CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM: WHAT IS WRONG WITH NIGERIA’S 1999 CONSTITUTION?

 

CONSTITIONAL PROBLEM: WHAT IS WRONG WITH NIGERIA’S 1999 CONSTITUTION?

By Emeka Esogbue

One Dictionary defines the constitution as a legal document which determines the fundamental principles of a government. In furtherance, the Dictionary of Oxford Languages defines the legal document as “a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed.” It is noteworthy that a constitution which may either written or unwritten, is essential to the governance of any country.

The 1999 constitution is the supreme law of Nigeria and was adopted on May 29, 1999. It is divided into 8 chapters and has 320 sections. Despite this, the Nigerian Constitution is claimed to be faulty by a number of people who continue to call for amendment or renewal as the case may be. It is very unfortunate that the cry for constitutional change in Nigeria has continued unabated and on the other hand, the change of constitution in the history of the country has also continued ceaselessly.

Sixty-two years after the attainment of independence, there are still calls for constitutional change in the country by those who consider the document to be incapable of catering for the administration of the country while others consider it an outright hindrance in providing the effective light for governance for the people of the nation. Indeed, Nigeria is characterized by frequent change of constitution thus, the nation has a history of recurring change in her constitution from the days of foundation by the colonialists to the take-over by the indigenous governments up to 1999. It is the same 1999 Constitution that the people want changed for effective governance to be achieved. This development is in contrast with the experience of other societies of the world. Take for instance, the constitution of the United States of America has lasted more than two centuries and still in operation.

Since 1999 when the constitution was first put to use, some Nigerian people and civil society groups within the country have been calling for the legal document to be re-visited with a view to bringing it to near perfection in which case, it would serve the nation well. The Vanguard Newspaper once reported that “the current constitution of Nigeria is an albatross” while an article published in journals.co.za maintains that “right from its inception on May 29 1999, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, has been traumatized with problems.” In this manner, it cannot serve the citizens of the nation as much as expected considering that disconnections are expected.

As some have argued in a near differing manner but connected to the constitution, Nigeria is a creation of the constitution since it was created out of the formation of various constitutions that occurred over time, shaping it to what it is today. Without these various constitutions in place, the Nigerian state would not have been born by the British, creators of the country. To this end, the history of constitutional demand and change is older than the Nigerian nation.

A look at the constitutional history of the nation shows the below:

Under the colonial or pre-colonial era

·         1914 Constitution – the legislative council was this time allowed to make law for only the colony

·         1922 or Clifford Constitution – it introduced a legislative council which replaced the Nigerian Council

·         1946 or Richard’s Constitution – The constitution provided for regional houses of assembly

·         1951 or Macpherson’s Constitution – the constitution provided for a federal legislature called the House of Representative

·         1954 or Littleton Constitution – the constitution fully introduced a federal system with North, East, West and Southern Cameroun’s while the Federal Capital territory was in Lagos

·         1960 or the Independence Constitution – this meant that we had the Head of State and the Head of Government in two different people.

For the Post-Colonial era

·         1963 or Republican Constitution – one of the main features was that the Queen of England ceased to be the Head of State

·         1979 of the Presidential constitution of 1979 – the constitution jettisoned the parliamentary system of government and replaced it with a presidential system

·         1999 – ushered in by Gen Abdusalami Abubakar

What is Wrong with the Nigerian Constitution?

·         Constitution was Imposed by the Military Regime: Writing on what he termed “The Problem with Nigeria’s Constitution”, Ozodi Thomas Osuji noted that a constitution is formulated by the people and or their delegates. The people of Nigeria, and or their representatives did not write the so-called (1999 Constitution). The so-called constitution was imposed on Nigerians by a military junta.” Although a lot of Nigerians share this argument of Ozodi, the question to be asked is whether the constitution was formulated by non-Nigerian nationals. The delegates were picked from among Nigerians and they were professionals, influential, knowledgeable and common masses drawn from different endeavours and there were deliberations upon deliberations before agreements were reached. Truly, the conference was suggested and supervised by the military men of the time in power but Nigerians were used to achieve the aims and objectives. The military officers in power and delegates were Nigerians. There could be some ills in the constitution but that is not to say that the constitution was imposed on Nigerians by non-Nigerians and was to be used operationally by the same Nigerians. Perhaps, Ozodi advocates that the constitution should be drawn under a civil government and this is fine.

·         Constitution is too lengthy: The 1999 constitution is 200 pages in contrasts with that of the United States of America, which is less than 20 pages. It is doubtful if anyone can read and digest its content without the help of legal practitioner. It is also doubtful how comprehensively anyone can read and understand the Nigerian legal document with frequent references to the same document. The citizens should find it handy and easy to comprehend without taking it to the lawyer now and then for interpretation. In this way, the content would be found practicable and available to most families for compliance and a follow-up with the government.

·         Constitution was not to provide for true federalism: Some observers have maintained that the constitution does not provide the nation true federalism and that this has led to several conflicts in the country, many of which have been taken to the courts with the judgements of the court sometimes disputed. To many Nigerians, true federalism is an impossibility because the constitution has not done well to cater for it. Prof Osagie Eghosa of the Igbinedion university likened federalism in Nigeria as the worship of an unknown god. For him, whosoever is expecting that the government at the centre would concede power easily to states should forget it. He wrote; “it would not be easy for the Federal Government to devolve power to states and local government it created. That would certainly look like a man asking his creator to relinquish power.”

·         Over supremacy of the Federal Government: Although the nation has three tiers that are federal, state and local government, power is too concentrated in the centre. Even then, the local government lacks autonomy and is strongly tied to the local government. The scenario led to financial supremacy of the federal over the state and local government.

·         Financial dependency on the centre: Another challenge of the present constitution is that states depend so much on the centre financially so that it is always a matter of running to Abuja every now and then for what has come to be known as federal allocation.

·         Resource Control: The problem of resource control is a great challenge in the country. It is a situation whereby states or regions with mineral resources especially oil want to control their resources then give back certain percentage of revenue to the centre while the constitution does not recognize it as such. This has often created a sharp division between the north and south. However, the Nigerian constitution can tackle this by encouraging states to generate and control their resources.

·         Allocation formula: there should a review in allocation formula for states to receive allocation based on what they can generate. This will encourage states to develop their resources rather than depend on what others can generate and run to Abuja to receive them. It will also remove burden on states that have to feed other states that constitute liabilities and parasites on others.

·         Imbalance in the Number of States: While the nation is today divided into six geopolitical zones, some regions have more states than the other. It is the Southeast that has the least number of states within its region. This makes the people of the region to get allocations and representations at the National Assembly lower than all other regions of the nation. Worse still, the southern part of the country has lower number of states than the northern part favoured with two additional states.  

Nevertheless, there are still some Nigerians who do not consider the constitution the problem of the country. This set of people believe that leadership is attributable to the challenges faced by the country. They are of the view that no nation on earth has the best constitution that when implemented in accordance with expectations, the legal document will serve the nation with its people well. The people that share this thought by extension believe that the Nigerian leaders have not followed diligently the stipulations of the constitution and have skewed the interpretation of the document to the extent that some sections of the country are favoured while others are discriminated.   

Altogether, there are people who are distinct from the above group and think that restructuring is the answer to the nation’s issues and that towers above constitutional conference. Towards the end of the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, he constituted a national confab which reports presented to the Government but unfortunately the Government could not implement the reports before its time of office was up. However, it would appear that the issue of the report of the national confab is not in the national agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari that democratically took over the government after the presidential election that he won since 2015.

Whatever be the case, it is clear that the Nigerian Constitution is flawed and needs to be re-visited for effective delivery of good governance failure which the government may not get right. With the turnout of events, the people need to sit down and talk on the manner by which they want to exist and be led by the government. It is important that the government of the day whether now or later, gets this feedback to help it determine how to serve them and also to make dispensation of the administration easy.