation against the Macpherson Constitution made the colonial secretary Mr.
Oliver Littleton suggested to the British Government to further review of the
constitution. After two constitutional conferences in London and Lagos in 1953
and 1954 respectively the constitution was promulgated. It features was the
endorsement of Nigeria as a Federal State and Lagos was made the Federal
capital. It establish among other the Supreme Court of Nigeria. High Court for
each region and regional magistracy.
THE INDEPENDENCE CONSTITUTION OF 1960

The British government had been under pressure to relinquish its imperial
enterprise. The process leading to British disengagement from Nigeria got it
height when at the constitutional conferences held between September and
October 1958 the date for Nigeria's independent was agreed upon, first it was
1959 and after first October 1960. Nigeria became an independence sovereign
federation in 1960 with three regions and a West-minister type of
administration.
POST INDEPENDENCE ADMINISTRATION OF NIGERIA

On October 1st, 1960 Nigeria become a sovereign state with freedom to

conduct its affair, local and international without recourse to any other

authority or power. The first thing that came to mind in this regard is the

federal structure of the Nigeria state.

NIGERIA FEDERALISM

The main features of Nigeria Federalism in post independence are;

A central government with its seat first in Lagos between 1960 and 1990, then
in the federal capital territory Abuja since December 12, 1990. There are also
federating units (regions or states).

Nigeria federalism is faced with severe problem including;

 Unhealthy intergovernmental relations between the components units the
centre, state and local government.
 Revenue allocation

 Minority agitation

 North/South, Muslim/Christian dichotomy

DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

A democracy system of Government is where decision making is by consensus

through the representative of the people. Nigeria was under military regime till
may 29th 1999, when it returned to civilian rule that subsists till date. The selling
point of democracy is the notion of popular power that is the people’s ownership
of power because it secures a role for the underlying population in the making
of rules.
MILITARY RULE IN NIGERIA
A military regime is one in which the armed forces
forcefully take over the reins of democratic elected
Government and established a government in which
the main executive post is held by a military officer.
The greatest threat to Nigeria democracy for a very
longtime was military intervention in politics. There is
no one logic or centre argument why military
intervention in politics. The fact remained that the
factors which predisposed the military to forcefully
takeover government were barely improved upon.
A lot of their promises particularly the ones on a brief and
peaceful transition to democratic rule were not kept.
Civilian consciousness for the military regime in Nigeria got
to its climax after the annulment of the June 12th, 1993
Presidential Election by the military regime of General
Ibrahim Babangida on June 23rd, 1993. The said election is
still adjudged the freest and fairest election in the history
Nigeria. declaring Chief M.K.O Abiola as The winner.
POLITICAL PARTY AND ELECTORAL PROCESS
In 1922, the Clifford constitution provided for election
provided election to the legislature. It stimulate the
formation of political parties as platform for seeking
electives offices.
The Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP) was the
first political party in Nigeria having been formed in
1922, since then, many other political parties have been
birthed in Nigeria. Today the All Progressives Congress
(APC) is the ruling party at the Federal level in Nigeria,
through which platform the Nigeria President
Muhammadu Buhari was elected into office in 2015.
ETHNICITY AND NIGERIA POLITICS
To be ethnic is to be composed into groups based on social formation
distinguished by the communal character of the boundaries (Nnoli 1978)
with relevant factor being language, culture or both. It is the development
of ethnic element into the unhealthy for the control of state power by the
elite who makes ethnicity a constraining variables in the Nigeria politics.
Therefore immediately after independence ethnic based political parties
emerged to ensure that their own ethnic people inherited power from the
departing colonial administrators.
CONCLUSION

This text aimed at establishing basic knowledge of the

relevant issues and features of Nigeria government and

politics by critical analysis of the constitutional development

between 1914 to 1960 independent constitution and post

independent Era.