Since Nigeria experienced its first military coup on January 15, 1966 till date, Nigeria has run governance without an actual written constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN). It only legally has a CFRN but in reality has been governed junta decrees of successive military regimes.
It started with the tinkering of the 1963 CFRN when Nigeria fully became a republic without which there wouldn’t be a legal polity known as Nigeria from which the junta would have snatched political power by use of gun. The junta decrees 1 and 34 of 1966 when the military first took over continue till this day to be a burden on the democracy in Nigeria. It is not by error that no military regime from the second one of July 29, 1966 has tinkered with decrees 1 and 34 of the coup d’état of January 15, 1966 till this day.
The Nigerian military failed woefully in their ethical values of being the professional managers of force and violence, but for about 60 years after the first coup, should we continue to point fingers at the military.
The only written CFRN is that of 1963 that was suspended and later amended by the military junta through decrees 1 and 34 of 1966; it’s high time for the representatives of the People in parliament to lift the suspension of 1963 CFRN by repealing the obnoxious decrees. Nigeria has been operating without a written CFRN since January 15, 1966 except by decrees with the defining ones being those of 1&34 of 1966, 104 of 1979 & 24 of 1999. The junta of December 31, 1983 simply repudiated decree 104 of 1979 and no mention was made of the two obnoxious 1966 decrees!
The acclaimed civilian episodes of 1979 and 1999 were based on decrees 104 and 24 respectively; when the junta returned to political power on December 31, 1983, it only repudiated decree 104 of 1979 that handed over power to the civilian administration; leaving intact the junta foundation in governance firmly rooted in decrees 1 and 34 of 1966.
The case of decree 24 of 1999 is even stupefying; the document called 1999 CFRN is simply an annexure of decree 24, which has no overriding effect on the thrust of decree 24. This one too left intact the obnoxious decrees 1 and 34 of 1966 that thwarted republican democratic governance, thereby guaranteeing an easy return to governance by the junta any time it deems necessary.
Despite the ongoing national discourse and the request of NASS to the public for inputs for amendment of the 1999 CFRN (which in reality does not exist but decree 24 that is not amenable to scheduled amendment), the only written CFRN that needs to be amended is that of 1963; those of 1979 and 1999 are junta decrees 104 and 24 respectively.
Interestingly, the process that birthed the 1963 CFRN was hinged on “We the People” mantra that is altruistic and that gives life to constitutional governance; a meeting of ethnic nationalities of Nigeria held in Lagos on 25-26 July 1963 to pave the way for the representatives of the people in the parliament that emerged from 1959 elections to enact the 1963 CFRN with effect from 1st October 1963. Thus, enthroning republican democracy in Nigeria that lasted only 2 years 3 months and 14 days, ending on January 14, 1966.
To restore the 1963 CFRN and amend it with current realities would require the Legislature that emerged from 2023 elections to repeal the four obnoxious decrees. The transition provisions in chapter 11 of the 1963 CFRN will accommodate realities that have occurred in governance in Nigeria since 1966 to date, 2024.
The spirit and letter of the 1963 constitution is all about devolution of political power, resource control, balanced federal structure of federating units and a clause about how to exit from the federation; the activation of the exit clause by any ethnicity will engender a healthy dialogue and conversation in the polity away from the ongoing prevalence of violence-prone chaos in the guise of self-determination by actors.
Global templates of parsimonious exits abound such as the Glasnost and Perestroika of the USSR, velvet divorce of Czechoslovakia and the European strategy as witnessed in BREXIT rather than allowing the current state of affairs of an unwritten CFRN to nudge actors to push Nigeria along the path of Yugoslavia.
The state of governance in Nigeria without a written CFRN exposes the diverse ethnic territories that constitute the polity as virgin lands available to those seeking to establish a homeland vide the praxis of Settler Colonisation as well as conquest by war and by law.
I consider the republican democratic antecedents of the incumbent governing authorities that emerged from the 2023 elections as those destined by fate to bell the proverbial cat; the overriding question in my mind is simply one that asks, when will that cat be belled? If not in the tenure of the incumbent governing authorities, when?
By JS Akuns
