Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment
Year 12L
The
The
The
The
Leadership problems and poor political education should not be attributed to the
colonial constitutions. All these constitutions allowed for Nigerians to participate
in the process of governing their country as well as introducing new governing
ideas and methods. The Clifford Constitution introduced elections into Nigeria via
Lagos and Calabar. The 1954 constitution allowed for Nigerian Premiers who
were heads of their respective regions and the 1951 McPherson constitution
involved consulting people from all areas of Nigeria (Towns, cities, provinces,
districts and villages) in its drafting making it a democratic constitution.
The creation of states under the colonial constitutions was well thought off.
States or regions were created based on economic sustainability and
Administrative convenience. This was probably the reason why only three regions
before independence. However after Independence, there were continuous
creation of states and they now amount to 36 states in Nigeria. Most of these
states are not economically stable enough to survive and depend heavily on the
federal government for the provision of revenue and social amenities. This poor
creation of states after independence has led to increase in administrative costs
of running these states as well as the nation.
Lastly the constitutions in colonial times were more democratic. People were
more involved in decision making in drafting the constitution. As mentioned
above, the 1951 constitution consulted people from all area of the country
(Towns, cities, provinces, districts and villages) and the 1953 and 54 conferences
were made up of representatives handpicked by the people from each region.
However after independence with the long military rule and the military
handpicking constitutional drafters and basically creating the constitutions of
1979, 1989 and 1999. None of these constitutions were truly democratic as
many Nigerians were not aware of its provisions.
Through these points, Nigerias underdevelopment should not be attributed to
the colonial constitutions but to the inability of Nigerian leaders to promote such
development in the country.